UCCtruths

Dexter Van Zile, a former UCCtruths editorial contributor and current analyst for the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), is drawing more attention to a book published by the UCC's Pilgrim Press that is highly critical of Israel. According to a CAMERA press release today, the book, Whose Land? Whose Promise? What Christians Are Not Being Told about Israel and the Palestinians by Wheaton College Professor Gary M. Burge, is not only laden with inaccuracies, it directly suggests that Jews who don't convert to Christianity have forfeited their land:

More ominously, under Rev. Dr. Burge’s scriptural analysis, Jews who reject Christ have forfeited their land and risk their lives by attempting to live in it. For example, on page 176, Rev. Dr. Burge interprets John 15:6 as follows: “The people of Israel cannot claim to be planted by vines in the land; they cannot be rooted in the vineyard unless first they are grafted into Jesus. Branches that attempt living in the land, the vineyard, which refuse to be attached to Jesus will be cast out and burned.”

Van Zile doesn't stop there:

“Rev. Dr. Burge equates Israel with apartheid South Africa when in fact there is no rational comparison. Arabs in Israel vote, form political parties, sit in the Supreme Court, serve in the Knesset, serve in the diplomatic corps, own companies, earn advanced degrees and enjoy more freedoms and a higher standard of living than Arabs living in neighboring Arab states,” Van Zile says. “Like any heterogeneous society, there are problems, and in Israel they are compounded by competing national allegiances among the country’s Arab population. Arab members of the Knesset have expressed vocal support for groups that perpetrate attacks against Israeli civilians. The book makes no mention of this.”

Under President John Thomas, the leadership of the United Church of Christ has done just about everything possible to trash any level of interfaith relations with the Jewish community. At one point, concerns raised by the Jewish community were dismissed as coming from Conservative Jews. However, earlier this year, eight of the largest Jewish groups in the country representing the Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist movements issued a stunning rebuke of the UCC in regards to statements issued by the UCC on Israel. Liberal Jewish leaders such as A. James Rudin called "[UCC President John] Thomas' screed is a stain on a church with a rich moral tradition." Our denomination has also benn heavily criticized by Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of the best selling Why Bad Things Happen To Good People. We have a horrible record of objectivity on Israel and it is exacerbated by the UCC's publishing of a book that demonstrates a plain contempt for Jews in Israel.