The Programme to Combat Racism (PCR) was a political programme of the

World Council of Churches The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, most ju ...

(WCC) during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. It funded a number of liberation movements and between 1979 and 1991 was thought to have donated a total of $9,749,500 to these groups.

History

In 1970, ''

Reader's Digest ''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wif ...

'' 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. In 1977, ''The Fraudulent Gospel'' 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

National Union for the Total Independence of Angola The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola ( pt, União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola, abbr. UNITA) is the second-largest political party in Angola. Founded in 1966, UNITA fought alongside the Popular Movement for ...

, People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola, Liberation Front of Mozambique, South West Africa People’s Organisation, Patriotic Front of Zimbabwe,

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...

, and

Pan Africanist Congress of Azania The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (known as the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC)) is a South African national liberation Pan-Africanist movement that is now a political party. It was founded by an Africanist group, led by Robert Sobukwe, that ...

. They were accused of donating $85,000 to

Zimbabwe African National Union The Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) was a militant organisation that Rhodesian Bush War, fought against White people in Zimbabwe, white minority rule in Rhodesia, formed as a split from the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU). ZANU sp ...

in 1978. Controversy over PCR was expressed in ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'' in an article entitled ''Going Beyond Charity: Should Christian Cash Be Given to Terrorists?'' Further criticsm has come from the

Christian right The Christian right, or the religious right, are Christian political factions characterized by their strong support of socially conservative and traditionalist policies. Christian conservatives seek to influence politics and public policy with ...

. The Programme to Combat Racism was changed and concerns addressed through the “Special Commission".

Accusations of anti-Zionism

The council has been described by

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as taking anti-Zionist positions in connection with its criticisms of Israeli policy. She believed the Council had focused disproportionately on activities and publications criticizing Israel in comparison to other human rights issues. Council members were characterized by Israel's former justice minister

Amnon Rubinstein Amnon Rubinstein ( he, אמנון רובינשטיין, born 5 September 1931) is an Israeli legal scholar, politician, and columnist. A member of the Knesset between 1977 and 2002, he served in several ministerial positions. He is currently dean ...

as anti-Zionist. 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."

References

{{Reflist Anti-racism World Council of Churches Christianity and politics

History

Accusations of anti-Zionism

Further reading

References