Oh, Brothers!

The United Church of Canada attempts to explain why its very own Karin Brothers was a speaker at the CASMO Al Quds Day Seethe-a-thon. From the CJN:

TORONTO —The United Church of Canada is distancing itself from one of its members who spoke at an anti-Israel al-Quds rally at Queen’s Park in which speakers called Israel a cancer and blamed “Zionists” for injustices around the world.

Karin Brothers was acting strictly in her personal capacity and not as a representative of the church, spokespeople from the church’s national office and her local congregation said.

“We didn’t ask her to go,” said Rev. Martha Ter Kuile, minister of the Bloor Street Church, where Brothers is a member.

Brothers “was there in her personal capacity and not as a representative of the United Church of Canada,” Rev. Ter Kuile added.

The rally was held on Aug. 28 and featured attacks on Israel from a variety of speakers. With Hezbollah flags flying, one speaker called Israel a cancer while another described Zionists as “racist,” “inhuman,” and “barbarians.”

Organized by CASMO, the Canadian Shia Muslims Organization, the rally was filmed by the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) and posted on YouTube. Brothers was introduced as being “from the United Church of Canada.” She began her address by saying, “We need you.”

Rev. Bruce Gregersen, the United Church’s chief program officer, said Brothers did not represent the church at the rally. “I think it was unfortunate” she was described as such, he said.

“It would not be appropriate to say she represented the United Church of Canada.”

“We did not agree to be part of a rally of this kind,” he said, adding the church has “no history of working with this group.”

Of course, the church does have a history of kooky "social justice"-type thinking, which means that while it claims to want a "two-state solution" for Israelis and Palestinians, it can't help but favour the "underdog" non-Hebrews in the conflict:

Describing the church’s position on the Middle East, Rev. Gregersen wrote in 2010, that “In the end the decision was not for a national boycott but for all parts of the church to ‘immediately enter into consultation, dialogue, study and prayer, and then to take appropriate action towards ending the illegal occupation of Palestinian territory and enter into conversation as to how to move the two peoples toward reconciliation (including, but not limited to economic boycott).’”

See what I mean? It's sort of like CASMO--only "nicer," and more hypocritical.

And BTW, this is hardly the first time Brothers has spoken at the CASMO rally. Here she is at the '09 hatefest in her capacity as a member of the UCC "Holy Land Awareness & Action Task Force." She earns the cheers of crowd when she tells the seethers of her church's economic boycott plans for the upcoming year.

Update: Here's Brothers speaking on behalf of the United Church (that's how she's identified) this past summer at another anti-Israel event. (She shows up at around 14:34 in the video.)