The Presbyterians can invest in green energy programs. Update to this story.
Via JPost
The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) voted last week to divest from three American companies that do business with Israel. The reason given by the assembly’s Stated Clerk Rev. Gradyne Parsons was, “We as a church cannot profit from the destruction of [Palestinian] homes and lives.”
The church will divest from Caterpillar, because its bulldozers have been used to demolish Palestinian homes (even though the same bulldozers are used to take down illegal Jewish outposts). It will drop Hewlett-Packard, because the Israel Navy has used its products to coordinate the blockade of the Gaza Strip (ruled by a terrorist organization that uses violence to enforce Islamic law that discriminates against women and religious minorities such as Christians) and because its biometric scanners are in place at checkpoints (where they help make it easier for the IDF to check for terrorists).
It will divest from Motorola Solutions, because the IDF buys the company’s communication technologies (which are used to defend Israel from its many enemies).
Although Methodists and Presbyterians tend to be the most aggressively anti-Israel among liberal protestant denominations, all five of the mainline denominations – which include the Episcopalian, Evangelical Lutheran, and United Church of Christ – have debated and in some cases adopted policies intended to bring direct or indirect economic pressure on Israel to make concessions to the Palestinians.