Let's play the quiz game "Where are we?".  Here are some clues, and you guess where we are:

1. "Dear Mr. Bush, …Maybe if you used the golden rule and were nicer to the other poor countries then they wouldn't have done that to our country (9/11/01 terrorism attack).  …You have to think about it and if you do you also will find that the only possible way the terrorists would have done that is if someone was not treating them with freedom."

2. "The United States is a 'hegemon'--a domineering world power--stands alone--building an empire--like the hub of the wheel--no longer a superpower, but a hyperpower--a hegemon."

3. "Ashcroft and Civil Liberties--The administration (Bush) is using this (government dragnet after 9/11) to accumulate power…the president is shielding his administration from oversight by both the courts and the media and therefore keeping all of us from getting any reliable sense of how good a job he is doing."

4. "The unholy Alliance Between the Christian Right and Israel--a marriage of convenience…getting Israel in place as a 'landing base' for the 2nd coming of Christ."

5. "The United States was the center of the displays with more room than anyone else…featured 'No Child Left Behind' (snicker) pretty funny….  He (Bush) has such few phrases."

6. "We thanked God that a snow storm prevented a seller of War Bonds to make it to an Assembly during World War II."

So, where are we? Iraq?
   A meeting of the PLO?
   North Korea?
   A U.S. political party fund raiser?

Nope--none of the above!

We are at the Fall 2002 meeting of the Women's Division Board of Directors, who have met to do the business of United Methodist Women!!!

1. The first quote was from the opening plenary speech of the Chair of the Section on Christian Social Responsibility, Judy Nutter.  Ms. Nutter was reading a letter from a ten-year-old girl.  There was much laughter and applause both in the section meeting and when read before the entire Women's Division plenary.  Nutter also stated that "the U.S. has…virtually opposed every international effort to control and limit war, protect the environment and reduce poverty…" and has been the aggressor in five times as many invasions and assaults on other countries as Iraq in the last 22 years.  Senior Women's Division staff member Mia Adjali and newly elected General Secretary of the General Board of Global Ministries, Randy Day, applauded Nutter for her stand.

2. The second quote was from an address by Victor W.C. Hsu, Senior Advisor, Church World Service, in which he continued his harangue against the "Hegemon"--the United States.  He said, "Hegemons are hegemonic.  They do not need to consult allies or seek advice."  (Has Mr. Hsu not heard of our reaching out for support from the United Kingdom, France, Russia, Italy, etc., and receiving it from a number of them?)  Hsu queried and accused, "What kind of world will this become if the U.S. government has a blank check to drop commandos, assassins and bombs wherever it wants?  It has created separate classes of people within the U.S. through racial profiling.  It has brought down a pall of repression in several societies."  Hsu further called President Bush's cry, "Either you are with us or you are the terrorists!"--outlandishly undiplomatic language."  (This reporter calls it "plain talk.") 

Hsu concluded with a reference to God's faithfulness.  "For most of us God has been as good as her word….  For millions…whose life is mired in abject poverty (such are their ground zeros), the ability to experience God's abundant love must be rare."  (Italics mine.) He then called for the ecumenical movement to step forward "to provide a forum for resistance," and ended with a quote from the ad, "Not in Our Name," signed by a group of Hollywoodites (Martin Sheen, Ed Asner, etc.) and the ilk of Ramsey Clark (former Attorney-General and friend of the North Vietnamese) that repudiated the waging of war in their name.  (This was echoed in the report of staffer Lois Dauway, Assistant General Secretary, Section of Christian Social Relations, when she stated that it is time "to say no to war!  To say 'not in our name!'")

This tirade against the U.S. and the current administration was made by a high ranking official of the World Council of Churches' Church World Service.  This arm of the WCC is the ecumenical equivalent of our UMCOR, dedicated to humanitarian aid and help in times of disaster.  Somehow it was difficult to connect this political rhetoric with humanitarian aid.

And, by the way, Webster's first choice of definitions for "hegemony" ("hegemon" is not in the dictionary) is "leadership," in which case, the U.S. would be deserving of that title.

The WCC receives substantial funding through mainline U.S. churches. 

