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Programme to Combat Racism
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<h2 id="history">History</h2> <p>In 1970, <i><a href="/facts/Reader%2527s_Digest/nDCmcpRK">Reader's Digest</a></i> suggested that the PCR was contributing to fourteen groups involved in revolutionary guerrilla activities, some of which were Communist in ideology and receiving arms from the Soviet Union.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a> In 1977, <i>The Fraudulent Gospel</i><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> was published in the United States and Britain. The front cover showed a graphic photo of 27 Black Rhodesians it claimed were "massacred by WCC-financed terrorists in Eastern Rhodesia in December 1976." Groups that benefitted from PCR's financial support included <a href="/facts/UNITA/ReGNkmoV">National Union for the Total Independence of Angola</a>, <a href="/facts/MPLA/w80BSeXD">People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola</a>, <a href="/facts/FRELIMO/TFRXlsda">Liberation Front of Mozambique</a>, <a href="/facts/SWAPO/alykXCEN">South West Africa People’s Organisation</a>, <a href="/facts/Patriotic_Front_(Zimbabwe)/TJerKf0L">Patriotic Front of Zimbabwe</a>, <a href="/facts/African_National_Congress/0WHYmTgy">African National Congress</a>, and <a href="/facts/Pan_Africanist_Congress_of_Azania/VYf3xLJj">Pan Africanist Congress of Azania</a>. They were accused of donating $85,000 to <a href="/facts/Zimbabwe_African_National_Union/SsGc5d6V">Zimbabwe African National Union</a> in 1978.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> Controversy over PCR was expressed in <i><a href="/facts/Time_(magazine)/N4FXc99l">Time</a></i> in an article entitled <i>Going Beyond Charity: Should Christian Cash Be Given to Terrorists?</i><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a> Further criticism has come from the <a href="/facts/Christian_right/98P9XalN">Christian right</a>. The Programme to Combat Racism was changed and concerns addressed through the “Special Commission". </p> <h2 id="accusations-of-anti-zionism">Accusations of anti-Zionism</h2> <p>The council has been described by <a href="/facts/Bat_Ye%2527or/7SHburrr">Bat Ye'or</a> as taking <a href="/facts/Anti-Zionist/DGcrAn8x">anti-Zionist</a> positions in connection with its <a href="/facts/Criticism_of_Israel/Hmq0bDGc">criticisms of Israeli policy</a>. She believed the Council had focused disproportionately on activities and publications criticizing Israel in comparison to other human rights issues.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a>[<i>non-primary source needed</i>] Council members were characterized by Israel's former justice minister <a href="/facts/Amnon_Rubinstein/sd9hKHUP">Amnon Rubinstein</a> as anti-Zionist.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a> The WCC rejected this accusation and, in 2005, WCC General Secretary Samuel Kobia said that anti-Semitism is a "sin against God and man" and "absolutely irreconcilable with the profession and practice of the Christian faith."<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8"><sup>8</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="further-reading">Further reading</h2> <ul><li>Hedwig Richter, <a href="https://www.academia.edu/19358821/Der_Protestantismus_und_das_linksrevolutionäre_Pathos._Der_Ökumenische_Rat_der_Kirchen_in_Genf_im_Ost-West-Konflikt_in_den_sechziger_und_siebziger_Jahren_in_Geschichte_und_Gesellschaft_3_2010_S._408-436">Der Protestantismus und das linksrevolutionäre Pathos. Der Ökumenische Rat der Kirchen in Genf im Ost-West-Konflikt in den sechziger und siebziger Jahren</a>, in: 'Geschichte und Gesellschaft' 3 (2010), S. 408-436.</li> <li>Mufamadi, Thembeka Doris, <a href="http://hdl.handle.net/10500/4340">The World Council of Churches and its programme to combat racism: the evolution and development of their fight against apartheid, 1969–1994</a></li> <li>Laine, Antti, <a href="http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-9047-76-8">Ecumenical Attack against Racism : The Anti-Racist Programme of the World Council of Churches, 1968-1974</a></li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>Tingle, Rachel (1992). Revolution or Reconciliation. Christian Studies Centre. pp. 240–241. ISBN 0-951372114. <a href="0-951372114" target="_blank">0-951372114</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>(Reader's Digest, October 1971) <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>By Bernard Smith; ISBN 0-89601-007-4. <a href="https://archive.today/20240525031535/https://www.webcitation.org/5v4UQL7V4?url=http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp%3Fid=14398" target="_blank">https://archive.today/20240525031535/https://www.webcitation.org/5v4UQL7V4?url=http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp%3Fid=14398</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>"Returning to Zimbabwe (1998-08-12)". Archived from the original on 2008-05-12. Retrieved 2009-03-09. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20080512060325/http://www.layman.org/layman/news/news-around-church/wcc-returning-to-zimbabwe.htm" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20080512060325/http://www.layman.org/layman/news/news-around-church/wcc-returning-to-zimbabwe.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>(October 2, 1978) <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>Ye'or, Bat; Miriam Kochan; David Littman (2002). Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. p. 377. ISBN 978-0-8386-3942-9. Retrieved 2009-03-01. Of all the currents that run through the ... World Council of Churches, anti-Zionism is the most powerful... [T]he World Council of Churches [hasn't] officially condemned anti-Zionism as a criminal ideology advocating the elimination of the State of Israel. <a href="978-0-8386-3942-9" target="_blank">978-0-8386-3942-9</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>חדשות NRG - "הם פשוט שונאי ישראל" <a href="http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART1/427/280.html" target="_blank">http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART1/427/280.html</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:8"><p>"WCC rejects anti-semitism accusations - news from ekklesia | Ekklesia". <a href="http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_syndication/article_050725wcc.shtml" target="_blank">http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_syndication/article_050725wcc.shtml</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>