Commissioners to be told America involved in 'genocide' through use of 'germ warfare' By Craig M. Kibler The Layman Online Wednesday, May 21, 2003 Commissioners to the 215th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) will be told that the United States maintains a "warmongering posture" toward countries around the world and that the government is perpetrating "genocide" against "peoples of color both at home and around the world through (among other things) germ warfare." The Advocacy Committee for Racial Ethnic Concerns makes those statements in a summary (07-B) of its activities that will be presented to the Committee on National Issues, which will meet during the General Assembly on May 24-31 in Denver. Counting Fahed Abu-Akel, moderator of the 214th General Assembly, as an at-large Middle Eastern member, the Advocacy Committee for Racial Ethnic Concerns also charges that: There is an "increase in police brutality being perpetrated upon people of color in the United States." There is an "adverse impact of sentencing affecting criminals of color" in this country. The government has failed "to provide adequate treatment for known conditions such as drug addiction, mental illness, malnutrition, and HIV/AIDS." The Advocacy Committee for Racial Ethnic Concerns states in the summary that its functions "are twofold: advocacy and monitoring. Through advocacy, the committee continually evaluates shifting social trends in church and society, and provides advice and counsel to the General Assembly and General Assembly Council in response to their requests or on its own initiative. … The committee also monitors the implementation of programs and policies approved by the church that impact the quality of life for racial ethnic people in the church, the workplace, and the world." Under these two functions, the committee states that it is "concerned about the increase in police brutality being perpetrated upon people of color in the United States; the proliferation of for-profit private prisons throughout the country that house a disproportionate number of inmates of color; the adverse impact of sentencing affecting criminals of color; the rise in hate crimes directed at people of color; the warmongering posture of the United States directed toward countries around the world containing large populations of people of color such as Iraq and Afghanistan; and the church's silence on issues of genocide being perpetrated by the U.S. government upon peoples of color both at home and around the world through (among other things) germ warfare, and failure to provide adequate treatment for known conditions such as drug addiction, mental illness, malnutrition, and HIV/AIDS." The summary is peppered with unsubstantiated phrases like "warmongering posture," "genocide," "germ warfare," "unjust treatment," "police brutality" and others. It makes these claims as statements to be accepted at face value, and nowhere does the Advocacy Committee for Racial Ethnic Concerns provide documentation for its allegations. Three of the advocacy committee's other ongoing projects include: A task force to examine the "Racial Justice Policies and Programs of the Board of Pensions, the Presbyterian Foundation, the Presbyterian Investment and Loan Program, and the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation in relation to the racial ethnic members of the PC(USA)." That task force is expected to report its findings and make recommendations to the 216th General Assembly in 2004. A task force to study the "Disenfranchisement of People of Color in the U.S. Electoral System" to determine "whether the church should make a policy statement regarding the matter of election law violations and voting irregularities." That task force is expected to report its findings to the 216th General Assembly in 2004. A task force "to study issues of reparations for African Americans, Native Americans, Alaskan Natives, Asian Americans, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and others who have experienced unjust treatment in the United States." This task force is expected to report its findings and make recommendations to the 216th General Assembly in 2004.

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