The idiocy and irrelevance of a dying United Church of Canada

The best thing I can think of to say about the United Church of Canada is that, since the average UCC churchgoer is 68 years old and a full 82% of its membership is over the age of 50, it isn't likely to be around for very much longer.

There are still a few decent members of the United Church who, with a combination of tradition and good intent, have clung to the organization. But those are the few.

Once described as "the NDP at prayer," as the NDP membership turned almost uniformly secular, the prayer became redundant. For the UCC, it means that what was once a vibrant church which played an integral part in the lives of many Canadians, is now mainly reduced to a collection of pathetic, geriatric leftists less interested in practicing the principles of Christianity than in being perceived as "social justice" activists.

As if to demonstrate their irrelevance and the idiotic need to be viewed to take a "progressive stand" on an issue in which they only have a dilettante's comprehension, the Moderator of the UCC has called for economic action against Israeli companies. The new directive comes from Rev. Gary Paterson, whom at 63 is a youngster in the United Church and whom they proudly describe as "the first openly gay leader of a major Christian denomination." Paterson has called for conflicting "economic action focused on settlement goods; and support for trust-building programs between Palestinians and Israelis."

The United Church has a weird history involving its anti-Israel activism. The Church helped to set up an anti-Israel group, founded by a 9-11 conspiracy theory crackpot, that in significant part consists of United Church members pretending to be Jews in order to deflect charges of anti-Semitism. 

I was at a meeting a couple of years ago with the then-Moderator of the United Church, Mardi Tindal and Reverend Bruce Gregersen, who headed its Israel/Palestine file.  The meeting was between the top people of the UCC and a Jewish organization for which I consulted and was looking to do more interfaith outreach. But the meeting quickly became a discussion about the pending anti-Israel stance that the Church was about to make official. While the discussion achieved nothing, the meeting was extremely informative about the mindset within the UCC.

Gergerson did virtually all the talking for the United Church side. Their stance was based on the call for action of the so-called Kairos-Palestine document, which was written by a handful of Palestinian Christian anti-Israel activists.

What was glossed over, or perhaps not fully understood by Gergerson and the UCC Moderator, is that the document in which they invested their intellectual allegiance, such as it is, is filled with explicit support for violence, terrorism, and is inherently anti-Semitic.

The document talks about Israeli Jews in terms of "the evil that is in them." As to the complex and myriad reasons for the ongoing occupation of the West Bank, where the Palestinian leadership still proclaims that it will not recognize a Jewish state and celebrates terrorists and mass-murderers of children, the Kairos document places all of the blame on Israel with support for violence against it and with hyperbolic Jew-hatred: "The aggression against the Palestinian people which is the Israeli occupation, is an evil that must be resisted. It is an evil and a sin that must be resisted and removed."

To make it clear that when Palestinians blow up Jewish children on public buses, it's the Jews' own fault, the document in which the United Church places so much stock proclaims the "roots of "terrorism" are in the human injustice committed and in the evil of the occupation."

As happens so often among the not-very-bright activists who think they have mastered an issue that has eluded the best efforts of brilliant political leaders and diplomats like George Mitchell, Henry Kissinger and Bill Clinton for over six decades, the UCC leaders removed all context from their mental framework of the Israel/Arab/Palestinian issue. They seem to do this so it can be framed in simplistic terms that fit their very limited comprehension of the quagmire. But those limitations become obvious when they are challenged.

One of the "issues" the UCC leaders have with Israel is that it purports to be a western democracy, but still engages in "oppressive" behavior.

But that argument makes no sense to anyone who understands history or has any knowledge of the context and actions involved. Israel is not neighbors with Luxembourg or Canada. I asked Gergerson to name a country, democratic or otherwise, in the entire history of the world, that faced with contiguous enemies who launch attacks against it, have declared their intent to destroy it, and while remaining in a formal state of hostilities with those enemies, has behaved as benevolently as Israel has with the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. Holding a single, index finger in the air to emphasize the point, I asked him to "just name one."

His response was nothing more than a vacant look, and then he continued to speak as if the question had never been asked.

Whether he was embarrassed to admit the answer was that there are none, or that he didn't know enough of the history of the conflict or of global conflict in general to be able to answer amounts to the same thing. In either case, it points to an intellectual dearth at the top of the United Church of Canada. These are people who evidently are more interested in image than in integrity.

Which is the very sort of thing that Jesus spoke against. But then again, the way the United Church of Canada is going these days, Jesus' teachings are something they may not know much about either.

