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Methodists to Weigh Divestment as Tool to Shift Israel

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Whether the Methodist church's divestment proposal will meet the same as counterparts in other churches remains to be seen.

In June 2006, the Presbyterians replaced a 2004 call for a "phased, selective divestment in multinational corporations operating in Israel" with a plan for more peace-oriented investment in the region. The United Church of Christ, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Episcopal Church have all stymied or reversed course on attempts at divestment.

For its part, the United Methodist Church is not of one mind on divestment.

"It seems grossly unfair that the church exclusively target Israel for divestment," said Mark Tooley, director of the Methodist program at the Institute on Religion and Democracy, which takes an conservative approach to public policy.

The church's social policy arm "has always been very, very critical of Israel like other mainline Protestant agencies have been, and will fault Israel almost exclusively for the lack of peace," Tooley said.

The Rev. Timothy Bias, pastor of First United Methodist Church in Peoria, Ill., where Caterpillar chief executive James Owens is a member, said the divestment proposal helps "raise the consciousness of the conflict."

But he regrets that the church did not first broach the issue with Caterpillar. "If we're going to make resolutions, we need to have conversations with all parties involved," Bias said.

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