The Anglican Church of Syria is pleased at the actions of the American Presbyterian Church. Priest Botrus Zaour praises "religious coexistence in Syria the cradle of civilizations and religions." (Um, how many Jews are left in Syria?)

It is heartening to read the words of ministers within these institutions who really do speak truth to power. Doug Huneke, Pastor of the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Tiburon CA, speaks truth to the Presbyterian leadership about its divestment from Israel initiatives. At the site you can find his email address if you want to send him some words of thanks or support.

UPDATE: More truth to power: Remarks of Brigitte Gabriel delivered at the Duke University Counter Terrorism Speak out October 14, 2004.

I was raised in Lebanon where I was taught that the Jews were evil, Israel was the devil, and the only time we will have peace in the Middle East is when we kill all the Jews and drive them into the sea.

When the Moslems and Palestinians declared Jihad on the Christians in
1975, they started massacring the Christians, city after city. I ended up living in a bomb shelter, underground, from age 10 to 17 without electricity, eating grass to live and crawling under sniper bullets to a spring to get water.

It was Israel who came to help the Christians in Lebanon . My mother was wounded by a Moslem shell and taken into an Israeli hospital for treatment. When we entered the emergency room, I was shocked at what I saw. They were hundreds of people wounded, Moslems, Palestinians, Christian Lebanese and Israeli soldiers lying on the floor. The doctors treated everyone according to their injury. They treated my mother, before they treated the Israeli soldier lying next to her. They didn't see religion, they didn't see political affiliation, they saw people in need and they helped.

UPDATE: An interfaith meeting on the divestment topic was generally positive, except::

. . . the activists were unable to work out a statement summarizing their achievements because of objections by some Christians to an unequivocal denunciation of terrorism. �The fact [a final statement] fell apart over terrorism is profoundly disturbing,� said Mark Pelavin, associate director of the RAC.

Several participants said the holdout on terrorism was the representative of the Episcopalians. Rev. Brian Grieves, director of peace and justice ministries for the Episcopal Church, wrote in an e-mail interview, �I think it broke down because of the press of time. If we�d had the time, we could have found the language we needed to express ourselves on �terrorism.� We needed to condemn violence on both sides of the conflict, and we didn�t quite get there.�

UPDATE: The evangelical religious left and Bush: a serious fisking.