Jim Cassidy: On the PCUSA and Israel

Here is Jim Cassidy's recent post on the PCUSA and Israel. An excerpt reads:

From what I gather from the article is that the conservatives in the PCUSA are pro-Israel and the liberals are anti-Israel with regards to the conflict in the Middle East.

The saddest part of this whole debate in the PCUSA is that its happening at all. This is telling for where the PCUSA is at. It is an unfortunate day when this is even an issue for the conservatives in the PCUSA.

I mean, why in the world is the church even discussing this?

That’s the first question. The second is this: why do the conservatives believe that being on the side of Israel is to be on the side of righteousness?

I mean, I suppose if this were the Southern Baptist Convention I can understand. After all, a hallmark of dispensationalist theology has been – because of its premillennialism – a pro-Isreali politics. But this is the PCUSA here . . . what gives?

I think that a partial explanation can be found in the fact that even the conservatives in the PCUSA are really so far away from historical Reformed theology that to call them conservative is to bend the meaning of the word beyond all reasonable recognition.

Further explanation may be in order here. I actually think that the left wing and right wing of the PCUSA have far more in common than they think. And that commonality is what we might call New Schoolism. New Schoolism can be characterized by at least two points. One, an all consuming desire to be relevant among the culture and society in which the church finds herself. Second, a low-to-no doctrine of the spirituality of the church.