ISRAEL DISCUSSION AMONG DUTCH PROTESTANTS

Four heavyweights in the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PKN) have issued an open letter in response to an attack on the ‘verbondenheid’ (connection) and support of the PKN for Israel.

[Note article in Haaretz here: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/905186.html Tip of the straw-hat: R.]

The person who initiated the attack (Henri Veldhuis) was one of the founders of the Dutch branch of 'Friends of Sabeel'.

[Friends of Sabeel is a dangerous pro-Palestinian pan-Christian liberation-theology organization with a vicious anti-Semitic agenda. Among its members are outright supporters of terrorism, and one of the causes they advocate is a general boycott of all Israeli goods, services, institutions, and organizations. They shun Jews in general, but tolerate their house-Jews who disavow support for Israel (such as Women in Black, JVP, and Brit Tzedek).]


The issue will be discussed this November at a synod of the church, which is the second largest denomination in the Netherlands.



THE LETTER WRITERS

Jan Van Der Graaf (general secretary of the Reformed Union, retired) is a good ally to have on one's side. His influence in Reformed Church circles is very wide. And he's no political novice.

Theo Van Campen, one of the others who signed the letter against Sabeel, is a preacher in Zwartebroek. But also an official within the organizational structure of the church.

Doctor Wulfert De Greef is a retired preacher.

Doctor Henk Van Der Meulen is a professor at the Protestant Theological University.

All four are old-guard, established voices within the church. They are not green, and may be said to represent the orthodox point of view.

Among other things, they accuse Veldhuis of wanting to hold the church hostage to "a Palestinian Liberation Theology", which "will not promote peace in the Middle East". This in addition to expressing the fear that his actions, if in any way successful, would damage the church, and ill-serve the Palestinians.
They reject Veldhuis' contention that the church should be connected to the "people of the Torah" (by which Veldhuis means ONLY Jews who live according to Torah) rather than connected to "the people (of) Israel" AND "the people of the Torah" (by which the church means ALL of those who share in the covenant that Hashem gave Abraham).

[Veldhuis' contention, if adopted, would open the gate to Protestants trying to define Jewishness, rather than Jews having a say in the matter. The current stand of the church is to leave definition to the defined.]

They also express surprise that Veldhuis should have repeatedly cast blame at Israel, without even a word about the jewhate-drenched ideology of Hamas, or the increasing anti-Semitism of the Arab world.

[The Church has already taken note of the grave danger from Islam to Muslim converts to Christianity. Their relation with the Jews is closer to the heart of the Church than the (mostly theoretical) modus vivendi with Islam.]



THE SERPENT IN THE BOSSOM

Henri Veldhuis, the Sabeel guy, is a preacher in Culemborg. He's extremely pro-boycott, and must be considered a dangerous man. He has fired back that the four letter-writers are less Biblically sound than reverend Naim Ateek, fuhrer of Sabeel, and that it is impossible to be less connected with and concerned for Palestinian Christians than connected with and concerned for disbelieving or non-practicing Jews. He also states that the connection with Israel is 'unbiblical and ethnically threatening' - by which he seems to imply that Jews are less Jewish than Palestinians (as but one of many possible shades of meaning). He represents a predominantly younger and more radical voice than the majority of the church.



END NOTES

Further to the idea that Dutch reformed church members might differ of opinion with the national synod, it should be mentioned that the organizational structure does not permit them freedom to act contrary to the synod. As long as the national synod supports Israel, the church supports Israel. The Dutch reformed church differs in this aspect markedly from the Presbyterian church.
If members are found to be motivated contrary to the church's ideology, they will be isolated, or they will have no other choice but to split off. There is a certain amount of freedom when it comes to interpretation, none whatsoever when it comes to deviation.

[I am not entirely sure what the current situation is with the PKN, however, as some accommodation was made to be as inclusive as possible. But given the Dutch talent for rigidity, it is unlikely that heresies will be given any leeway. Tzarich iyun.]


Additionally, any major ideological shift in favour of the Palestinian terrorist movements will necessarily cause schisms. There are several other denominations within Dutch Protestantism who would not only dispute the validity of such a move against Israel, but happily absorb any dissidents.

Note that the PKN represents a merger of the country's three largest protestant churches: the merger was supposed to unite. And it did. It also resulted in several split-offs. So instead of three denominations becoming one, they became many. A big denomination and a number of petite denominations and one-church wonders.


One other problem is that anti-Americanism and anti-Israelism are dominant ideologies in Dutch society. This does influence the environment within which the church operates. But given the assault by ultra-left ideologies on the remaining religious communities in the Netherlands, it is not likely that the majority of the church will be as easily swayed by Palestinianist sympathizers as American Presbyterians, who are proving to be a bunch of patsies.

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Addendum as of 6:00 PM

Another blogger has also written about this. See here:
http://adamholland.blogspot.com/2007/09/dutch-church-hijacked-by-pro-arab.html

It has not hit the front page of the Algemeen Dagblad yet, so the usual bunch of 'sociaal bewogen' Netherlandish whackjobs have not chimed in. It will be interesting to see what writers who long ago severed all connection to their church and their values (let alone civilization and humanity) think of the issue. I expect that they will by no means disappoint my now extremely low expectations of the majority of my fellow Dutch speakers.