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Methodists???
Topic Started: Jan 13 2016, 08:23 AM (194 Views)
Quasimodo

Quote:
 
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/13/world/middleeast/us-church-puts-5-banks-from-israel-on-a-blacklist.html?_r=1

U.S. Church Puts 5 Banks From Israel on a Blacklist

JAN. 12, 2016

The pension board of the United Methodist Church — one of the largest Protestant denominations in the United States, with more than seven million members — has placed five Israeli banks on a list of companies that it will not invest in for human rights reasons, the board said in a statement on Tuesday.

It appeared to be the first time that a pension fund of a large American church had taken such a step regarding the Israeli banks, which help finance settlement construction in what most of the world considers illegally occupied Palestinian territories.

Palestinian advocates, both in and outside the church, described the step as an important advance in the Boycott, Divest and Sanction campaign, or B.D.S., an international effort to pressure Israel economically over the Palestinian issue. Others within the church, however, called those claims misleading, noting that the church remains invested in other Israeli companies and that members had overwhelmingly opposed divestment resolutions.

There was no immediate comment from Israeli officials.

Nonetheless, the inclusion of Israeli banks on what is essentially a blacklist compiled by the pension board of a large American church, appears bound to upset the Israeli government, which devotes considerable effort to combating resolutions by academic institutions, businesses and church organizations to divest from Israeli companies over the issue of Israeli settlements and the occupation of Palestinian lands held since the 1967 war.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has described the divestment movement as a campaign to destroy Israel.

The Israeli banks on the United Methodist Church’s list — Bank Hapoalim, Bank Leumi, First International Bank of Israel, Israel Discount Bank and Bank Mizrahi-Tefahot — were among 39 companies from several countries that have been excluded from the pension board’s portfolio for not meeting its Human Rights Investment Policy guideline.

M. Colette Nies, a spokeswoman for the pension board, based in Glenview, Ill., said that the guideline, approved by the board in 2014 and carried out last year, applied to 14 different regions around the world, including the Middle East.

The list also includes an Israeli construction concern, Shikun & Binui, which Palestinian advocates say is heavily involved in settlement building.

Ms. Nies said in the statement that the pension fund remained invested in “approximately 18 Israeli companies that meet our investment criteria.”

The pension board’s assets in 2014 was valued at $20.9 billion, according to its annual report.

Susanne Hoder, a spokeswoman for United Methodist Kairos Response, a group within the church that has been aggressively advocating for divestment over the Palestinian issue, said the inclusion of the banks was important because it widened the range of Israeli businesses that are now considered vulnerable to divestment pressure over their ties to settlement construction.

“To our knowledge, this is the first time” that Israeli banks have been considered off-limits for investing by the pension fund of an American church, she said.

Other members of the Kairos group said they would push for more divestment at the church’s next general convention, in Portland, Ore., in May.

But it was clear that the issue of divestment from Israeli companies remains contentious among Methodists. Another advocacy group within the church, United Methodists for Constructive Peacemaking in Israel and Palestine, sharply criticized the United Methodist Kairos Response group in a statement, calling its position misleading.

Bonnie Marden, a spokeswoman for that group, said that while it was correct that a group of Israeli companies had been disqualified by the pension fund’s criteria, “the process and protocol had nothing to do with the goals of U.M. Kairos as they are attempting to convey.”

The Israeli occupation has been an emotional subject in other American church groups and has led to strains with Israel and pro-Israel groups in cases where church members acted to divest.

In July the United Church of Christ, with about one million members, voted overwhelmingly at its general synod for a resolution calling for divestment from companies that profit from the occupation and a boycott of products from Israeli settlements. While the vote had no practical economic effect, the Israeli government called the church’s position distorted and historically biased.

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Quasimodo

Quote:
 
http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/uarchives/history/articles/methodist-church

Duke University's Relation to the Methodist Church

The relationship between the institution now known as Duke University and the United Methodist Church has evolved over more than a century and a half. In governance, the Charter of Duke University notes that the Trustees "shall be a body politic and corporate under the name and style of `Duke University,' and shall have perpetual existence." The purposes for which the body is organized are, among others, "to acquire, own, operate, provide, maintain and perpetuate an institution of higher learning."

[Note in post below what the above omits to include.]


Membership of the Trustees shall be, in addition to the President of the University, "thirty-six elected Trustees, twelve elected by the North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church; twelve by the Western North Carolina Conference of the said church; and twelve by the graduates of said University; provided, however, that no person shall be elected a Trustee till he has first been recommended by a majority of the Trustees present at a regular meeting.."The by-laws spell out the means of nomination and replacement.

[IOW, it is a self-perpetuating body; the present Trustees have to approve all future trustees, even if the Methodist Church wants
to elect someone else. Ergo, the oversight of the MC is a nullity.]


