Why, reasoned Stavis and Brodsky, should Jews be silent? After all, Palestinian groups are not shy. At synagogues, JCC’s, the annual Israel Day parade, and at AIPAC meetings they’re there, vocally exercising their right to free speech, sometimes politely but often not, shouting down the Jews and using crude and vile language.
So, a few Sundays back, with a handful of Christian and Jewish protestors, Stavis and Brodsky stood outside each of these churches with posters and flyers, politely informing the congregants of the nature of the groups that their churches host.
The congregations were vexed. The ministers rushed out of the churches and began to protest. Unfair! Inappropriate!
Stavis and Brodsky politely and calmly explained that hosting these groups is what’s inappropriate: It violates the spirit of dialogue that the churches claim to be all about. And guess what reason (or was it the threat of continual embarrassment) won the day? When they listened to the facts, the Congregationalists agreed to evict the SDP from their church.
This was not a small victory.
Indeed not! Every political compass needs a butt end, and all during the Cold War and the War on Terror, the Unitarians have served that function. So this is a remarkable turnabout indeed.
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