Middle East 'Conversation' Highlights ELCA Global Events

MINNEAPOLIS (ELCA) -- A presentation on the Middle East situation at the 2002 Global Mission Events (GME) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) brought together a Palestinian Lutheran church leader and a dissident American Jewish scholar. Both challenged Western Christians, and in particular ELCA members and leaders, to speak more boldly about Israeli injustices against Palestinians living in the occupied territories of Gaza and the West Bank.
About 3,100 people attended two GMEs. The first was July 18-21 at Lenoir-Rhyne College, Hickory, N.C., one of 28 ELCA colleges and universities, and the second was held July 25-28 here at the Minneapolis Convention Center. GMEs, sponsored by the ELCA Division for Global Mission (DGM) with the assistance of churchwide staff and local volunteers, are intended to highlight the church's international mission. Each event includes plenary sessions, workshops, music and "GlobalFest," a festival featuring missionaries and international displays.
The theme of this year's GMEs was "Dare to Live God's Promise," from Isaiah 55:1-12 in the Old Testament of the Holy Bible.
The Middle East presentation featured Suad Younan, Lutheran church leader and director of the Helen Keller School for the Blind, Jerusalem, and Dr. Marc Ellis, director of the Center for American and Jewish Studies, Baylor University, Waco, Tex. They spoke to the GME audiences in the form of a conversation, moderated by the Rev. Said R. Ailabouni, DGM program director for Europe, the Middle East and Horn of Africa, Chicago.
Ellis criticized the State of Israel for its "oppression" of the Palestinian people. "What we have done to the Palestinian people is wrong," he said. "It strikes me as a betrayal of Jewish history to oppress and dispossess a people."
The Jewish responsibility for the oppression of the Palestinian people is "deep," Ellis said, but he also said the American government, which provides billions of dollars to Israel, and Western Christians, who remain silent about the situation, are also responsible.
Palestinians deserve to be free, and they have the right to resist oppression, Ellis argued. "If we believe in justice, the Palestinians should be free in their own homeland. Jews can then be free," he said.
Ellis asked participants, "Since the United States has so much invested in the region and since we all care about the region, why not land U.S. troops in Jerusalem and push Israel back? Why not do it for the sake of peace and justice?"
If Western Christians are friends of the Jewish people, they should speak to Jews boldly, Ellis said in an interview following his presentation. "Tell us what we are doing is wrong," he said. "That's the responsibility of Western Christians who oppressed us for so long, and now who are silent in the face of the wrong that we're doing."
"I want the Lutherans to step up. I want them to stop writing letters, stop talking about how they need to be solidarity with Christians, and confront the Jewish establishment. I want them to do that publicly, and say,'out of respect for you and your history we tell you, you are doing something wrong.'"
Ellis showed the audience maps of Israel and the areas within Israel where Palestinians live. The Palestinian people are "surrounded" by Israel, he said.
Freedom of movement is highly restricted for Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank, Younan said. The maps, Younan said, remind her of the South African system of Apartheid.
'It's really terrible," she said. "If a fair and equal settlement is not reached, people will not take it any longer. It's like a boiling pot."
"It's unbearable to be denied education, denied basic health services and denied basic movement and mobility," Younan said.
Land -- who controls it and who lives on it -- is the key issue in the Middle East conflict, she said. The building of Israeli settlements in the West Bank is particularly difficult for the Palestinian people. The settlements are a "pain in the neck," she said, and many will have to be dismantled if there is to be peace.
In addition, Jerusalem must be shared among Christians, Jews and Muslims, Younan said.
Younan challenged Christians in the West to speak up and act to bring an end to the conflict. "We are sick and tired of apologizing for the West," she said. "We expect action. And I want to believe that the audience tonight and the audience in Hickory (N.C.), will take our plea very seriously, and that they continue in their congregations to call for a just peace in the Middle East. We believe that America, because it is a superpower in the world, has to be a just broker for peace.
"Let's join hands and say no to violence and yes to justice in our region," Younan concluded.

BOUMAN SPEAKS OF 'GLOBAL CHANGE'
The Rev. Stephen P. Bouman, bishop of the ELCA Metropolitan New York Synod, discussed diversity and the effects of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the people of New York. He shared several stories of hope and Christian witness in the synod -- a synod in which Lutherans worship in at least 22 languages each Sunday. Most of his remarks to the GME audience were focused on Sept. 11 and how the world changed that day.
"The world got closer together," he said. "People dared to live the promise when all we could utter were lamentations."
Bouman expressed appreciation to the audience and the church for supporting New Yorkers. "We could dare to believe because you showed up," he said. "We felt your prayers." Some $19 million in financial gifts have been made available for Sept. 11 disaster relief ministries, Bouman noted. Most gifts were made available through Lutheran Disaster Response, a joint ministry of the ELCA and Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS), and Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, a fraternal benefit organization, based here.
Bouman urged the audience to recognize the opportunity that exists for Christians to spread the gospel in the wake of Sept. 11.
"We have to find a way to tell the old, old story in ways that connect," Bouman said. "Now is an opportunity. We were baptized for this moment." Christians should stop "obsessing at what divides us," he added.
There is a spirituality and a "global consciousness," that has emerged since Sept. 11, Bouman said. "In all of that, we are the ones called to give hope to the hopeless, including ourselves," he said.
Many pastors serving New York-area congregations are experiencing a renewed sense of call since Sept. 11, Bouman said. Ministerial groups that meet regularly for support and study have record attendance, he said. "The pastors are also tired," Bouman said.

CHURCH WORLD SERVICE FORMED FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
The Rev. John L. McCullough, executive director, Church World Service (CWS), National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., discussed the work of CWS and such topics as human rights and HIV/AIDS, in his keynote presentation. McCullough said CWS was formed based on God's call for social responsibility -- something lacking today, he said.
"Death, displacement and destruction of property are themes so common that one might think that this is normal human behavior," said McCullough.
McCullough spoke about injustices in West Africa and the Middle East. He used his own travels to such places as Bosnia, Cambodia and Liberia to illustrate hardships overseas.
"While most statistics suggest that 20 percent of the world's population is living on less than one dollar a day, in the world I see it is the majority who are living in absolute poverty," said McCullough.
Despite stories of oppressed and sick people, McCullough urged the audience never to give up hope.
"Hope is the sound of life," said McCullough. "It is not something to be taken for granted -- to have it is to<