Righteous Congregants Say 'No!' To UCC Officials' Proposed Hate Campaign Against Israel

Good. I'm very happy and pleased that the members of the United Church of Canada decided to reject their officials' hateful move to demonize Israel. I was very concerned at the precedent such a proposed hate campaign would've set for the Church.

Thank you, UCC members, for saying a resounding "NO!" to hatred and intolerance.

Story here.

ht: Bourque.


UPDATE:

Jonathan Kay discusses.

(...) the leaders of the United Church are very much of a piece with their pals in the anti-Zionist branch of the gay-rights movement, whose members go out marching against Israeli “Apartheid” — even though Israel is one of the only places between Morocco and Japan where exuberant gay men can hold a parade without being set upon (or worse) by government thugs. One is also reminded of CUPE, which postures in support of boycotting Israel — even though the country has just about the only truly independent, Canadian-style labour movement to be found anywhere in the Middle East.

Media attention surrounding the United Church’s boycott-Israel resolutions was gratifyingly scathing — so much so that all four resolutions were either withdrawn or defeated. This is a victory not only for common sense and moderate, non-bigoted United Church members, but also for Bernie Farber and his colleagues at the Canadian Jewish Congress.

Farber and the CJC often take their knocks from Canadian conservatives — who object to the group’s insistence on applying the Jewish community’s moral imprimatur on outdated, censorious hate-spech laws; as well as its bizarre insistence that the threat from 1980s-style neo-Nazis is still a menace to Canadians on par with Islamic extremism. But on the United-Church file, Farber and the CJC have been tireless. Indeed, a CJC delegation appeared on site at the United Church council meeting, and likely served to embarrass participants into distancing themselves from the four hateful resolutions.

Farber, it should be noted, also appeared personally at the recent Toronto Gay Pride parade to express his defiance of the event’s prevailing anti-Israel flavour (and in the process, got militantly anti-Israel Toronto Star blogger Antonia Zerbisias so hot and bothered that she ended up getting slapped down, probably unfairly, by her own newspaper). He has an admirable willingness to deploy himself personally to hostile territory if that’s what it takes to get his message across.

Betcha many UCC members never really paid much attention to the facts, the reality... perhaps the above by Jonathan Kay will be a shocking mind-opener for some...

Look, Israel isn't bad. Israel is good. Many "well-meaning" but ignorant, myopic, narrow-worldview, refusing-to-think-outside-their-prescribed-by-political-correctness-boxes, folks are ignorant of the undeniable reality that Israel is the ONLY country in the Middle East who respects everyone's human rights equally, even the enemy "Palestinians'" human rights, believe it or not. The rest of the Middle East is Islamic, and, in varying degrees, the Islamic nations are as hateful and hurtful as can be. So to bash Israel is nothing short of complete, ignorant brainlessness and willing, if perhaps uninformed, evilness. And this is why the UCC members told their imperfect-mortal leaders to feck off and back off for being so brainlessly hateful as they've been.


Well, you know, every Church has its problems. No surprise in this particular case.

Yes, any criticism of any Church will be "personally hurtful" to its members.

But we must take it. We all must, without exception. What would we do otherwise, pretend that all's well, all's correct, and pay no attention to all the people walking out the doors in droves, forever, all the time...

But to refrain from criticizing, especially from outside, wouldn't help any of the Churches, would it, now?

Just as it wouldn't help Islam to refrain from criticizing it from both within and without.

No pain, no gain. It applies to all religions, all houses of worship.

So any members of the UCC who feel "singled out", needn't. Join with the rest of us at all Churches. We all need to question whatever doesn't seem right, and ask why people are leaving our Churches, etc.

It hurts, sure. All of us, it does, this being frank with ourselves. But if we pretend that everything's fine no matter what, we may eventually no longer have a Church, for lack of members.