UMW Middle East study provides mission context
By Linda Bloom*
April 7, 2008 | NEW YORK (UMNS)
For
more than 75 years, United Methodist Women has sponsored "Schools of
Christian Mission" as a means of informing and educating its members.
But complaints have arisen about the geographic study on
Israel-Palestine that was used in 2007 and will be used again this year.
The complaints call into question the study’s depiction of the issues
between Israelis and Palestinians.
The purpose of the geographic study, according to Harriett Olson,
chief executive of the Women’s Division, United Methodist Board of
Global Ministries, is to provide a context for the mission of the
church. The division, which produces the studies, is UMW’s
administrative arm.
Much of the 223-page mission study focuses on the political history
of the region, accompanied by a "personal history" commentary by the
author, the Rev. Stephen Goldstein, a Board of Global Ministries
executive. Included is a study guide with personal stories of Israelis
and Palestinians, study questions and worship materials, written by the
Rev. Sandra Olewine, a board missionary.
The other two studies being offered in 2008 are "Giving Our Hearts
Away: Native American Survival," and a spiritual growth study titled, "I
Believe in Jesus."
Disturbed by study
On Feb. 13, a group called Christians for Fair Witness on the Middle
East issued a press release announcing it was "deeply disturbed" by the
UMW’s Israel-Palestine mission study. The group criticized what it
believed to be "factual errors, misrepresentations, material omissions
and distortions" within the study.
The Rev. Archer Summers, senior pastor, First United Methodist Church
in Palo Alto, Calif., and a member of the Fair Witness executive
committee, called the study a "blatant attempt to portray Jews and
Israelis in as damning a light as possible," particularly by
stereotyping Jews as aggressive, belligerent, racist and vengeful.
Harriett Olson
|
A Feb. 19 statement from the Board of Global Ministries noted that the
study considers Israel as a secular state. "The study analyzes political
actions and aspirations," the statement said. "It seeks to expand the
dialogue regarding this matter by including viewpoints rarely heard in
public discourse."
Olson told United Methodist News Service that the Israel-Palestine
mission study was not intended as a report of the church or a textbook.
Nor does it advocate for divestment from Israel as a political tool,
although Fair Witness has tied it to that issue. "It’s not about
divestment," she said. "The Women’s Division has not taken a position on
divestment."
Geographic studies for the schools of mission often examine the
political and cultural complexities of particular areas. The 2005-2006
study was on India-Pakistan, and the Middle East was a focus in 1958,
1979 and 1992. The next study will be on the Sudan.
"The studies don’t attempt to summarize everything that is
available," Olson explained. "I think that people who are critical of
the church’s views (on Israel-Palestine) are similarly critical of the
study."
General Conference positions
Through General Conference, the denomination’s top legislative body,
The United Methodist Church has affirmed the role of the United Nations
in resolving the Middle East conflict, especially as stated in U.N.
Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338. General Conference, which
meets every four years, is the only entity that officially speaks for
the entire United Methodist Church.
A current General Conference resolution on "Opposition to Israeli
Settlements in Palestinian Land" emphasizes a "just and lasting peace"
between Palestinians and Israelis.
"We seek for all people in the region an end to military occupation,
freedom from violence, and full respect for the human rights of all
under international law," says the resolution. The statement also calls
for an end to new or expanded Jewish settlements in the Palestinian
territories, a withdrawal of Israeli military forces to the 1948
ceasefire line, or Green Line, and dismantling the part of the wall of
separation that is not on the Green Line but on Palestinian land.
Bishop Jane Middleton
|
"We also urge the Palestinian Authority and all Palestinian religious
leaders to continue to publicly condemn violence against Israeli
civilians and to use nonviolent acts of disobedience to resist the
occupation and the illegal settlements," the resolution says.
Another resolution on Christian-Jewish relations points to "our
responsibility as Christians to oppose anti-Semitism whenever and
wherever it occurs."
Claims to the land
United Methodist Bishop Jane Middleton of the Harrisburg (Pa.) Area,
who co-taught the Israel-Palestine study last year in the denomination’s
Central Pennsylvania Conference, pointed out that several major
religions are tied to the region.
"It is clear that there are many claims on that land," she explained.
"The biblical claim (for Jews) is the one that certainly all persons
who care about our sisters and brothers in the Middle East would
recognize."
Such a claim is not denied by United Methodists, Middleton said. "The
study was clear in recognizing that a two-state solution is the only
possibility to bring peace."
The bishop, who has visited Israel and the Palestinian territories
several times, noted that the power balance in the region continues to
hinder the peace process. "Palestinians have been repressed and
oppressed in tragic ways," she said. "At the same time, we have to
recognize the desire for Israelis to live in peace and not be threatened
by rockets and suicide bombs."
Ruth Daugherty of Lancaster, Pa., a former Women’s Division
president, taught the Israel-Palestine study in the regional school of
mission and four conference schools of mission in 2007. "In introducing
the study, I talked about the complexity of the issues," she said. She
noted that understanding the long history of the region is important to
seeing "what has occurred politically."
Hope for peace
The hope, she added, is for reconciliation and a peaceful resolution
between Israelis and Palestinians. "This is not a study that says what
should be done," said Daugherty, who has visited the region four or five
times. "It is a study that says this is the situation, a very complex
situation."
Ruth Daugherty
|
As an instructor, she expected her students to look at the materials and
reach their own conclusions. Daugherty said she "tried to get people to
see both Palestinians and Jews as being persons created by God. There
is suffering on both sides, and there is a desire by both people to have
their own country, their own nation."
United Methodist Women and its predecessors have offered mission
studies on an annual basis since 1930, and Middleton said she respects
the organization for being in the forefront of educating the
denomination on complex issues and how to make a difference in the
world.
"I can remember when United Methodist Women introduced studies on
China at a time when China was seen as an archenemy of the U.S. and
studies on apartheid when apartheid seemed impossible to overcome," she
added.
*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.
News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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U.S. says Mid-East peace on track
Religion can be barrier to peace in Middle East, panel says
Resources
Statement on mission study
Women’s Division
Fair Witness
Book of Resolutions
Past denominational statements |