Read the whole report.

Kairos Palestine, endorsed by:

His Beatitude Theophilos III, Greek Orthodox
His Beatitude Patriarch Fouad Twal, Latin Church
His Beatitude Patriarch Torkom Manougian, Armenian Orthodox
Very Revd Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Custody of the Holy Land
H.E. Archbishop Dr Anba Abraham, Coptic
H.E. Archbishop Mar Swerios Malki Murad, Syrian Orthodox
H.E. Archbishop Paul Nabil Sayah, Maronite
H.E. Archbishop Abba Mathaious, Ethiopian
H.E. Archbishop Joseph-Jules Zerey, Greek Catholic
Bishop Gregor Peter Malki, Syrian Catholic
Bishop Munib A. Younan, Lutheran
Bishop Suheil Dawani, Anglican
Bishop Raphael Minassian, Armenian Catholic

CAMERA's Response:

Leila,

Thanks for your response.

If you read the entry closely, you'll see that our correspondent has already addressed the "endorsement" you mention. In the post above, our correspondent wrote "Ten days after the document was received with fanfares in Protestant churches around the world, the real heads of the churches in Jerusalem reacted with a brief statement asserting that they had "heard the cry of their children" and asking others to listen as well. It can be seen as a damage-control exercise, which makes a general call for "peace, justice and reconciliation," but abstains from the extreme language of the earlier document."

Again, thanks for your comment.

Sincerely,

DVZ

I'm disappointed to read your mischaracterization of Bishop Mounib Younan's leadership among Palestinian Christians. Although their numbers are not large, his role as a respected leader of the churches in the West Bank and Jordan is well recognized by the Palestinians. Your accusation insinuating that there is something unethical about nominating him to preside over the Lutheran World Federation is an insult. And your comments regarding the lack of Afrian leadership in the LWF are not based on facts. The LWF has had African leaders. Ishmael Noko, from Zimbabwe, has served as General Secretary of the LWF for two terms, from 1994-to the present.

Israel is not solely responsible for all of the failed attempts at a peace agreement, but it is certainly responsible for the occupation, which punishes an entire ethnic group for the actions of a handful of terrorists. Israel alone is responsible for the permit system that imprisons Palestinians in their towns and villages, for the checkpoints that prevent travel between Palestian towns, for ongoing settlement construction on land that most of the world sees as a future Palestinian state, and for the demolition of Palestinian homes because the owners were unable to get permits to build. An entire people cannot be held responsible for the actions of terrorists. I would certainly not want to be held responsible for the actions of Timothy McVeigh or other Americans who have bombed and killed innocent people.

Janice:

You are reading too much into the above post. No one is suggesting that it is unethical for the LWF to choose Bishop Younan as its next president.

It is important to note however, that like other Palestinian Christian leaders, his main field of influence is not in the Middle East where he serves as a pastor, but in the West, particularly the United States, where his denunciations of Israel find a ready audience in the mainline peace communities that are obsessed with the alleged sins of the Jewish state.

Lutheran evangelicalism in Palestinian society is for all intents and purposes, non-existant. (As is mainline evangelicalism in the U.S., by the way.)

What we have is the leaders of one shrinking Christian community in the Middle East speaking to another shrinking community in the United States about the sins of the Jewish state, and by extension, the sins of the Jews who support this state. Who but a monstrous people could support a country as depicted by its mainline critics?

Israel has become for both groups, a unifying scapegoat that serves as the centerpiece for a "peacemaking" drama that distracts both the leaders and members of these two communities from an unpleasant reality that they lack the nerve to confront: Their churches are dying and they have so far failed to come up with a response to this decline. Maybe these churhes will revive, but so far, they have lacked the nerve to say out loud what the numbers demonstrate: "I know your works; you have the name of being alive, and you are dead."

Bishop Younan's influence over Palestinian society is negligible. His allies and followers in the U.S. cannot kid themselves about this. They should not delude themselves into thinking that he is a great prophet of peace offering powerful admonitions and corrections to his countrymen -- a Palestinian equivalent of Jonathan Edwards haranging his countrymen for their sins. He is largely ignored in Palestinian society.

To be sure, Bishop Younan has been responsible in affirming the Israeli right to security, but again, his real value to the Lutheran community is not his evangelization in the Middle East, but of his attacks on Israel. He has helped affirm the false, self-serving notions that Palestinian suffering is the great wound on humanity that has no paralell in recent history and that advocating on their behalf is the sine qua non of human rights activism in the world today.

The fact is, Palestinian suffering pales in comparison to the suffering of people in other conflicts that have largely gone unnoticed by mainline churches, ELCA included. But the focus remains on Israel because the flights to Israel are direct and relatively cheap, the airports close to scene of the conflict, the environs relatively safe, the food pretty good, the accomodations comfortable, and the reporters plentiful and cooperative. Like other mainline churches, ELCA has devoted most of its peacemaking efforts to an area where its witness trips can double as tourism.

By way of comparsion trips, to Sudan, Rwanda or the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the death counts are much higher, the suffering much more palpable are more expensive, dangerous and comfortable.

Bishop Younan helps legitimize this "peacemaking" tourism as a religious act when in reality, there is very little to suggest that it qualifies as faithful, sacrificial witness.

In any event, Bishop Younan has taken his name off the list of signatories of the Kairos Document apparently so he can maintain good relations with Jewish leaders in Israel. (Consult Malcom Lowe's artice on the Kairos document at New English Review for more on this).

Moreover, the Kairos document itself has been declared anti-Semitic and supersessionist by the Central Council of American Rabbis.

DVZ