The matter of Iran's alleged development of nuclear arms, is a case in point.
I find sufficient evil in Israel's Occupation to justify a connection between Britain's 19th century approval of slavery, on economic grounds, and the American support of an Israeli Occupation which continues to imprison the Palestinian population.
On Tuesday of this upcoming week, April 24, the United Methodist Church (UMC) begins its ten-day Quadrennial General Conference (GC) in Tampa, Florida.
High on the legislative agenda of GC is a resolution, Aligning United Methodist Investments with Resolutions on Israel/Palestine.
Contrary to the many deliberately misleading descriptions of this resolution, it is designed to do exactly what it says in its title, "align its church investments with previous resolutions on Israel/Palestine."
The divestment resolution does not call for a boycott of the state of Israel. It is narrowly focused, an internal church document which mandates that the church's financial managers (the General Board of Pensions) divest all church fund investments in three American companies that directly support Israel's occupation of the Palestinian West Bank.
The three companies are Caterpillar, Hewlett Packard and Motorola, a specificity that emerges from more than eight years of study, dialogue with these companies and considerable debate in local "annual conferences," many of which sent their own versions of the divestment resolution to the GC.
The process is quite methodical, appropriately enough, for a denomination that mirrors the practices of the 18th century Methodist societies which were derisively labeled "methodists" by the Anglican hierarchy, which branded "methodists" as outliers to the established Church of England.
It was this Church that, among other things, banned John Wesley from pulpits of the Church of England, the body in which John and his brother Charles Wesley (author of many hymns) were ordained.
This led the Wesleys to take to fields and tree stumps to proclaim a fresh, new message of salvation and methodical practices that emphasized discipline, personal spiritual growth and social action against sin.
The Wesley brothers instructed their followers to see the Christian faith as an instruction manual for social justice, including Wesley's strong opposition to the immoral practice of slavery.
Wesley despised slavery. He also knew the work of Wilbur Wilberforce and had followed his career as a politician fighting an uphill battle against the evils of slavery.
The last letter that John Wesley wrote before his death in 1791, was to William Wilberforce, who earlier had been converted under Wesley's ministry.
Wesley wrote to Wilberforce on February 24, 1791, eight days before Wesley's death on March 2, 1791. The letter encourages Wilberforce to continue his fight against slavery.
The letter begins with a Latin phrase, Athanasius contra mundum, which translates as "Athanasius against the world."
Wesley was a theologian to the end. Even in his final letter, he could not resist recalling one of his favorite themes.
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