US Lutherans consider Israel boycott

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), which has almost five million members in the US, took a step toward a partial boycott of Israeli goods at its 2007 Churchwide Assembly in Chicago last week.

On Saturday, the assembly, the church’s top legislative authority, passed a resolution calling to work toward a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and urging investment in the Palestinian Authority.

The assembly then urged “consideration of refusing to buy goods or invest in activities taking place in Israeli settlements, and a review of other economic options,” according to Bishop Christopher Epting, the presiding bishop’s deputy for ecumenical and interfaith relations, quoted on the Episcopal Life Online Web site.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s own news service did not provide information on the content of that motion.

According to the Pondering Pastor blog, Saturday’s debate on the resolution picked “up with an amendment to call upon the ELCA to underscore the call for economic initiatives by this church and its members in the ['Peace not Walls'] campaign. Such initiatives, in consultation with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land could include purchasing of products [from] Palestinian providers and exploration of the feasibility of refusing to buy products produced in Israeli settlements. Also to be explored is the entire investment activity by this church.”

The amendment passed by a vote of 385 to 368.

The assembly rejected a call for divestiture from Israel.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center blasted what it called the “mixed message” of the assembly – rejecting divestiture but “studying” a boycott.

“This marks the first time a mainline American Protestant church has moved toward a possible boycott of Israel,” said the center’s Associate Dean Rabbi Abraham Cooper. “While we note that the ELCA delegates have now joined the Presbyterian Church (USA) in explicitly rejecting divesting from companies doing business with Israel, they have decided to embrace one of the anti-Israel tactics adopted by United Kingdom trade unions and others in Europe. ELCA delegates would have made a stronger contribution to the quest for peace and justice in the Holy Land had they also raised the ransacking of Christian places of worship and [the] recent forced conversion of a Christian professor in Gaza, as well as the unrelenting targeting of Israeli civilian communities by Palestinian Kassam rockets.”

Read Another Article

Pastor asks followers to pray for his critics to die
Get ready for the Holy Spirit, faith healer tells Toronto

Related News Articles Topic(s): Israel Subscribe to Religion News Blog updates Subscribe to Religion News Blog [What is this?] Get Religion News Blog's headline by Email [What is this?] Follow Religion News Blog at Twitter Find Related Information Use our custom search engines to find additional research resources on religions and cults: ApologeticsSearch.com: Search for apologetics articles, books, videos, and other research resources across 135 Christian apologetics websites and blogs. CounterCultSearch.com: Search for information about (religious) cults, cult-like organizations, and cults experts -- as well as paranormal-, New Age, and pseudoscientific claims -- across 260+ websites, blogs and forums dedicated to cult research, spiritual abuse, ex-cult counseling & support. Find Related Religion & Spirituality Books at Amazon.com Israel Possibly related... or Most Popular Religion News Articles Kent Hovind: Evangelist arrested on federal charges Beast’s real mark devalued to ’616′ Muslim Woman Gives Sex Advice on Arab TV Michael Jackson Confirms Conversion to Islam Kent Hovind, ‘Dr. Dino,’ guilty on all counts The fall and rise of Carlton Pearson Search False prophet Harold Camping sets another date for rapture: May 21, 2011 Watch the film Theo van Gogh was murdered for Kent Hovind — Dr. Dino — sentenced to 10 years in prison

Search Religion News Blog