Teaching Elder Commissioner Rubén Ortiz-Rodríguez

Teaching Elder Commissioner Rubén Ortiz-Rodríguez, committee vice-moderator (left), and Ruling Elder Commissioner Rochelle Shaw (right), committee moderator, convene the International Engagement Committee in its second meeting on June 26, 2024. Photo by Randy Hobson.

Urged by ruling elder and moderator Rochelle Shaw to be mindful and receive God’s grace to worship God and learn together, the International Engagement Committee picked up where it left off Tuesday on its small but complex agenda Wednesday morning with consideration for INT-02, That the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Utilize the Gospel of Love as a Guiding Principle in its Advocacy and Humanitarian Efforts.

There was dialogue both for and against this overture, which carried over from Tuesday afternoon into Wednesday's session. While approving the call to act based on the principle of love, the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ASCWP) recommended disapproval of the item because it places Palestinians and the Israeli government on equal footing, whereas the PC(USA) has identified Israel as an apartheid state against the Palestinian people in the 2022 General Assembly.

An amendment passed by simple majority that excluded language specific to Israel and Hamas, replacing it with “all global areas of strife and conflict, political or military in nature.” A second amendment, which cleaned up minor grammatical issues necessitated by the first amendment, also passed. However, many commissioners felt the overture was vague as written and did not provide a clear path for moving forward. Paige Simard, a Young Adult Advisory Delegate (YAAD), and Emrys Tyler, a teaching elder from Western Colorado, both expressed the opinion that the overall language was too vague to be effective. Tyler noted, “If we turn this down so it won’t go to the General Assembly, then Denver and Yukon Presbyteries can craft something that’s really good and precise for the next Assembly, and I hope they do that.” The overture did not pass, and the recommendation to disapprove it passed by a vote of 33–7.

INT-05, On Confessing our Complicity in Christian Zionism, was the next item of business on the committee’s agenda. The overture is an update and expansion of the policy adopted in 2004. The overture, brought forth by the Presbytery of Muskingum Valley, recommends to:

  • Reject Christian Zionism in all its forms.
  • Issue a study document that addresses Christian Zionism expansion.
  • Call on the World Mission ministry to work with partners to counter the spread of Christian Zionism globally. A webinar series has already begun to address this action here and here.
  • Call on people of faith to advocate for peace and human rights for everyone in Palestine and Israel.

Three overture advocates, including the Rev. Hansen Wendlandt, Presbytery of Utah; Arnold Rots, a ruling elder from the Presbytery of Boston; and the Rev. John Anderson, a teaching elder from San Francisco Presbytery, spoke in favor of the motion. Wendlandt called Christian Zionism an “absurd fantasy,” noting that “in a nutshell, it’s about land and power, never about love and principles. The ultimate result of Christian Zionism is a deep and violent abandonment of Jews.”

Anderson said Christian Zionism isn’t simply bad theology; “it’s a theology that leads to the ethnic cleansing of thousands of Palestinians,” and that it employs “racial power and theological domination.”

A motion to amend was offered, which struck language in the title around “complicity” and replaced it with the term “rejection.” It also struck language dealing with “heretical views” and biblical theology around the Ten Commandments (Section B, Part 3). The latter portion, at the behest of the parliamentarian, was divided into a separate motion, so when the committee returned from lunch, they focused on the complicity and heresy issues separately.

Andrew Long, a teaching elder from Northern New York, spoke in favor of the amendment, noting that “when I go back to my congregation to explain General Assembly decisions, doing so from a place of charity, as opposed to accusation, gets us closer to what this overture is all about.”

More commissioners opposed the amended language, however, preferring to hold the church accountable for its complicity. Mairead Brock, a YAAD from Western North Carolina, said it’s an uncomfortable truth the church needs to deal with, and “sugar-coating it defeats the purpose of the overture.”

Lilian Bolanos, a ruling elder from the Presbytery of Riverside, spoke against the amendment but suggested combining the two. “We should be combining the two and having it be the complicity and confession and the rejection,” she said. “I don’t want to take away the complicity part.”

The amendment, which deleted the terms “complicity” and “heresy,” was rejected by a vote of 31–11, so the original overture text remains.

The commissioners grappled with the amended language in Section B, Part 3 of the overture for most of the afternoon session. They approved a substitute amendment whose language focused on the “ethic of love and respect of neighbor, based on the teaching and example of Jesus, that rejects ideologies that justify taking land and displacing Indigenous peoples.”

Ellie Stewart, a YAAD from the Presbytery of the Mid-South, motioned for another amendment that retained the original Old Testament-based overture language, except for striking verbiage stating the Ten Commandments were a “core requirement of Judaism.” This passed 25–15 to become the main amendment.

Either clarity or exhaustion overcame the commissioners, and they combined both amendments, adding it to the overture by a vote of 38–4. The vote to approve the overture for full General Assembly consideration passed, as amended, 35-6. INT-05, which is the only overture considered by the committee that shows financial implications for the church ($391,731 for 2025–26), is unaffected by the amendments.

Thursday’s final day of committee meetings will feature business on INT-06, which they did not address due to time constraints, and a Commissioner’s Resolution On Reaching Out in Concern for the Presbyterian Reformed Church in Cuba and the People of Cuba.