3. "Ashcroft and Civil Liberties" was a presentation by Shayana Radilal of the Center for
Constitutional Rights where he is an attorney.  In a more subdued manner he expressed his      great concern of what he perceived to be the veil of secrecy surrounding the detainment of undocumented Muslim aliens by the Justice Department/John Ashcroft (hence the Bush Administration).  He related stories of some he had defended with several victories, but bemoaned the loss of a case in New Jersey where he specifically noted the panel of three were Reagan appointees.  He spoke of the treatment of the detainees at Guantanamo and their loss of individual rights.  All of this secrecy and use of executive orders "lead to an imperial presidency," he said.  On questioning by this reporter, Mr. Kadilal estimated 2/3 of his cases to be in defense of Muslims.

The Center for Constitutional Rights receives around $3,000 annually from the Women's
Division.

4. The "Unholy Alliance Between the Christian Right and Israel" was presented by Ethel W. Born, Vice President of the Women's Division 1980-84.  Ms. born gained her knowledge from a Women's Division sponsored Middle East Study trip, November, 1981, accompanied by three other directors, two staff members and three other women.  She also gained her knowledge from Grace Halsell, the author of Journey to Jerusalem which was required reading for the jaunt.  Halsell was a staff writer for President L.B. Johnson and later penned the books, Prophecy and Politics and Forcing God's Hand: Why Missions Pray for a Quick Rapture and Destruction of Planet Earth. (Two of these books were on the UMW Reading Program list.)

From these sources Born railed at what she called the frightening presence of the "cult" of the Christian Right, Evangelical, Fundamentalist, Dispensationalists who have aligned themselves with Israel in a political relationship so that Jesus will have a "landing base" when He returns.  "President Reagan represented a dispensationalist view," she claimed, and the U.S. government (current administration) stands by "with virtual acquiescence" while Israel inflicts "massive destruction" on Palestinian areas.  Born's report also criticized the amount of aid money the U.S. gives to Israel. 

This outlandishly fanatical, unjust and erroneous presentation, that went so far as to accuse the "Christian Right" of "calling for nuclear war as a perverse fulfillment of divine prophecy," borders on being a "hate crime" with its vitriolic and false portrayal of evangelical Christians.  Ms. Born should study a more reliable source than her friend Grace for her accusative and flawed portrayals.  Evangelical, mainstream Christians are not a cult--are not always right wing--are not necessarily fundamentalists--and almost never dispensationalists.  These are not interchangeable terms, and she should know that and recant her charges.

The Apostles Paul and John were of another dispensation than ours, and they both looked and longed for the return of our Lord, as did John Wesley (who was no dispensationalist).  Those of us who still yearn for our Lord's Second Coming (which is a strong theological tenet of our creeds, our UM ritual and of Scripture) would find the place His precious feet touch "sacred" and are deeply offended by the irreverent and sarcastic designation of that place as a "landing base."  Furthermore, charismatic Christians, who are also evangelical, would be greatly surprised to hear they are "dispensationalists," since dispensationalism does not believe the charismatic gifts belong to our present dispensation, and thus are invalid.

Ms. Born painted all theologically mainstream Christians with a broad brush, making unsustainable claims about their beliefs.  It would seem appropriate to call upon Ms. Born to get her history and facts straight and to apologize for this angry attack on evangelical Christians. 

The Women's Division voted to join the "Campaign to End the Occupation of Palestine," allocated $1,000 to the campaign and another $1,000 to Madre, a member of the campaign.  This group has targeted Caterpillar, whose "bulldozers are used to demolish Palestinian homes or to illegally construct Israeli housing…" and whose "sales and technical support enable Israel to engage in acts which are brutal, inhumane and immoral…."  David Wildman, General Board of Global Ministries, is a member of the campaign's steering committee. 

The Middle East conflict is extremely complex, with deeply divided opinions.  No consideration was given at the Women's Division meeting to a broader understanding of the issues surrounding this area of the world.  One must ask, where was the outrage over the repeated terrorist activity of Palestinian bombers who blow up Israeli buses, businesses and weddings, killing the innocent?  (Two more such Palestinian acts have occurred since the Women's Division meeting.)  And, where was the unexpressed rationale that the United States supports Israel because it is the only democracy and free society in the Middle East--our only ally and friend there--that could not survive without our aid?  Where, above all, is the deep seated tie that binds us as Christians to the people who gave us our Lord Jesus Christ, whose heritage we share, and whose nation, according to Scripture, we are to pray for and bless. 