The new anti-Semitism in Canada - starring Zafar Bangash and the United Church of Canada

h/t Israellycool

Jew-hating United Church members pretending to be self-hating Jews

Those who have encountered the anti-Israel group called "Independent Jewish Voices" could be forgiven for understanding them to be a group of emotionally-unstable fanatics whose primary purpose is to dispel the stereotype that Jews are smart. The group was founded under the leadership of 9-11 conspiracy theorist Diana Ralph while she was on a 'medical leave' from Carleton University, and its membership is made up mainly of old, unhappy, childless socialists who present themselves as Jews who want their opposition to Israel to be known.

But it turns out that Independent Jewish Voices may not be Jewish at all, at least if one of their representatives is telling the truth.

One of the group's spokesmen with the very Jewish-sounding name of Robert Allison did an interview  presented by the anti-capitalist website rabble.ca in which he was asked about the origins of Independent Jewish Voices. He answered that it began in 2006, when the United Church of Canada was considering a resolution (similar to one eventually passed this year) calling for the boycott of Israel. The resolution instigated accusations of the United Church being anti-Semitic, and according to Allison, "this alarmed some members of the United Church who happened to be Jews." They then formed Independent Jewish Voices of Canada.

The relationship between the two organizations is such that the United Church helped pay  expenses for Independent Jewish Voices' founding conference, making the organization a child of the Boshevist, weak-kneed branch of Protestantism.

The United Church of Canada is a Christian denomination that at least on paper accepts the divinity of Jesus Christ. Anyone who accepts that Christ is God and is a member of a church with that belief is a Christian.  Judaism explicitly rejects Jesus' divinity.

Independent Jewish Voices' claim that they are members of the United Church who happen to be Jews is about as valid as someone who says they are a Sunni Muslim who happens to be a member of the Roman Catholic Church.  These are mutually exclusive terms and you're either one or the other. By their professed beliefs and actions, it seems clear that Independent Jewish Voices is made up of Christians masquerading as Jews for the sole purpose of attempting to lend a sick pseudo-legitimacy to their demonization of the Jewish state.

Mr. Allison tries to explain in the interview that support for Israel violates the principles of Judaism. Nothing could be more indicative that he and his group understand nothing about the basis of the religion they claim to hold. All it takes is a reading of the Old Testament, the core document of Judaic belief, to see the inextricable link between Israel and Jews. It is repeated over and over in text upon text. By embracing the anti-Semitic Kairos Palestine document that seeks to deny a theological basis for the relationship between Israel and the Jewish people, these anti-Israel Jewish poseurs betray that their closest link to Judaism is when they eat bagels and lox.

Unlike most of the misfits of Independent Jewish Voices, I was born after the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. My belief in Israel's validity is based not on religion but on the morality of a democratic, freedom-loving,  pluralistic western ally existing in the midst of barbarism and totalitarianism.

But anyone seeking to deny Israel on the basis of Judaism is doing something so absurd as to completely discredit their intellect if not their motives. Just what do they think "The Promised Land" means? Do they realize where it is, and according to the Bible, to whom it was promised and by Whom?

There is something else fake Jews and so-called progressive Christians who actually believe in Judeo-Christian principles should keep in mind.  It doesn't require a nuanced reading of the Bible, both the New Testament and Old,  to see that God always takes a very poor view of the enemies of Israel. If these people genuinely believe in the tenets of the religions they claim, they should be very, very worried indeed.


UPDATE- December 4: The pseudo-Jews of Independent Jewish Voices are again trying to give cover to pathological,  obsessive hatred of Israel, such as that promoted by the fanatical, neo-Marxist website rabble.ca, which is closely associated with NDP Deputy Leader Libby Davies.

A further bit of insight into the mind-set of the flakes in Independent (not really) Jewish Voices comes from an interview one of its founders, Sid Shniad, did with anti-Semitic author Gilad Atzmon.

Sid Shniad: For most of my adult life, I have been active in non-Jewish Palestinian solidarity organisations, antiwar work, and left politics and resisted becoming involved in organisations that were identified as Jewish. But I have come to the conclusion that Jews with good politics on the issue of Israel and Palestine have a uniquely important role to play in combating the influence of the reactionary Zionist organisations that tend to dominate the Jewish community and providing telling criticism of the Israeli government. 

GA: Now I am very happy because for the first time you really start to address my question. You also admit that, Zionist organizations dominate the Jewish community.    

Sid Shniad: This realisation has led me to become active in creating Independent Jewish Voices in Canada in the last two years, where we have found that the organized presence of Jews who militantly oppose Zionist organisations and the Israeli government provides breathing space and a degree of comfort for both Jews and non-Jews who are uncomfortable with what Israel and its allies are doing, but who have been reluctant to come out of the closet on these issues.

The interview is quite revealing - for all his malignancy, Atzmon, who was born a Jew, never cloaks his anti-Semitism or anti-Zionism in the pretense of a religion which he has renounced. Shniad, like his fellow Independent Jewish United Church of Canada Voices stooges, makes it clear that his self-identification as a Jew has come late and  for one and only one real purpose - to demonize Israel.

