ELCA and PCUSA Pen Open Letter Asking USA Govt. To DENY Israel Weaponry+ Accuses Israel of War Crimes
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) and the Presbyterian Church (USA) have signed their name to an open letter pleading with United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to refrain from giving Israel access to weaponry support for their ground offensive in Gaza, all the while repeating terrorist talking points and regurgitating Hamas propaganda. The move comes just weeks after denominational heads blamed Israel for the terrorist attacks, suggesting they brought it upon themselves.
The letter, dated early November, “expresses our alarm regarding the possible transfer of 155mm artillery shells to support Israel’s ground operations in the Gaza Strip” and urges American leaders to “refrain from granting the government of Israel access to the U.S.-origin 155mm munitions currently stockpiled there.”
Presuming a posture that Israel is already getting away with indiscriminate killing, the ELCA and PCUSA insist that Israel must operate within the limits of International humanitarian law and that using 155mm explosives is incompatible with that commitment.
These munitions are unguided and have a high error radius, often landing 25 meters away from the intended target. Upon impact, 155mm shells expel 2,000 sharp metal fragments in every direction, risking injury, death, and permanent disability to civilians within 300 meters of the blast. Simply put, it is difficult to imagine a scenario in which high explosive 155mm artillery shells could be used in Gaza in compliance with IHL.
The letter asserts that when Israel used these previously in 2009 and 2014, “These munitions hit schools, neighborhoods, hospitals, shelters, and refugee camps, killing, wounding, and displacing scores of civilians.” For this reason, Israel cannot be trusted to use these weapons. Instead, “this historical record must be considered in determining the likelihood that proposed transfers may contribute to IHL violations.
The ELCA repeats Hamas’s talking points that “Israeli operations have killed 11,180 Palestinians”- a number fabricated by terrorists, and concludes with:
“Transferring 155mm artillery shells right now would be viewed as a green light for the sort of large-scale, destructive ground invasion that the Israeli government is currently pursuing. This sort of legally unconstrained operation would exponentially exacerbate what is already a terrifying humanitarian nightmare.”
This sort of rhetoric is par for the course for the simmering cauldron of blasphemy and mephistophelean angst. Some of the denomination’s greatest hits include:
Woke Church Newsletter Invites Congregants To Help Pay for Abortions and Abortion Pills
Pastrix Says Jesus Called Syrophoenician Woman a ‘B*****’ + “Jesus Screwed Up, She Redeems Him”
Lutheran Pastor Promotes Hookups, Polyamory, and Premarital Sex
Queer ELCA Pastrix Ordained With Drag Queen Nuns While Jennifer Knapp Serenades
In 2013, Elizabeth Eaton, the Presiding Bishop of the ELCA, appeared on a pro-Hezbollah TV station and told the host “We’ve urged our government not to engage in grants to the state of Israel while the settlements are going on.” and “we also engage in selective purchasing. So we not only try to trade with the Palestinian Authority, but we do not purchase products made in the illegal Israeli settlements.”
In 2016 they passed rescolutons that called for the US Government to end all aid and funding to Israel, along with adopting BDS tactics (boycotts, divestment, sanctions.
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In all honesty, this doesn’t surprise me. The ELCA and the PCUSA turned their collective backs on God long ago, and spend every second they can blaspheming Him. So it really is no surprise that they would support and promote terrorism. Which, of course, makes them terrorists as well.
I’m guessing that if the ELCA and PCUSA leaders recently had their families gang raped, tortured, and slaughtered in cold blood they wouldn’t be quite so adamant in their condemnation of Israel eliminating evil.
This article reminds me of a certain quote attributed to FDR about a certain Nicaraguan dictator named Somoza. Only replace Somoza with Israel.
I can’t believe a “discernment ministry” would get caught up in picking sides on this issue when they both hate Jesus and neither are what be what you would call “humanitarian”. It’s like William Randolph Hearst said, “You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war” only the current generation of warmongers can’t even manage that, “tHeRe’S ToTaLLy fOrTy bEhEaDeD BaBiEs AnD iF YoU aSk FoR pRoOf, wE’LL CaLL yOu AnTiSeMeTiC”.
All this letter signed by the ELCA and PCUSA amounts to is virtue signaling because what are 155mm artillery shells going to change in the grand scheme of things when you consider that Israel has received more aid since 1948 than any other country.
What? We’re OK with billions in fungible aid but draw the line at a specific type of ordinance, how does that make sense? The US lavishes Israel with funding, our congress goes out of it’s way to declare fealty to “our greatest ally” but somehow Israel and it’s “iron dome” are brought to their knees by a bunch of sandpeople on paragliders who dig up water pipes to make rockets.
People aren’t sufficiently cynical and have the memory of a goldfish. Yes, the war is bad and Hamas is the most evil organization ever. Since that is the case, why was Netanyahu supporting Hamas? Obviously, whatever Israel was trying to accomplish by bolstering radical muslims (*cough destabilization and prevention of Palestinians forming a functional state) had some *ahem* “blowback”, but don’t worry, we’ll act like Hamas popped out of nowhere and hates Israel for no reason at all.
Well said, Peter.
With this level of emotional reaction, protestia is no better than the liberals they critique.