Christian Attitudes

Link: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1139395557413&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

You can hear the grinding of journalistic teeth as you read Ekklesia breaking the news that the Anglican Church’s Ethical Investment Advisory Group has decided not to disinvest from Caterpillar after all.

Ekklesia describes itself as a Christian think tank, although as I’ve said before, it’s more like a septic tank sometimes. The contents of said tank keep spurting out onto the page, as the writer appears to suffer an irresistible impulse, almost like a nervous twitch, to angrily type Palestinian propaganda at frequent intervals.

Speaking of well-organised lying propaganda, and its success in finding fertile ground in the residual anti-semitic mud lurking in the souls of many Anglican Synod members, read more about the subject in The boycott of decency by Melanie Phillips.

It may appear to be good news, but the decision not to disinvest was not made for reasons that were just. What is more disturbing is that the Synod Bishops, presumably intelligent people, have allowed themselves to be swayed by the lies of people whose intentions are, ultimately, genocidal.

And, as so frequently pointed out, only Israel is treated in this fashion. Nick Cohen makes the point well in his article: Arson, rape, massacres … and the strange silence of the archbishop

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, made my point for me in Sudan last week. Anyone who had heard the Church of England’s censure of Israel might have expected to see a primate filled with righteous wrath. Consider his opportunities. While he was there, the genocide was continuing in Darfur. The victims were black Muslims, but strangely, the Muslim world has not revolted against the Islamist murderers and torched Sudanese embassies.

In the name of inter-faith solidarity, Dr Williams might have found the words of reproach they lacked. If he didn’t want to talk about Darfur, there was the decades-long civil war, which has seen the enslavement of the Christian Dinka tribe in the south and two million dead, more than in Bosnia, Rwanda and Kosovo combined.

On a visit to a church in Khartoum, the fearless archbishop told the congregation: ‘It will be a joy to share with fellow Christians in Britain what… I have learnt from you.’ What he had learnt was a history of massacre, slavery and second-class citizenship, but he didn’t mention it.

Don’t expect Ekklesia to point this out, either. They would rather applaud his condemnation of Guantanamo Bay - well that doesn’t take as much moral courage, does it?