This post is part of Marc H. Ellis’s “Exile and the Prophetic” feature for Mondoweiss. To read the entire series visit the archive page.
Yesterday I wrote about an October 5th letter sent from American Church leaders to Congress. The letter was interfaith ecumenical dynamite. Yet I didn’t mention the leaders’ names or the denominations they represent.
Today, I’m calling them out individually for a variety of reasons. First, their letter is historic – I don’t want their names lost to history. It represents the end of the interfaith ecumenical deal and a sea change in how the Holocaust and Israel can and can’t be used politically in the United States. Second, I don’t want them to be hidden in a pack of names or even the nomenclature ‘Church leaders.’ It’s important that they stand up for what they’ve signed. They need to hold themselves accountable. We need to and hold them accountable. Finally, since their letter is controversial and more is to come from the Jewish establishment on their participation, supporters should take a lead on framing the Most Wanted (Church Leader) list which is sure to appear.
‘Most Wanted’ lists are traditionally a negative ‘criminal’ list. But what if the Most Wanted is ‘seekers of justice’? Those who are vilified by one establishment can be uplifted by those of conscience on the other side. As we shall see, most Church leaders are reluctant to stick their neck out for anything of substance. When they do, we have to celebrate their courage and hold them to it, lest their better Church leader instincts reappear under pressure.
Below, I list their names. (I wonder, too, if I should also include their pictures. You can’t have a 15 Most Wanted list without pictures, can you? It’s important for identification purposes. The Jewish establishment tip line needs them. The Post Office won’t accept the listing without pictures.) I’m also calling out the organizations they represent. They shouldn’t escape notice either. You can see they and their organizations are bigwigs. This notorious group isn’t marginal:
- Rev. Gradye Parsons, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, Presbyterian Church (USA)
- Mark S. Hanson, Presiding Bishop Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
- Bishop Rosemarie Wenner, President, Council of Bishops, The United Methodist Church
- Peg Birk, Transitional General Secretary, National Council of Churches USA
- Shan Cretin, General Secretary, American Friends Service Committee
- J Ron Byler, Executive Director, Mennonite Central Committee U.S.
- Alexander Patico, North American Secretary Orthodox Peace Fellowship
- Diane Randall, Executive Secretary, Friends Committee on National Legislation
- Dr. A. Roy Medley, General Secretary, American Baptist Churches, U.S.A.
- Rev. Geoffrey A. Black, General Minister and President, United Church of Christ
- Rev. Dr. Sharon E. Watkins, General Minister and President, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
- Rev. Julia Brown Karimu, President, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ),, Division of Overseas Ministries, Co-Executive, Global Ministries (UCC and Disciples)
- Rev. Dr. James A. Moos, Executive Minister, United Church of Christ, Wider, Church Ministries, Co-Executive, Global Ministries (UCC and Disciples)
- Kathy McKneely, Acting Director, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
- Eli S. McCarthy, PhD, Justice and Peace Director, Conference of Major Superiors of Men (CMSM)
Dealing with the Churches over the years, believe me it isn’t easy to get the top echelon to sign themselves to letters that have any content at all. In general, Church leaders are promoted through the ranks precisely because they don’t have much on their minds – at least that they let others discern.
As in politics in general, it’s often the lowest common denominator that rises to the top. This doesn’t mean Church leaders – or politicians – aren’t intelligent. Usually they are. If they stand for anything particular, potential Church leaders keep it to themselves. What those in Church leadership represent are trends within their denominations. They are elevated or not depending on how the Church winds are blowing.
To achieve their promotions, Church leaders typically have their finger up, checking how the Church winds are blowing. This doesn’t stop if and when they are elevated. Sometimes it increases. Typically Church leaders use their time at the top to encourage the trends they represent while mouthing banalities that their congregants can accept as normal. As in the broader spectrum of the political world, most Church change occurs around the edges.
The way Christianity is interpreted – and behaves – now doesn’t help Church leaders develop true leadership skills. Though the evangelical side of the Christian spectrum still has some fire and brimstone content – though inside the evangelical movement leadership operates more like mainstream Church leaders than either side would like to admit – the mainstream likes to think of itself as open and accepting. In many areas of Church life it is.
Openness is one thing but when you can’t take a stand out of fear of self, that’s another. Many Church leaders have a fear of their own tradition as well they might. They are only too aware of what a mobilized – and militarized – Christianity looks like. When you couple that with Jews, anti-Semitism, the Holocaust and Israel, you have every conceivable self-critical Christian alarm ready to sound.
So, no matter how well meaning, Church efforts can begin to feel rather like milk toast tastes and feels – bland and soggy. Even with justice proclamations, details are usually omitted or fuzzy and deliberately so. This is part fear, part self-protection. Churches are reticent to take political stands that have consequences for its own financial, political and cultural standing in the community.
Again, with regard to Jews, milk toast isn’t the word. Around Jews, these bold proclaimers of faith walk on eggshells. They don’t want to go near the Jewish minefield.
I can’t blame them for using their Church leadership skills to avoid the Jewish minefield. I’ve labored in that minefield for many years so I understand completely. The Jewish minefield – it’s what the Jewish establishment wants the Church leaders and me – and all Jews and Christians of Conscience – to remember.
As with any minefield warning signs are posted. No doubt you’ve noticed a ‘Dare Not Trespass Against the Jewish Establishment’ Most Wanted list hanging in every corner of the American landscape.
But then trespassers keep popping up.
Think of the Church leaders as trespassers in the fields mined by the Jewish establishment. The fact that they’re dealing with the real behavior of Jews, not the mythic apparitions of Christians with Jews on their brain, doesn’t get them a free pass.
Sorry to inform you my dear Church leaders, dealing with the real behavior of Jews gets you into hotter water than the mythic anti-Semites of today. No doubt you already know this by now.
Yes, it is indeed remarkable — as you have laid out the usual behavior of church leaders — that the 15 acted at all. Perhaps it was personal bravery and personal duty (as Christians see Christian duty) and perhaps it represents the rank and file. Either way it may serve as a teaching and organizing event. Hope so. Be interesting to see if any Congresspeople respond favorably — in another kind of personal bravery and duty.
One of the best columns of Marc Ellis. One thing is that the letter is explosive if noticed or acknowledged, so after the initial harrumphs, I suspect that the true Plan A is to mark it for oblivion.
“A society is in serious trouble when its political pariahs have at the heart of their demands a call for a return to the rule of law.” — Chris Hedges
(Quoted from memory, probably not quite accurately but the substance is correct.
And these church leaders aren’t political pariahs! they are about as mainstream as you can get.)
It’s milquetoast, from “the name of Caspar Milquetoast, a diffident character in H. T. Webster’s comic strip The Timid Soul. The comic strip first ran in 1924 in the New York World; it was later published in the Herald Tribune.” Although milk toast was probably the inspiration.
Their names are etched in history. They are in the Congressional Record. The fact that they wrote it and the fact that they did not consult their ecumenical colleagues shows one thing: they’re pissed. As Betsy wrote here some time ago, when they get to this stage:
Who would be the Jewish counterparts- the modern day prophets, like Amos or Natha? For us Christians who are the people to watch like Jeff Halper, Miko Peled, or maybe our dear Uri Avnery? Alexsi