This summer, starting in late June, the Episcopal Church in the U.S. will assemble for national leadership policy making.
On its agenda will be a resolution for delegates to discuss a proposal on how their corner of God's moral army should respond to Israel's decades-long occupation.
A half century after mainstream American churches remained racially divided in their organizational structure, here come the Episcopalians, still debating oppression.
Check out this non-mainstream secular media story on the upcoming discussions. In one of its resolution to be considered on Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) are these words:
"Fundamentally, we believe that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a U.S. civil rights issue for our time. It is an American issue because Washington repeatedly vetoes United Nations resolutions criticizing Israeli settlement building and other violations of international law; it conveys billions of dollars annually to Israel in unrestricted foreign military aid, requiring no accountability as required by law for the use of U.S.-supplied weapons and munitions to enforce the Occupation; and because publicly-traded U.S. corporations profit from the Occupation."
Well-stated, but will it pass or will it be watered down?
Delegates who address this resolution must decide: Will they join the seven southern clergy who, 52 years ago, told Martin Luther King Jr., to "go slow" on racial segregation?
Or will they stand with Martin Luther King, Jr., and former President Jimmy Carter, and say the time for debate is over?
If they vote their consciences, they know it is well past the time to drag down the curtain of invisibility our religious and secular leaders have placed around "that hell called Gaza."
I call the question, Bishop.
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