Jewish group denounces Chicago Protestant group's meeting with Hezbollah

From the Chicago Tribune, free registration required.

Chicago Jewish leaders on Thursday criticized the head of the Chicago Presbytery and a retired seminary professor for a recent meeting with Hezbollah, a Lebanese faction labeled by the U.S. as a terrorist group.

The discord comes a little more than a year after two employees of the national church were fired for planning an earlier unauthorized meeting with the Lebanese group. The most recent meeting has prompted the denomination to develop guidelines for future encounters with radical organizations.

Rev. Bob Reynolds, head of the Chicago Presbytery, said the hour-long meeting in in southern Lebanon in early November was part of a three-week tour of the Middle East. The meeting, not included on any written itineraries, was announced one day before it took place.

"The goal of my trip was educational," he said. "I think one way people can learn from one another is to learn the way people talk about themselves and describe their own reality. In some small measure that did happen on this visit."

That's good. Now, how 'bout more groups speaking out against this "educational" trip.