The origin of administrative authority by the Board of Trustees and of a self-perpetuating Board first appeared in the Laws of North Carolina in an Act to Incorporate Union Institute Academy in 1841. These stipulations were continued in the Charter of 1859 when it noted that the trustees of Trinity College "hold and use all the authority, privileges, possessions and liabilities it had under the former title and name." The charter of 1903 reiterated the provision of nomination by the Board as well as powers of removal and filling vacancies. When Duke University was established in 1924 these same provisions were carried over without change. Thus historically and technically, Duke University has a long history of a self-perpetuating Board of Trustees.

During the nineteenth century, ownership of property was vested in the Board of Trustees, but the Charter of 1859 stated that the trustees shall operate Trinity College "for the uses and purposes of a literary institution for the North Carolina Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South." However, the Methodist Conference was not able to adequately support the school financially because of hardship brought on by the Civil War and era of reconstruction. In 1892, ownership by the Board of Trustees became explicitly clear through resolutions concerning the relocation of the college to Durham and by the transfer of deeds of gift of land and money specifically to the Board of Trustees. The reference in the charter to the College existing for the use and purpose of the North Carolina Conference ceased with increased reliance for financial support on the Duke family and upon the move to Durham.

The University has historic ties to the United Methodist Church. The institution was begun in 1838-39 when Methodist and Quaker families in northwest Randolph County united to transform Brown's Schoolhouse into Union Institute, thus providing permanent education for their children. A formal agreement with the Methodist Church was entered into in 1859 when the name of the school was changed to Trinity College. The motto, Eruditio et Religio, which is based on a Charles Wesley hymn, and the official seal, both of which are still in use today, were adopted in 1859. The name of Trinity College continues as the undergraduate college of the University.

The most significant development in the history of the school came with the adoption of Trinity College as the primary beneficiary of the philanthropy of the Duke family in 1889. This occurred in part because the college was an institution of the Methodist Church and Washington Duke practiced stewardship as taught by his church. His sons Benjamin N. and James B. continued the philanthropy of their father with James B. Duke making the spectacular gifts in 1924 that created The Duke Endowment (the family philanthropic organization) and permitted the construction of two new campuses and the transformation of Trinity College to Duke University.

Symbolically, the religious ties are dramatically illustrated by the dominating Chapel tower on campus. This reflects the wish of James B. Duke and the history of the institution. However, the college and university have always been nonsectarian, a fact amply documented even during the presidency of John Carlisle Kilgo (1894-1910). He was a noted preacher, the most fervent Methodist administrator in the school's history, and was elected Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South in 1910.

The exact relation of the school to the church has varied from time to time but over the years Duke University has matured into a leading research university.

[Irrelevant to the relationship of the MC to the university...]

In the history of the Methodist Church and higher education in the United States, Duke has much in common with other Methodist related universities like Northwestern, Syracuse, Vanderbilt, or the University of Southern California. However, each institution has its own history. Duke University would not be the institution it is today without its historic and symbolic ties to the Methodist Church, but it always has been independent in its governance.
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Quasimodo

Current Duke mission statement:


Quote:
 


https://trustees.duke.edu/governing/mission.php

Mission Statement
Approved by the Duke University Board of Trustees October 1, 1994, and revised February 23, 2001, the Mission Statement for Duke University reads as follows:

"James B. Duke's founding Indenture of Duke University directed the members of the University to 'provide real leadership in the educational world' by choosing individuals of 'outstanding character, ability, and vision' to serve as its officers, trustees and faculty; by carefully selecting students of 'character, determination and application;' and by pursuing those areas of teaching and scholarship that would 'most help to develop our resources, increase our wisdom, and promote human happiness.'

“To these ends, the mission of Duke University is to provide a superior liberal education to undergraduate students, attending not only to their intellectual growth but also to their development as adults committed to high ethical standards and full participation as leaders in their communities; to prepare future members of the learned professions for lives of skilled and ethical service by providing excellent graduate and professional education; to advance the frontiers of knowledge and contribute boldly to the international community of scholarship; to promote an intellectual environment built on a commitment to free and open inquiry; to help those who suffer, cure disease, and promote health, through sophisticated medical research and thoughtful patient care; to provide wide ranging educational opportunities, on and beyond our campuses, for traditional students, active professionals and life-long learners using the power of information technologies; and to promote a deep appreciation for the range of human difference and potential, a sense of the obligations and rewards of citizenship, and a commitment to learning, freedom and truth.

“By pursuing these objectives with vision and integrity, Duke University seeks to engage the mind, elevate the spirit, and stimulate the best effort of all who are associated with the University; to contribute in diverse ways to the local community, the state, the nation and the world; and to attain and maintain a place of real leadership in all that we do.”


