Sunday, October 9, 2016

When a Christian ecumenical organization confesses Israel's sins - by Dexter Van Zile

...For all of its pretense of promoting peace, reconciliation and ‎compunction, the WCC liturgy is a yet another document that gives Christians ‎a pretext to confess the sins of the Jewish state, in a church setting no less.‎ We've seen enough of this type of behavior over the course of church ‎history, and yet it endures.‎ Some things never change.‎

Dexter Van Zile..
Israel Hayom..
09 October '16..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=17369

In a few days, Jews will gather in synagogues around the world to ‎atone for their sins on the holiday of Yom Kippur. They will fast for 25 ‎hours, pray, and hope that by the time they sit down to end their fast in a ‎celebratory meal, they will have been purified of their sins and brought to the level of ‎angels.‎

This year, any Jews having difficulty identifying the sins for which they need to ‎atone can consult the website of the World Council of Churches, one of the ‎many Christian organizations that gather stories and images of Jews behaving ‎badly in the Holy Land and then broadcast these stories and images to their ‎Christian supporters around the world.‎

The WCC does this work in a stated effort to promote peace between ‎Israelis and Palestinians, but officials at the council won't mind a bit if Jews in ‎Israel and the rest of the world use their materials for purposes of self-‎flagellation. It would make them happy -- really happy -- to see Jews join in ‎the chorus of condemnations against the Jewish state.‎

One place to look on the WCC's website is the section promoting its World Week for Peace in Palestine and Israel, which takes place every ‎September.‎

This year, the WCC has outdone itself, producing a liturgical "toolbox" ‎that Christians can use to focus their attention on the sins of the Jewish state. ‎It's called "Dismantling Barriers" in an obvious reference to the security ‎barrier that has saved thousands of lives, both Israeli and Palestinian, over the ‎past decade.‎

The opening prayer asks that "our common prayer for peace, justice and ‎equality be the force of love mighty enough to change the way we treat our ‎neighbor and to bring down the Separation Wall."‎

There's nothing in the liturgy about restraining the blades in the hands of ‎terrorists who stabbed men, women and children during the recent knife ‎intifada that cost scores of Israelis their lives. Nor is there any reference to the ‎anti-Semitic incitement broadcast on Palestinian television in both the Gaza ‎Strip and the West Bank that encouraged Palestinians young people to waste ‎their lives in suicidal attacks.‎


Things don't get much better in the "Litany of Confession." It's not ‎really a confession of sins on the part of the Christians who are reading the ‎litany, but actually a list of accusations against Israel disguised as a ‎Christian confession of sin.‎

The litany implicitly accuses Israel of stealing Palestinian water when it ‎states, "You gave abundant water and food for all, but humans hoard it for ‎themselves." In the context, the readers know that "humans" really means ‎‎"those damned Israelis."‎

If the litany were honest, it would express gratitude that the Israelis have ‎improved water production and delivery systems in the West Bank -- and as a ‎result, per capita water consumption for Palestinians in this area has increased ‎since 1967. But like the Yom Kippur liturgy, this litany is about confessing the ‎sins of Jews, not anyone else.‎

The liturgy also includes a testimony from a Palestinian resident of Beit ‎Jala who speaks about the difficulties of passing through the checkpoint so he ‎can get to his job in Jerusalem or bring his wife to a hospital in the Jerusalem. ‎‎"I can still remember when there were no walls," Bassam reports. "It was easy ‎for us to move freely, to visit people, to participate in worship in the churches, ‎to visit relatives in Jerusalem or Nazareth. It was easy to keep these ‎relationships. Now we haven't seen our relatives for years."‎

There are lots of Israeli Jews who haven't seen their relatives for years ‎because they were killed by suicide bombers during the Second Intifada, but for ‎some reason, these losses are not mentioned.‎

For all of its pretense of promoting peace, reconciliation and ‎compunction, the WCC liturgy is a yet another document that gives Christians ‎a pretext to confess the sins of the Jewish state, in a church setting no less.‎

We've seen enough of this type of behavior over the course of church ‎history, and yet it endures.‎

Some things never change.‎

Dexter Van Zile is a Christian media analyst for CAMERA, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America.

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