PC(USA) Decision to Fire Controversial Staffers Questioned
Presbyterians from abroad questioned whether the PC(USA) ‘buckled’ to U.S. Jewish community groups when it fired two of its staff members for their involvement with a controversial meeting with the terrorist group Hezbollah
The Presbyterian Church (USA)’s recent firing of two staffers has been misunderstood as the denomination “buckling to appease the U.S. Jewish community” by overseas Presbyterians, according to PC(USA)’s December 7 newsletter.
The PC(USA) last month fired two of its staff workers for their involvement in a “fact finding trip” to the Middle East, during which the PC(USA) received widespread press coverage for the controversial comments made by its members to an anti-Israel terrorist group, Hezbollah. The two staffers, PC(USA)’s deputy director Kathy Lueckert, and the director of the church’s Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP), the Rev. Peter Sulyok, were largely responsible for organizing the controversial meeting.
During the meeting, a retired seminary ethics professor named Ron Stone drew a flurry of criticism from Jewish groups by saying Muslim religious leaders are more approachable in dialogue than Jewish rabbis.
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The contentious meeting, coupled with the earlier PC(USA)’s decision to divest from “companies profiting from” the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, sparked an outcry from American-based Jewish groups that promised to work to derail the divestment policy by the time the PC(USA) reconvenes in 2006.
In a letter sent to the PC(USA), the Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon said churches in the region are connecting the decision to fire the two staffers with the apparent threats of the Jewish groups.
“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.”
“We understand the situation. We understand the pressure. But we cannot approve it,” Kassab told PNS.
According to the PNS, Kassab said visits to Hezbollah sites 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.”
Kassab also said the church was embarrassed and sorrowful that the PC(USA) was “pushed” to fire the staffers as a way to appease the Zionist groups.
However, Kassab said, the church in Syria and Lebanon will continue to trust its American counterpart as a “sister Presbyterian church.”
“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,” the statement read. 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.”
Meanwhile, John Detterick, the PC(USA) director who fired the two officials with no direct reason, reassured the Syrian and Lebanese believers that the staff firings are not tied to the divestment controversy.
Nonetheless, Detterick added that specifics cannot be discussed in the matter.
“Unfortunately, we are talking about a personnel decision, the specifics of which I have been unable and will not talk about,” said Detterick. “It is easy to come to conclusions without benefit of the facts — conclusions that are not accurate. And I regret that.”