The United and Anglican Churches of Canada find a way to get people back to their houses of worship

By selling them off as condos

United Church of Canada set to make itself an irrelevant laughing stock

In a further bit of perverse irony that only the United Church's out-of-touch leadership would be oblivious to,  they are set, according to it's Israel/Palestine Working Group lead Bruce Gregerson, to pass the anti-Israel motions on Iran's "let's destroy Israel Day" this Friday.

Coren does United Church comedy

h/t Five Feet of Fury

United Church of Canada leaders team up with 9-11 conspiracy nuts to demonize Israel

As their numbers plummet while the average age of its membership is in the Senior Citizen category, the United Church of Canada is finding some very strange bedfellows in its desperate struggle for relevance.

Unable to find it in a revitalization of religious belief, it has somewhat foolishly turned to finding common cause with radical political movements. In what could be mistaken for an ecclesiastic pantomime of a G20 protest, environmental extremists, anti-Israel fanatics, Omar Khadr aficionados, and  immigration reform opponents have all been courted by the current United Church leadership. The result was not new adherents so much as alienating a large number of the rank-and file and continuing the exodus away from the Church's thinning pews.

One of the most controversial and potentially self-destructive moves the United Church has made has been to engage in yet another foray into the quagmire of the Israeli-Arab dispute, with a decidedly anti-Israel bias. Ironically while striving to demonstrate how "progressive" it is, the United Church's embrace of radical leftist ideology has returned it to the ancient, anti-Semitic roots of early Christian theology. The United Church's Working Group on Israel Palestine, whose report recommends a boycott of Israeli settlement goods, heavily draws upon the so-called Palestine Kairos document. That treatise denies a special relationship between Israel and the Jewish people, places all the blame on Israel for its ongoing conflict with the Palestinians, and refers to "the Israeli occupation" as "an evil and a sin that must be resisted and removed."  The document, which says of Israelis,  "they must liberate themselves from the evil that is in them and the injustice they have imposed on others," is considered by many to be inherently anti-Semitic.

Among the most insidious aspects of the new leftist Jew-hate is its tactic of trotting out ridiculous Jewish anti-Zionist fanatics and displaying them like comical banners at the front of an April Fool's parade. In that vein, the United Church's of Canada's Comox-Nanaimo Presbytery's declaration that they "work with Jewish organizations such as Independent Jewish Voices, which are committed to seeing Justice for the people of Palestine" is less offensive than if Shutzstaffel leader Heinrich Himmler had said "we are working with our Jewish labor camp kapos, who are committed to seeing justice for the Aryan people," but we are only talking about degrees.

Independent Jewish Voices is headed by a 9-11 conspiracy theorist named Diana Ralph. After 12 years hard work of being on Disability Leave from her position of Associate Professor of Social Work at Carleton University, Ms Ralph, who seemed to get around a lot for someone on disability leave, retired from that institution in 2011. With all that additional extra free time, she can now devote herself exclusively to eradicating Jewish national self-determination.

As one might expect, Ms Ralph is not the only 9-11 conspiracy theorist in the organization she co-founded. Her co-Chair and fellow Independent Jewish Voices founder Sid Shiniad shares her views and the organization of fringe radicals is liberally peppered with adherents to a movement that proposes the attack by Muslim terrorists on the World Trade Center and Pentagon was actually the work of "neo-cons and Zionists."

Independent Jewish Voices are, as the National Post's Jonathan Kay observed:

an extremist group whose leaders support a total economic boycott of Israel, defend the UN's original anti-Semitic Durban conference, support the destruction of the Jewish character of Israel through the influx of millions of Palestinians, spread conspiracy theories about the "Israeli lobby," promote the blood libel that Israel deliberately targeted "children playing on roofs" during the Gaza conflict, and cheered on the illegal occupation of the Israeli consulate in Toronto..

If the United Church's leaders think they can shield themselves from being perceived as anti-Semitic by playing footsie with a small group of fringe Jews whose actions and statements could easily be interpreted to suggest serious, unresolved psychiatric issues, they will find themselves sorely mistaken.

Yet in the ranks of the United Church there are still voices of sanity and reason. Reverend Andrew Love of Grace St. Andrew's United Church in Arnprior has launched a campaign to counter the noxious agenda of the denomination's leadership. He says that "there remains an undercurrent of anti-Semitism" in the church. Love has warned that if the recommendations of the Working Group on Israel/Palestine's report are adopted, the United Church, rather than advancing the cause of peace, will destroy its relationship with the Jewish community and render itself irrelevant to playing any role in helping resolve the Israel/Palestine question.