Original Duke mission statement (1924) :
Quote:
 

The aims of Duke University are to assert a faith in the eternal union of knowledge and religion set forth in the teachings and character of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; to advance learning in all lines of truth; to defend scholarship against all false notions and ideals; to develop a Christian love of freedom and truth; to promote a sincere spirit of tolerance; to discourage all partisan and sectarian strife; and to render the largest permanent service to the individual, the state, the nation, and the church. Unto these ends shall the affairs of this University always be administered.




Diversity wins, as always...

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Quasimodo

Meanwhile, despite all the academic boycotts... :
Quote:
 


http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/01/another_miracle_from_israel_prostate_cancer_cure_in_20_minutes.html

January 13, 2016
Another Miracle from Israel? Prostate Cancer Cure in 20 Minutes

One in six American men will develop prostate cancer. It is the most common cancer after skin cancer, and the second biggest cancer killer for men. Two Israeli scientists at the Weizmann Institute in Israel promise an almost miraculous cure, now in clinical trials at New York’s Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. It is the culmination of 20 years of basic research by plant scientist Avigdor Scherz and cancer researcher Yoram Saloman.

Professor Scherz took a naturally occurring form of chlorophyll from aquatic bacteria:


…chemically modified by Prof. Scherz's lab at Weizmann to fit the team's pharmaceutical needs. Once the photosensitized drug is injected, it meets up with the second crucial element in this therapy—light—at the targeted tumor site… from highly focused fiber-optic lasers that have been inserted near the tumor. As the chlorophyll absorbs the light, it can then interact with the third component in the process—oxygen—to produce oxygen radicals. This interaction initiates a fast cascade of pathophysiological events that cause instantaneous closing of the blood vessels leading to the tumor, followed by oxygen and nutrient deprivation at the tumor site, as well as other active processes that kill tumor cells. In 24 to 48 hours, the tumor undergoes complete necrosis.

The treatment, called vascular-targeted photodynamic therapy or VTP is a one-time 20 to 30-minute procedure. There have been no side effects in urination or sexual function.

The Israeli team foresees applications for breast, ovary, lung and pancreas tumors. The latter has no effective treatment to date and has been a tragic death sentence.

(snip)



Of course, we will prefer to wait for President O to end cancer; and will boycott any cures developed by the Israelis...




Edited by Quasimodo, Jan 13 2016, 08:50 AM.
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Quasimodo

Quote:
 
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/01/the_united_methodist_church_reveals_its_antisemitic_core.html

January 13, 2016
The United Methodist Church reveals its anti-Semitic core

The United Methodist Church has approved a motion to divest its pension interests from Israel.

The pension board of the United Methodist Church — one of the largest Protestant denominations in the United States, with more than seven million members — has placed five Israeli banks on a list of companies that it will not invest in for human rights reasons, the board said in a statement on Tuesday.

It appeared to be the first time that a pension fund of a large American church had taken such a step regarding the Israeli banks, which help finance settlement construction in what most of the world considers illegally occupied Palestinian territories.

There are no illegally occupied Palestinian territories, because the area in question was once part of Jordan, never part of an independent nation. Jews have lived there since biblical times, though there were fewer before 1948 because the "Palestinians" kept massacring them in pogroms.

It is curious that the Methodists have unilaterally decided that these lands belong to the "Palestinians." I don't see them calling for divestment from China over Tibet, or from Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. Or, as human rights are concerned, divestment from Iran and a whole host of other Islamic countries who execute women and homosexuals.

Arabs in the Middle East have the most human rights in Israel, not in other Arab countries. Jews are not to be found in other Arab countries, or else they would be killed. But the United Methodist Church doesn't seem to care about these facts.

No, it's only the Jews they care about. This mirrors a similar move by the United Church of Christ to divest from Israel. By singling Israel out and holding it to a higher standard than any other nation on the Earth, the United Methodist Church leadership shows itself to be anti-Semitic.

There is an ugly strain of anti-Semitism among some mainline protestant denominations like the United Methodists and the United Church of Christ. They should be held up to shame and ridicule. Their unjustified discrimination stains the virtue of their entire organizations. They claim to be religious people. What will God think of Christians who hate their Jewish brothers?

This article was written by Ed Straker, senior writer of NewsMachete.com, the conservative news site.


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Quasimodo


POSTER COMMENT at site:

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The Methodists also are into abortion and Planned Parenthoid--they just sneak around under differing corporate umbrellas to do it. They give money to Cecile, and pretend they don't.

The pastors are all "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil"... They don't want their congregations to notice the slow embrace of gay "marriage" in the hierarchy. They don't preach against sin, but preach a kind of lukewarm, shallow PC "niceness" and try to make their congregants feel guilty over insufficient "niceness" when any objections to the invasion of our country by foreign cultures and religions threaten.

In individual communities, the UMC can distinguish itself through conventional good works. But closer examination will reveal cozy interactions with politically powerful NGOs and government agencies.




Based on the above analysis, I would conclude that yes, Duke is indeed a Methodist-affiliated university...



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