Mia Adjali, of the Church Center for the United Nations, is credited with bringing Hsu, Kadilal and Born to speak to the Section of Christian Social Responsibility.

The Church Center for the United Nations' shows in the WD Treasurer's Report as an program expense of over 1 million dollars per year. 

5. The comments in number five above are from a director in CSR who related her experiences at the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, August 2002.  The dominant theme was "Wealth Eradication Instead of Poverty Eradication."  (Is that a new nomenclature for socialism?)  In looking over the report from the summit, which we received at this meeting, it appears the U.S. invests more than all the other countries combined to these efforts. That would seem to justifiably place them "in the middle," with "more room than anyone else." 

And so, the vilification of America goes on and on in the Section of Christian Social Responsibility of the Women's Division.  This reporter is well aware of the shortcomings of our country.  We are not perfect.  But, we deserve some credit for our contributions to the world.  An Englishman, writing in the London Sunday Times, said: "Let us ponder exactly what the Americans did in that most awful of all centuries, the twentieth.  They saved Europe from barbarism in two world wars.  After the second world war, they rebuilt the continent from ashes.  They confronted and peacefully defeated Soviet communism, the most murderous system ever devised by man….  America primarily ejected Iraq from Kuwait and stopped the slaughter in the Balkans while the Europeans dithered…."  (This latter military intrusion, by the way, was not objected to by the Women's Division--perhaps because it was directed against Serbian Christians who were persecuting Muslims.)
"Yet voices here and abroad from the world of leftist intellectual orthodoxy condemn and blame the U.S.," stated Donald Kagan, professor at Yale University.  He continued, "They have urged us to consider the killers' anger and resentment, provoked by their poverty in a world dominated by American wealth….  At Yale, we have been told that we must seek the 'underlying causes' of these attacks…that 'offensive cultural messages' spread by the U.S. understandably provoke hatred."  To which Kagan answers, "The fashionable assaults on patriotism, in the end, are failures of character.  They are made by privileged individuals who enjoy the full benefits offered by the country they deride and detest its opportunities, its freedom, its riches--but who lack the basic decency to pay their country the allegiance and respect that honor demands."  Well said!  And, very applicable to what was being mouthed at the Women's Division fall board meeting.

The Section of Christian Social Responsibility's 2003 budget appropriation is $557,305.

6. The last soulless remark is from the report of the Deputy General Secretary of the Women's Division, Joyce Sohl--an insult to the "Great Generation" and the sacrifice they made to free the world of the madman Hitler.  These veterans are dying at a rate of 1,000 per day.  Do we need to chastise those living and insult their sacrifice?  Those of us old enough to remember saving our dimes and quarters to buy War Bonds at school and save paper and scrap iron in order to do all we could to help are insulted by such insensitivity.  It is unconscionable, to put it politely.  Would Ms. Sohl and others have had the U.S. let the holocaust continue?

Sohl also bragged, "We opposed the Vietnam War in several different ways."  On a personal note, on the wall of the solitary cell at the "Hanoi Hilton," where our son was incarcerated in Vietnam, was this quote, scratched by an unknown POW:  "Freedom has a taste for those who have fought and almost died for it that the protected shall never know."

In a memorable statement in 1933 by Winston Churchill as he vainly tried to rally his country to rearm and resist Adolf Hitler before it was too late, he said, "The worst difficulties from which we suffer…come from within.  They do not come from the cottages of the wage earners, they come from a peculiar type of brainy people…who, if they add something to its (England's) culture, take much from its strength.  Our difficulties come from the mood of unwarrantable self-abasement into which we have been cast by a powerful section of our own intellectuals.  If we lose faith in ourselves, in our capacity to guide and govern, if we lose our will to live, then indeed our story is told."  A good word for our detractors in the Women's Division.

