Seminary group led by former, current PCUSA staff members also met with, praised Hezbollah By John H. Adams The Layman Online Wednesday, January 26, 2005 Three and one-half months before an official Presbyterian group met with the Southern Lebanese leader of Hezbollah, which the U.S. State Department identifies as a terrorist group, a delegation from San Francisco Theological Seminary did the same. And some of the seminary group's members had similar words of praise for the Islamic fundamentalists that the U.S. has accused of murdering 270 Americans in two bombing incidents. The seminary group met with Hezbollah on June 1, 2004. The 24-member denominational group, led by the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, made its two-week trip to the Mideast in October 2004. The Layman Online learned about the seminary group's meeting with Hezbollah, an event that had not previously been publicized by the Presbyterian Church (USA) or Western newspapers, after a reader sent a link to a Syrian newspaper. The English-language Daily Star of Syria said the seminary group was led by Dr. Charles Marks, the chaplain and an associate professor at San Francisco Theological Seminary, one of seven seminaries related to the PCUSA. Marks joined the seminary staff in 1999 after having worked for the denomination's National Ministries Division. An article in The Chimes, published by the seminary, said both Marks and his wife, Amal Marks, were the leaders of the seminary group. Amal Marks, a native of Lebanon, is employed by the PCUSA as the associate for Middle East Ministries of the National Ministries Division, with responsibility for Presbyterian congregations that include Christians from Middle East countries. She is also a part of the staff team working with Racial Ethnic Minority congregations. Her division is separate from the Worldwide Ministries Division and Victor Makari, who is coordinator for church affairs in the Middle East and was a member of the denominational delegation that made its trip in October. As reported by the Daily Star, Marks told Sheikh Nabil Qaouk, Hezbollah's commander in Southern Lebanon, "I am certain that my positive image of Hizbullah is different from that pictured in the West. I am happy to meet Hizbullah officials and listen to what they have to say." [Arabic media and Western media have different transliterations of the Arabic word for Hezbollah, which means "party of Allah."] In addition to his wife, nine students and three other individuals accompanied Marks on the trip, which he described in the fall 2004 edition of The Chimes (page 22). He said the trip was part of a course that he is teaching on "Christianity in Context: Palestine/Israel." He made no mention in that article about meeting with Hezbollah. He primarily talked about meeting with church leaders, including the Middle East Council of Churches, with which the PCUSA's World Ministries Division works closely. According to the Daily Star, Hezbollah's Qaouk greeted the seminary group by denouncing President George W. Bush and his administration, contending that the administration "had harmed Christians and Christianity by allying itself with the gang of evil [Israel] that occupied our land and attacked holy sites in Palestine." Qaouk called Bush "the most terrorist man in the world ... and the president who threatens holy sites most in the world." Marks and several students expressed their sympathy with Qaouk and Hezbollah. Marks was quoted as saying he was happy to be in South Lebanon, adding that the trip was aimed at "(getting) to know the nature of Christian-Muslim co-existence and preparing a study about it." He added that Hezbollah was a political party and an association helping the poor and needy, the Daily Star said. The Daily Star also reported that "Student Alex Klaushofer said she came here to try to understand Hizbullah better and convey her impressions to people back home, providing them with a clearer image of the party. 'When people in England hear about Hizbullah, they quickly remember the hostages taken by Hizbullah in the early eighties,' she said. 'I came ... to prove to them that their ideas are not true.'" Marc Saliba, a Palestinian living in Canada since 1972, thanked Hezbollah for its role in liberating the South and said the party was "not a terrorist organization." Although it is recognized as a political party in Lebanon, Hezbollah has been on the terrorist list of several nations and organizations, including the United Nations. The government of Israel has accused Hezbollah of being a major source for recruiting suicide bombers who have killed hundreds of Israeli civilians. In terms of giving Hezbollah a good report, the seminary delegation and the official 24-member PCUSA delegation made – if unwittingly – similar friendly remarks to the terrorist leader. But there were major repercussions after the highly publicized Oct. 18 visit by the official delegation. Two staff leaders on that trip, Cathy Lueckert, deputy executive director of the General Assembly Council, and Peter Sulyok, director of the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, were fired by John Detterick, executive director of the General Assembly Council. No action was taken against Makari of the World Mission Division, another staff leader who was part of the denomination-sponsored event. Detterick would not state precisely why Lueckert and Sulyok were fired. They were not mentioned in Arabic media reports as having been with the delegation members who met with Qaouk. Neither were they quoted, as had been some of the elected members of the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, as making Hezbollah-friendly statements. But the Presbyterian News Service, the denomination's official press, has repeatedly tied their firings to the incident. Arabic media quoted Ron Stone, a retired seminary professor and a member of the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, and Nile Harper, chairman of the advisory committee, after their meeting with Qauok. "As an elder of our church, I'd like to say that, according to my recent experience, relations and conversations with Islamic leaders are a lot easier than dealings and dialogue with Jewish leaders," said Stone, a retired professor of Christian ethics at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. "Also, we praise your initiative for dialogue and mutual understanding," Stone added in comments that were broadcast on Al Manar, Hezbollah's satellite television network. "We cherish these statements that bring us closer to you. We treasure the precious words of Hezbollah and your expression of goodwill towards the American people." Harper, a retired Presbyterian minister who lives in Ann Arbor, Mich., criticized as "unhelpful" Israel's defensive separation barrier and said products made by U.S. corporations "are being used destructively against the Palestinians. The occupation by Israel in the West Bank and Gaza must end because it is oppressive and destructive for the Palestinian people." Detterick, Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick and General Assembly Moderator Rick Ufford-Chase later issued a statement condemning the meeting with Hezbollah. But many Jewish groups have repeatedly cited that meeting as evidence that the PCUSA has taken sides with the Palestinians in their long-running conflict with Israel. Also, since the October meeting with Hezbollah, Jewish, Presbyterian and other Christian groups have intensified their condemnation of the 216th General Assembly's resolution calling for "phased selective divestment in multinational corporations operating in Israel." The process to begin that divestment has begun. Kirkpatrick has written a number of statements defending the divestment policy. Syria's Daily Star, a pro-Palestinian voice, has published them verbatim.

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