I missed last week's Methodist pasting by Julie Birchill in the Jewish Chronicle. Strong staff and a reminder of how much recent events have damaged Methodist Jewish relations. Let us hope we can find a way of putting things right. Hopefully we can start by removing the stain that has emerged since the release of the Guernsey Occupation Archives to which I referred earlier this week.
In recent weeks there has been a lot of behaviour by Methodists which is borderline anti-Semitism - the flawed report to conference on Israel and Palestine, the questionable speech by Nicola Jones, the near Holocaust denial to the Ministerial session of conference, the botched attempts by the house bloggers to excuse that speaker, the unsatisfactory response to the recollection that a Methodist Minister had taken and active part in the preparations for the Holocaust.
If ever anyone wanted proof that there is an insipient feeling among some Methodist that the Holocaust was not really that important, once again nearly always a sign of am underlying antagony to Jews, we can find it in our own blogshpere. Just recall that in the last week or a Methodist Minister thought it acceptable to jest that we should not "Not to leap on the Methodists-are-lighting-the-ovens-again bandwagon which some are trying to get rolling and with whom you appear happy to collude". Not sensitive, not respectful to those whose lives did end in the ovens at Aushwitz and not reassuting to our Jewish neighbours.
Much of Methodist behaviour over this period lands just the right side of the bordeline of anti-Semitism. But only just and by a very small margin. I am not a Jew so I am not the best judge. But I was brought up in one of the largest Jewish communities to predate the modern State of Isreal, I was even born next door to a Talmud Torah. I can see just how Methodist behavior in recent weeks has been close to that borderline. I know that many Jews believe that we have crossed that borderline.
Anyway Ms Buchill says:
It is no surprise, alas, that the meek-and-mild Methodists have joined the ranks of the self-righteous Israel bashers
It was Harold Wilson who famously said that British socialism owed more to Methodism than Marx. And on learning that the Methodists have joined the lefty herd in attacking Israel, I really did have to wonder if it was the tail that was wagging the dog or the dog that was wagging the tail this time round.
The dog being, in this case, the rabid, snarling cur of antisemitism, its straining leash held lightly in the heavy hand of its walker, anti-Zionism.
The Methodists! It's like hearing that the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus have been ganging up to graffiti synagogues. Or rather, it would have been before previously moderate - meek and mild, even; progressive, even - organisations starting adding their bleats to the chorus of disapproval which finds Israel uniquely evil in a region where women are stoned to death for having sex and children executed for being gay.
From the Bloomsbury Baptist Church carol service last year, which turned into a full-on Jew-hating freak-fest, to my local Brighton Quaker Friends Meeting House, which frequently plays host to the most virulent anti-Israel speakers, there is a nasty and increasing tendency among allegedly peace-loving Christian groups to suck up to Islamism.
Like a lot of things, you can trace it back to the playground. At school, there was always a wiry, weasly-faced kid who hung around the bully, and though he never put the boot in, he would be there urging on the bulbous half-wit on as he laid into his victim. Well, now we know who the bully's little lapdogs grew up to be. More
Finally....
Some Methodist bloggers have been keen to point to a single letter from a Jewish correspondent to the Methodiist Recorder. If you really want to know what our Jewish neighbours think of the State of Israel read the very latest research published yesterday.![]()
In recent weeks there has been a lot of behaviour by Methodists which is borderline anti-Semitism - the flawed report to conference on Israel and Palestine, the questionable speech by Nicola Jones, the near Holocaust denial to the Ministerial session of conference, the botched attempts by the house bloggers to excuse that speaker, the unsatisfactory response to the recollection that a Methodist Minister had taken and active part in the preparations for the Holocaust.
If ever anyone wanted proof that there is an insipient feeling among some Methodist that the Holocaust was not really that important, once again nearly always a sign of am underlying antagony to Jews, we can find it in our own blogshpere. Just recall that in the last week or a Methodist Minister thought it acceptable to jest that we should not "Not to leap on the Methodists-are-lighting-the-ovens-again bandwagon which some are trying to get rolling and with whom you appear happy to collude". Not sensitive, not respectful to those whose lives did end in the ovens at Aushwitz and not reassuting to our Jewish neighbours.
Much of Methodist behaviour over this period lands just the right side of the bordeline of anti-Semitism. But only just and by a very small margin. I am not a Jew so I am not the best judge. But I was brought up in one of the largest Jewish communities to predate the modern State of Isreal, I was even born next door to a Talmud Torah. I can see just how Methodist behavior in recent weeks has been close to that borderline. I know that many Jews believe that we have crossed that borderline.
Anyway Ms Buchill says:
It is no surprise, alas, that the meek-and-mild Methodists have joined the ranks of the self-righteous Israel bashers
It was Harold Wilson who famously said that British socialism owed more to Methodism than Marx. And on learning that the Methodists have joined the lefty herd in attacking Israel, I really did have to wonder if it was the tail that was wagging the dog or the dog that was wagging the tail this time round.
The dog being, in this case, the rabid, snarling cur of antisemitism, its straining leash held lightly in the heavy hand of its walker, anti-Zionism.
The Methodists! It's like hearing that the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus have been ganging up to graffiti synagogues. Or rather, it would have been before previously moderate - meek and mild, even; progressive, even - organisations starting adding their bleats to the chorus of disapproval which finds Israel uniquely evil in a region where women are stoned to death for having sex and children executed for being gay.
From the Bloomsbury Baptist Church carol service last year, which turned into a full-on Jew-hating freak-fest, to my local Brighton Quaker Friends Meeting House, which frequently plays host to the most virulent anti-Israel speakers, there is a nasty and increasing tendency among allegedly peace-loving Christian groups to suck up to Islamism.
Like a lot of things, you can trace it back to the playground. At school, there was always a wiry, weasly-faced kid who hung around the bully, and though he never put the boot in, he would be there urging on the bulbous half-wit on as he laid into his victim. Well, now we know who the bully's little lapdogs grew up to be. More
Finally....
Some Methodist bloggers have been keen to point to a single letter from a Jewish correspondent to the Methodiist Recorder. If you really want to know what our Jewish neighbours think of the State of Israel read the very latest research published yesterday.