Since the days of the Cold War, United Methodist boards and agencies have been so predictably far left that most in Washington pay absolutely no attention to them anyway! 

The continued biased political agenda called "mission" by the Women's Division grinds on.  There were, of course, still no flags, patriotic songs or prayers for our military.  The only change was a shift from opposition to the war on terrorists attacks to opposition to war against Iraq. 

A resolution was passed by the Executive Board and affirmed by the entire Board of Directors as follows:

 "The Executive committee of the Women's Division re-affirms its opposition
 to war as the instrument for resolving the continuing conflict with Iraq; presses
 for lifting the sanctions against Iraq and urges all governments, most particularly
 the USA, and the Security Council of the U.N., to pursue peaceful means in
 resolving conflicts with Iraq."

Our country, and probably our UMC, is split almost down the middle over the war against Saddam Hussein, the Middle East crisis, and, as evidenced by the presidential election of 2000, between national political parties.  We do not expect the Women's Division to be either Democrat or Republican, either pro-Palestinian or pro-Israel, and either pro or con the war on Hussein.  Yet, they have chosen, without dissent, to choose one political party, one Middle East entity to support and a position against any war on terrorism--without any representation from the other political party, from the pro-Israel perspective or from those who advocate for a "just war" view (which is also in the Discipline).  This is the Women's Division that insists upon inclusivity--except when it comes to mainstream Christians, Republicans, pro-Israel and Just War advocates.

And, worst of all, all this is labeled "Mission."
Reform?  No!  The Women's Division wants us to conform to their predictable political policies.
Inform?  No!  The Women's Division only indoctrinates.

Let me concede that at this board meeting the staff and directors displayed a more cordial, Christlike attitude toward RENEW's reporters. We join with them in their concern for women and children; their pride in the work of local United Methodist Women's units (mine included) who do prison ministry, provide help for the needy, those in crisis, Alzheimer's patients and their families, and much more.  We  celebrate the establishment of UMW units in retirement and nursing homes, fulfilling a great need for fellowship there.  We pray that such ministries will be accompanied by resources that are Scriptural, Christ-centered and devoid of the political and social biases we observed at this meeting.

Just think, how much Christ-centered and Holy Spirit driven work could be funded and accomplished if the money spent on the radical left political agenda, promoted and funded by the Women's Division, were redirected to "REAL MISSION."

THINK ABOUT IT! --  ACT ON IT!  --  CALL FOR REFORM!! 

ADDENDUM TO REPORT: 

MISSION PERSONNEL CUT, LECTURESHIP FOR NUGENT APPROVED

Two disconcerting actions, accentuating the gap between "real mission" and the board's perception of mission, were taken by the directors of the General Board of Global Ministries at the Fall 2002 meeting.

Due to budget concerns because of a declining market, the GBGM voted to cut funds for the support of mission personnel.  The Mission Personnel Unit was told to absorb three-quarters of a projected $10 million reduction in GBGM programs next year.  This translates into a termination of one-quarter of United Methodism's commissioned missionaries.  Missionaries on the field were neither consulted nor forewarned of this decision and were shocked to learn of it.  While some staff claim that these are missionaries whose contracts were due to expire, the cuts are much more far reaching.  It was reported that in recent weeks several missionaries have been told by staff in New York that their rent allowances and children's education allowances are being drastically cut.  In recent months, some missionaries have been forced by the GBGM to retire before the age of 65.  Many of the missionaries whose current contracts are expiring fully expected their contracts to be renewed so they could continue their missionary service in the dozens of countries around the world where they serve. 

At this same fall board meeting, the General Board of Global Ministries' directors voted to approve a two-year mission lectureship contract with the Rev. Randolph Nugent, retiring General Secretary of the GBGM.  Up to $200,000 will be put aside each year to cover the two-year contract for Nugent's lectureship.  (This fund is over and above Nugent's generous retirement package.) The funds will cover compensation, travel, travel-related costs and administrative assistance, according to the adopted proposal.  The total two-year package of $400,000 will come from various funding sources (primarily from permanent funds for mission education work in designated countries). 

The Women's Division voted to contribute $25,000 toward the first year's lectureship.