This is the second installment in a blog series about a 2014 trip I took with my church to Israel/Palestine. The first is here: Israel/Palestine and Japanese/Jewish/ChristianAmerican Identity . I was asked to stay off the radar about the trip, because my agency was implicated in upcoming General Assembly business regarding Israel/Palestine. When you’re national staff, you can’t have any opinions on or comment about business before the assembly. Additionally, since the church was going to discuss divesting from three companies doing business with military implications in Israel, the whole thing was a tinderbox. I made arrangements with my spouse that I would send brief apolitical updates and photos by email, which my spouse would post on a private document for only invited friends and family to see. It was smart to lay low. Any time anyone on our trip made a misstep and posted something about “Israel” without saying “Palestine,” we were reminded on social ...
Validated ministry in theological education, social justice advocacy, religious publishing... you get the picture. Pondering life, faith, church, and world. Views are my own and do not represent my employer.