{"id":2584,"date":"2011-03-14T09:45:41","date_gmt":"2011-03-14T09:45:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/2011\/03\/churches-press-obama-to-reenga.php"},"modified":"2011-03-14T09:45:41","modified_gmt":"2011-03-14T09:45:41","slug":"churches-press-obama-to-reenga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/03\/churches-press-obama-to-reenga","title":{"rendered":"Churches Press Obama to Reengage on Middle East"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(RNS\/ENInews) Nearly two dozen Christian leaders are calling on the Obama administration to renew diplomatic efforts to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.<br \/>\n&#8220;With rapid change underway in the Arab world we believe that the time to act is now &#8212; before events make the task of reaching an agreement more difficult,&#8221; said 20 leaders of Protestant, Roman Catholic and Orthodox denominations in a March 7 letter to President Obama.<br \/>\nThe leaders called on Obama &#8220;to encourage both sides to take responsibility now for creating the conditions necessary for talks to succeed.&#8221;<br \/>\nThe leaders from the Washington-based Churches for Middle East Peace also said they were disappointed with the recent veto by the U.S. on a United Nations Security Council resolution that called Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories illegal.<br \/>\nChurches for Middle East Peace had urged Obama not oppose the resolution.<br \/>\n&#8220;We believe bold and immediate new steps are needed now to prevent this veto from further damaging America&#8217;s credibility as a broker to help resolve this conflict that threatens the security of both peoples and denies self-determination to Palestinians,&#8221; the leaders wrote.<br \/>\nSigners of the letter include the Rev. Michael Kinnamon, general secretary of the National Council of Churches; the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; the Rev. Gradye Parsons, stated clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA); and the Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church.<br \/>\n<strong>&#8211; CHRIS HERLINGER<\/strong>,<em> Religion News Service<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(RNS\/ENInews) Nearly two dozen Christian leaders are calling on the Obama administration to renew diplomatic efforts to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. &#8220;With rapid change underway in the Arab world we believe that the time to act is now &#8212; before events make the task of reaching an agreement more difficult,&#8221; said 20 leaders of Protestant,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":264,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-rns"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Churches Press Obama to Reengage on Middle East<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/03\/churches-press-obama-to-reenga\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Churches Press Obama to Reengage on Middle East\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(RNS\/ENInews) Nearly two dozen Christian leaders are calling on the Obama administration to renew diplomatic efforts to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. &#8220;With rapid change underway in the Arab world we believe that the time to act is now &#8212; 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