13 July 2022
“But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.” [Ezekiel 33:6]
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” [Ephesians 6:12]
Presbyterians Week Headlines
[1] 2022 Presbyterian Church USA Assembly Action
[2] Opinion: Abortion is a Pit We Dug for Ourselves
[3] Woke Agenda Taught in Public Schools Nationwide
[4] To Presbyterian Church USA: Your Apartheid Resolution Bears False Witness
Additional Articles of Interest
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[1] 2022 Presbyterian Church USA Assembly Action
On this Item, the General Assembly acted as follows:
Approve as Amended
Electronic Vote – Plenary
| Affirmative: | 348 |
| Negative: | 38 |
| Abstaining: |
Final text: Show[ing] Amended Text
(1) In appreciation of the complexity and seriousness of issues concerning abortion, we affirm that women and pregnant people are full moral agents, created in the image of God. Recognizing that God alone is Lord of the conscience, we support their moral capacity to decide whether to continue or end any given pregnancy.
(2) Denounce attempts to prevent people from receiving essential healthcare, particularly when it results in forced pregnancy and the violation of bodily autonomy.
(3) Reject attempts at all levels of government to reduce, limit, or eliminate access to contraceptive and abortion care.
(4) Affirm the principles of the Reproductive Justice Movement [1] to support the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy to have children, to not have children, and to parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities, [2] in recognition that Christian moral and ethical concerns about abortion should be considered within broader conversations about human sexuality, fertility, reproduction, contraceptives, and parenting.
(5) Clearly and publicly make known the PC(USA)’s consistent support of access to contraceptive and abortion care and our commitment to respect the moral agency of all God’s people.
(6) Direct Presbyterian Mission Agency, in connection with Advocacy Committee on Women’s Concerns, to create a theological reflection to guide the church on the issue.
(7) Urge the Board of Pensions to continue to develop the policies and practices that will ensure that plan members are able to access reproductive health care, access to contraceptives and abortion, equitably, no matter the state they live in.
+ Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202, 888-728-7228, Fax: 502-569-8005
[2] Opinion: Abortion is a Pit We Dug for Ourselves
NEWS PROVIDED BY: Gary McCulloughJuly 8, 2022
OPINION, July 8, 2022 /Christian Newswire/ — Gary McCullough, director of Christian Newswire, submits the following:
God’s Word often describes the results of sin as falling into the pit they themselves dug.
I fear such a fate awaits in the pit dug by states and communities that define preborn life as having no value if it interferes with one’s personal goals. It seems that the pit in this case will be the defining of others as not worthy of having their life protected.
Will this pit come in the form of suicide being encouraged; the aged asked or demanded to forego medical treatment; or an increase in murder?
All seem plausible results when life is deemed unworthy of protection, and disposable if inconvenient.
Falling into a pit we have dug is not undergoing judgment or punishment from God any more than being injured by jumping off a cliff. The rules of gravity are constant and the results of jumping off a cliff is unaffected by one’s beliefs. As with gravity, so are God’s other laws.
The violation of God’s law doesn’t trigger a lightning bolt of punishment. A child burned by touching a hot stove may be in direct disobedience to a parent, but the burned finger is not a result of punishment by the parent.
The violation of God’s law will result in falling into the pit one dug. I repent and pray for mercy as my hand was on the shovel when it came to killing children through abortion.
+ Christian News Wire, 2020 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington DC 20006, 202-546-0054, newsdesk@christiannewswire.com
[3] Woke Agenda Taught in Public Schools Nationwide
The following is excerpted from Battle for the American Mind: Uprooting a Century of Miseducation by Pete Hegseth & David Goodwin: “The battlefield for the hearts and minds of our kids is the 16,000 hours they spend inside American classrooms from kindergarten to twelfth grade … Through a seemingly unstoppable progressive pipeline—teachers union priorities, teachers colleges, Common Core prerogatives, and unchecked teachers and administrators—the woke, social justice agenda is showing
up in the youngest of classrooms. Often the books and curricula are hidden from parents, or at least largely until now. In one Idaho school district alone, books like A Is for Activist, Antiracist Baby, and Not My Idea: A Book about Whiteness are being read to elementary students. Not only world, outside of China. How and why did this education story become so massive in America? And why are more than ninety percent of students educated in progressive public schools? In a nation of capitalists, why is one of America’s largest industries publicly controlled?” (p. 18).
