 Assembly asks moderator to be a bridge-builder By John H. Adams The Layman Online Sunday, June 23, 2002
The commissioners amended a nine-point resolution covering the church's response to the events and aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, by inserting a 10th item: calling on Abu-Akel to "convey his strong commitment to building bridges between Christians, Jews and Muslims to the moderator's counterpoints in other Chrsitian communities as he may deem appropriate and to print and broadcast media." The assembly's National Issues Committee proposed the resolution, which, after some tweaking, commissioners approved 423-37. While it turned out to be a gracious statement to other Christian communions, it did not begin that way. The first proposed amendment to include the moderator as a bridge-builder singled out the Southern Baptist Convention by name -- as a way to scorn a denomination whose former president, the Rev. Jerry Vines, was quoted as characterizing Mohammed, the founder of Islam, as demon-possessed. Commissioner Elizabeth McGregor Simmons of the Presbytery of Mission raised the issue of the comments by Vines to underscore the intentionality of listing by name only the Southern Baptists as a denomination that needed some bridge-building. "Why don't Christians condemn such sentiments?" she asked. But another commissioner didn't feel comfortable singling out Southern Baptists -- and neither did the majority of the commissioners. The resolution covered a range of responses --- grief and sympathy for victims of Sept. 11 and in subsequent terrorist and military actions; a call to be peacemakers; condemnation of military attacks on civilians; and, as is increasingly common in the PCUSA, a blame-America section because of the nation's "economic, political and military practices." |
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