December 7, 2004
By Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE - The Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon sent a message to the Presbyterian Church (USA) warning that churches abroad are interpreting a decision to fire two top officials as buckling to appease the U.S. Jewish community that is already angered by a General Assembly action.

At least two Jewish organizations are working to find backers in PC(USA) presbyteries and congregations to overturn a church decision to divest its $8 billion portfolio from corporations who profit from Israeli or Palestinian violence - unless those businesses reform their practices.

Both political entities - the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League - hope to derail the church's action when the Assembly re-convenes in Birmingham, AL, in 2006, according to spokespersons for the organizations.

"We are really disappointed," said the Rev. Joseph Kassab, the executive secretary of the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon in a telephone interview with the Presbyterian News Service. "It is sad that these two people would be scapegoated for pressures that have been put on the PC(USA).That is our belief now.

"We don't know the details. But that is the best read we can put on it."

The church was referring to the late November decision by General Assembly council Executive Director John Detterick to apparently fire his deputy director, Kathy Lueckert, and the director of the church's Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP), the Rev. Peter Sulyok.

The Synod stated its case in a pastoral letter to Lueckert and Sulyok.

Although there was no clear public explanation for their dismissal, both senior staff members were part of an ACSWP fact-finding delegation which toured a former Israeli prison and torture site in southern Lebanon and met with representatives of Hezbollah - while the Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon was hosting the group.

The visit drew more outrage from the Jewish community and it was immediately disavowed by Detterick, the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, the denomination's stated clerk, and Rick Ufford-Chase, the moderator of the 216th General Assembly who is the church's figurehead for the next two years.

Some criticism focused on the meeting itself - since Hezbollah is on the U.S. government's terrorist watch list. A comment made by an ACSWP member drew even more fire when he said that Muslim religious leaders are more approachable in dialogue than Jewish rabbis.

The member, Ron Stone of Pittsburgh, PA, a retired seminary ethics professor, had been part of a contentious meeting with rabbis on the PC(USA) action before he began the trip.

The ACSWP itinerary included visits to religious and political leaders in Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Lebanon. Israeli officials cancelled scheduled talks after the Hezbollah meeting was reported widely by media in the Middle and the United States.

"We understand the situation. We understand the pressure. But we cannot approve it," Kassab told PNS, who said that visits to the detention site are routine for groups who are analyzing Lebanon's religious and political life - and it isn't unusual for Christian travel-study trips to meet with Hezbollah officials.

Financed by Iran, Hezbollah was created as a fundamentalist guerrilla group in 1982 to resist the Israeli invasion and subsequent occupation of southern Lebanon and it is now a full-fledged political entity with members in Lebanon's Parliament.

It has evolved into a force in Lebanese society and politics - and its platform opposes the West and the existence of Israel. Since the May 2000, Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, Hezbollah has continued fighting the Israeli army over a disputed patch of territory that it considers part of Lebanon - although the United Nations regards it as Syrian territory.

In addition to its military wing, Hezbollah's humanitarian apparatus runs hospitals, schools, orphanages and a television station, funded primarily by Iran, Syria and its own fundraising efforts. Much of its popularity lies in the Shia community.

In the 1980s and early 90s, Hezbollah was linked to a series of international terrorist acts, including kidnappings of Westerners, the suicide truck bombing that killed more than 200 U.S. Marines in their Beirut barracks, the 1985 hyjacking of TWA flight 847 and the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Argentina - although the organization denies involvement in some of these attacks, according to reports by the BBC.

The government in Beruit has declared Hezbollah a national resistance movement, according to the BBC.

Middle Eastern experts say that Iran still backs Hezbollah and, since Lebanon has been under Syrian control since 1990, Hezbollah could not operate with Syria's approval.

More recently, it was accused of involvement in smuggling a boatload of arms to the Palestinian Authority in January 2002.

Detterick denied that the staff firings are tied to the divestment controversy - but said he is unable to say more. "Unfortunately, we are talking about a personnel decision, the specifics of which I have been unable and will not talk about.

"It is easy to come to conclusions without benefit of the facts - conclusions that are not accurate. And I regret that," he said, adding that the PC(USA) and the Synod have longtime ties.

After lamenting the decision by the PC(USA) leadership to fire the two staffers, Kassb said: "As a sister Presbyterian Church in Lebanon and Syria, we have no intention (of) interfering in the internal affairs of your church and its decisions; but as the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon, we would like to express our appreciation and thankfulness for your well-balanced and mature contribution to the visit which strengthened our historical ties as two churches, whether in theology, witness and service."

Kassab wrote that the church feels sorrow and embarrassment that the denomination was apparently "pushed" to this decision to appease Zionist groups.

He concluded by saying, "I would like to convey to you the love of our Synod, as pastors, elders and congregations, for all that you presented in your ministry, and we want you to trust that you have brothers and sisters in Lebanon and Syria who value highly your courage, and your commitment (to) the mission of the church, even when it is ready to pay a price as its master did."

The PC(USA) mission co-worker in Lebanon, Nuhad Tomeh, who accompanied the delegation to southern Lebanon, said the PCUSA has long been respected by church's in the region for its balanced approach to peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"The churches here - Presbyterian and others in the region - and the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), are very proud of the position the PC(USA) took ... and other statements made in the past about peace in the Middle East," he said, adding that the church has always insisted on justice for Palestinians as a way of achieving lasting peace.

He said the letter by the moderator, the stated clerk and the GAC executive director raised questions about the integrity of the PCUSA stance on divestment.

Presbyterian News Service