That's an insightful assessment that towers above anything the United Church's leaders have offered on the issue to date. Whether it is one that the Church's leaders heed at its General Council next week will decide less about the future of the mideast than it will about a United Church that is in danger of loosing its bearings.

al Starzeera publishes orchestrated response by rogues' gallery of anti-Israel lunatics

In response to a column in al Starzeera News (The Toronto Star) by Dow Marmur urging the United Church of Canada should reject a proposed boycott of Israeli settlement products, it published a collection of letters supporting the anti-Israel position.

That article was part of an orchestrated response by a deceitfully named pro Iranian organization called Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East.

Among the array of names on the less-than-distinguished list of letter writers were two bastions of local anti-Israel lunacy. One was Sheryl Nestel, an Ontario Institute for Studies in Education instructor who has managed to distinguish herself as the thesis adviser for an anti-Semitic paper that managed to humiliate the institute, bring its academic standards into disrepute and embarrass the University of Toronto as a whole, as well as being the go-to adviser for some other crackpot theses.

The other is a fringe conspiracy theorist named Karin Brothers, a fixture at anti-Israel gatherings, whose performance at a hate rally last year caused even the anti-Zionist United Church of Canada to disassociate itself from her.

One might think al Starzeera might do a little research before presenting such people as representative readers. Then again, given what that newspaper stands for, they may indeed be totally and accurately representative of what they are about.

But one does have to credit the United Church about one aspect to all of this. For a denomination whose average member is old enough to collect Social Security, and whose questioning of basic Christian tenets   has rendered itself completely irrelevant to anything, they must be pleased about the rare attention they have garnered.

United Church of Canada leadership takes a hit from Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center

"...the United Church leadership, when it comes to the issue of Israel, demonstrates neither Christian principles of love nor a fair-minded interest in a peaceful settlement to the Palestinian/Israeli dispute. Instead, they behave as dilettantes who want to be seen as having the particular idea of “progressive” social justice as advocated by a radical left that is heavily partisan against Israel and the United States."

Hamas bagman George Galloway returns to Toronto on Monday

George Galloway carries on the fine tradition of Sir Oswald Mosley

George Galloway, the cretin who mourns the demise of the Soviet Union and hands money over to terror group Hamas, is going to be embraced by the looney wing of the United Church of Canada in Toronto on Monday.

He is going to be at the Trinity-St. Paul Church at 427 Bloor Street West, which also houses such ecclesiastic groups as The International Socialists, on Monday at 7.

Hopefully, someone will be by to fumigate afterwards.

Toronto's United Church of Hate to hold Sea Hitler fundraiser

This Saturday at 7 pm, Bloor Street United Church will be holding a fundraiser for the Sea Hitler, the boat a group of Canadian Islamists and pro-Marxist groups want to sent to support Hamas-ruled Gaza.

The Bloor Street United Church at 300 Bloor Street West in Toronto has faced allegations of being a home for anti-Semitism masked as "social justice" in the past.

It is only a couple of blocks away from the St. Paul Trinity Centre which houses groups like James Clark's anti-Israel Canadian Peace Alliance and the International Socialists and recently played host to the shill for Iran's dictatorship, George Galloway. Their two steeples along a close stretch of Toronto's Annex district are like anti-Israel versions of J.R.R. Tolkien's twin towers of Mordor and Isengard.

In 2008,  Bloor Street United hosted an event promoted by the discredited Canadian Arab Federation that according to The Jewish Tribune, displayed "viciously antisemitic reading material."

Now they are hosting another fanatical anti-Israel event to raise funds to help destroy Israel's ability to prevent Iranian arms smuggling to Hamas, a group designated as a terrorist organization by the government of Canada.

This event is sponsored by the anti-Semitic Canadian Arab Federation along with Bloor Street United's "Social Justice" Committee. A quick perusal of this committee's information suggests a concept of social justice that lines up better with the followers of Karl Marx than those of Jesus Christ.

The Devil's Rain

I actually saw The Devil's Rain when I was a kid and got to thinking about it when I was reading a post on Blazing Cat Fur about the United Church of Canada, an organization that has elevated itself to "co-creators with God." I don't buy it, but that belief does explain a lot about them.

The blog Things That Don't Suck provides a very funny rundown of this movie (loads of spoilers!)
that involves, well.. an evil cult, the devil and rain. But it's the Devil's Rain!

And if that isn't enticing enough, how about a cast that includes William Shatner, Eddie Albert, Ida Lupino, John Travolta, Keenan Wynn and Ernest Borgnine as Satan!

And the technical advisor was none other than notorious High Priest of the Church of Satan, George Galloway Anton Lavey!

As a special treat, until YouTube removes it, here's the whole movie!

WARNING! This movie is seriously weird and once you've seen it, you can't unsee it! Enter at your own risk.