+ Way of Life Literature, Post Office Box 610368, Port Huron, Michigan 48061, 519-652-2619, fbns@wayoflife.org
[4] To Presbyterian Church USA: Your Apartheid Resolution Bears False Witness
Presbyterians for Middle East Peace
July 6, 2022
By: RNS Press Release Distribution Service
A letter from Rabbi Eugene Korn
I have spent the decades of my career toiling in the vineyards of interfaith relations and Jewish-Christian understanding. It is holy work.
I urge you to reject INT-02 labeling Israel as an apartheid state. It is an appalling document, riddled with untruths, half-truths, legal distortions and deep bias. It will be seen by all seriously working for peace as an ideologically driven, one-sided resolution constituting false witness. As such it will undermine any remaining credibility PCUSA has regarding the tragic Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The resolution repeatedly refers to Israeli policy in racial terms. This is a profound distortion, as any person knowledgeable about the conflict knows. The conflict is not about race, but about two national movements that contradict each other. Portraying it in racial terms is a cheap shot apparently intended to gain supporters through deception.
INT-02 also advocates a Palestinian “right of return.” People aware of the conflict’s history know that this is code for the destruction of the Jewish state – Israel even before its 1967 occupation of the West Bank areas. This is blatantly inconsistent with PCUSA’s alleged support of the right of Israel to exist. Denying the Jewish people its natural right of national self-determination is an egregious double standard, since PCUSA freely grants this right to all other peoples. Such unjustifiable discrimination can be rightly seen as anti-Semitism.
The resolution systematically ignores all Palestinian responsibility for the conflict and the current tragedy. It elides persistent Palestinian terrorism and Israel’s legitimate right to defend its citizens, which is such a large part of the conflict. (Just recently Palestinian terrorists murdered 13 innocent Israeli civilians.) Not holding Palestinians morally responsible for their behavior smacks of bigotry. It judges Palestinians incapable of moral agency and living according to moral standards. This resolution dispels any notion that PCUSA is an honest or faith observer of the conflict.
INT-02 is also destructive, serving to increase hatred toward Israel, Israelis and Jews, while not furthering peace, understanding, or alleviating Palestinian suffering in any way. All the toxic PCUSA Israel-Palestine resolutions over the years about the conflict have not helped one Palestinian for one moment of one day. INT-02 is similar and without a constructive process. Because of this is, unfortunately, morally and spiritually vacuous.
Rather than demonizing Israel as an apartheid state, PCUSA should take constructive steps such as (1) investing in the Palestinian economy and ensuring that the donations are used for the welfare of Palestinian citizens, rather than disappearing to corruption and terrorism, (2) helping Palestinians build strong and transparent democratic institutions, (3) strengthening moderate Palestinians voices willing to engage constructively with Israelis, (4) convincing Palestinian leaders to prepare Palestinians for realistic compromises needed for peace, and (5) urging Palestinian leaders to drop their policy of rejecting peace offers as they did repeatedly in 1948, 1967, 1977, 2000, 2008 and 2020.
Finally, it is revealing that the resolution vilifies Israel while ignoring the suffering of millions of Palestinians in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan, most of whom are denied citizenship, forced to live in refugee camps and suffer from a systematic state of discrimination. Many people will conclude that INT-02 is not really about concern for the Palestinians. It is all about the Jews.
In sum, INT-02 sins in bearing false witness and displays none of the Christian virtues of love, charity, or fairness.
The PCUSA, Palestinians, and Israelis deserve better.
With fervent prayers for peace and understanding,
Rabbi Dr. Eugene Korn
Former Academic Director, Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding, Israel
+ Religion News Service, 1930 18th Street Northwest, Suite B2, Washington DC 20009, 202-463-8777, Fax: 202-463-0033, info@religionnews.com
+ Presbyterians for Middle East Peace, pastortoddgpc@comcast.net
+ Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202, 888-728-7228, Fax: 502-569-8005
Additional Articles of Interest
– European Union FINALLY Admits COVID-19 Vaccines DESTROY Your Immune System
– Bill Gates Admits He Wants To Lower The Population Using Vaccines and Abortion
– Swedish Study: Pfizer Jab Installs DNA into the Human Genome
– System Collapses Begin as Germans Warned to Prepare for Heating Shortages, School Closures
– Black Market for Body Parts Exists in America… Funeral Home Operator Just Charged in Criminal Scheme
– Canadian mRNA Expert Suspended without Pay for Questioning COVID Jabs for Kids
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