Now here's an idea! Following is an email I received from a reader in reponse to my note about the anti-Israel stance of the PCUSA:
"Perhaps it is time to start a campaign to disinvest in all companies run by or employing Presbyterians. Obviously the Presbyterian Church has forsaken such Christians notions as judge not lest ye be judged, do unto others . . ., etc"
I guess some of my Jewish readers really might want to boycott companies headed by Presbyterians in the circumstances. As the proverb says: "What's good for the goose is good for the gander"
Incorrect to Talk about Islamists
CBS/Infinity Radio recently refused to run a paid advertisement because it was too controversial. So it was about abortion, right? There is no issue more controversial than that. Partly because it is clear that there are two sides to the abortion question. But this advertisement was not about abortion. It was simply to announce a conference, "The Radical Islamist Threat to World Peace and National Security". Does anybody think that there is NOT a radical Islamist threat to world peace and national security? Apparently CBS thinks there is not! Maybe CBS was afraid that somebody might actually quote from the Koran -- as one of the conference participants notes:
"Let not the believers take for friends or helpers unbelievers rather than believers. If any do that, in nothing will there be help from Allah; except by way of precaution, that ye may guard yourselves from them" (Qur'an 3:28). In other words, don't make friends with unbelievers except to "guard yourselves from them": pretend to be their friends so that you can strengthen yourself against them. The distinguished Qur'anic commentator Ibn Kathir explains that this verse teaches that if "believers who in some areas or times fear for their safety from the disbelievers," they may "show friendship to the disbelievers outwardly, but never inwardly." The Qur'an also warns Muslims that those who forsake Islam will be consigned to Hell - except those forced to do so, but who remain true Muslims inwardly (Qur'an 16:106).
And I myself would have picked some Koranic quotes that are a lot more pungent than that. Telling the truth about Islam is getting to be almost impossible in most of the mainstream media. See here for more on this episode.
A Small Victory for Plain Speech
New York Republican governor George Pataki has vetoed the latest legislation from the political correctness warriors of New York. The bill was about the "correct" way to refer to people with disabilities in government documents. Bureaucratese is often almost impossible to understand already and the proposed law would have made government language even more ponderous.
As it says here: "The bill would have required the use of terminology that puts the person before the disability. For example, those termed disabled would instead be called "people with disabilities." The mentally ill would instead be called "people with mental illness.""
Pataki's comments on the matter were admirably sensible. He said that:
"he couldn't approve the measure because it establishes standards that are "vague and subjective." He said that language deemed acceptable today could in the future be considered offensive and that even people with the same disability can disagree over which term to use. "Respect, sensitivity and courtesy must be the product of our ongoing efforts, not a code of politically correct terminology,""
The Contagious Incorrectness of Israel
The Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) has decided to target American companies doing business with Israel -- in particular Caterpillar, Motorola, United Technologies Corp, and ITT. The idea apparently is to get people to "disinvest" in such companies. On one level the policy is pretty hilarious. If a lot of people DO sell off their shares in such companies, that will tend to reduce the price of the shares and thus land the sellers with an unnecessary loss of money. And somebody else will buy the shares anyway so it won't affect the firms concerned one iota.
But it is the antisemitic attitude (OK: I know it goes under the flag of "Anti-Zionism" today) that is the concern. Will someone please tell me how many American companies dealing with the old Soviet Union that the PCUSA boycotted? Or was the USSR a beacon of light compared with Israel -- which is simply doing the best it can to defend itself against murderous attacks from terrorists? And how many American companies dealing with China -- which still has a lot of human rights abuses (including attacks on Christians) -- will the PCUSA be boycotting?
And whether you call it antisemitism or anti-Zionism the end result of attacks on Israel is still going to be dead Jews. Hitler would be pleased.
I was brought up a Presbyterian and I suggest that the PCUSA stick to prayer and leave "Caesar's things to Caesar" (Mark 12:17). But the Gospel of a lot of the old mainline churches these days seems to have a lot more in common with Karl Marx than with the New Testament.
The ADL comments on the divestment issue here
