Official Presbyterian Publisher Issues 9/11 Conspiracy Book

Via Christianity Today, the news that the official publishing arm of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is publishing a volume that claims that the U.S. government staged the 9/11 attacks.

The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were orchestrated by the U.S. government, according to a book to be released later this month by Westminster John Knox Press—a division of the denominational publisher for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11: A Call to Reflection and Action is the third book on the subject by David Ray Griffin, a professor emeritus of theology at Claremont School of Theology who is also a well-published and prominent process theologian.

His previous work has influenced Kevin Barrett, a Muslim lecturer for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who has received recent national attention for espousing the theory. . . .

“Without David, I would not just lose my faith in Christianity,” Barrett said in an interview with CT. “I would almost lose my faith in the humanity of Christians.”

In his book, Griffin argues the Bush administration planned the events of September 11 so they could provide justification for going to war with Afghanistan and Iraq. He writes that although Christianity began as a specifically anti-empire gospel, the church has been silent about an imperialistic America—which he compares to the Roman Empire.

“I became more convinced that if the truth about 9/11 was going to be exposed, the churches were probably going to have to be involved,” Griffin told CT. “If we become convinced that the so-called war on terror is simply a pretext for enlarging the American empire, we have every reason as Christians to try and expose the truth behind 9/11.”

But why in the world would a supposedly reputable publisher issue a book such as this?

Westminster John Knox (WJK) officials said they published Griffin because of the questions that he raised in his previous books, The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11, and The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions And Distortions.

“We have a long tradition of being a publisher of somewhat progressive stances on theological and social issues, so it is not out of character for us to do this,” said Jack Keller, vice president of publishing at WJK. “Whether or not people were fully persuaded by the arguments, he was certainly raising some interesting issues.”

Of course, “progressive stances” is a euphemism for “leftist stances,” and that seems to be the whole point.

Cristianity Today interviewed some scholars who were quite critical of the decision to publish the book.

Earl Tilford, a professor of history at Grove City College who specializes in the military and war, said it is dangerous for people who study religion to comment about national security and that Griffin “obviously knows very little about conspiracy theories.”

“It does not surprise me that the PC (USA) press would publish his work,” said Tilford, the former director of research at the U.S. Army’s Strategic Studies Institute. “They are very anti-Israeli and very much inclined to anything that speaks ill of the administration.”

James Berkley, the director of Presbyterian Action for Faith and Freedom, said that Westminster’s decision to publish Griffin’s book “is both laughable and pathetic” and that the publishing company is not ideologically in line with most Presbyterians.

“Their choice to print this seems to be pretty idiosyncratic and kooky,” Berkeley said. “What a waste of pages and ink that could have been promoting the Christian gospel and contributing to the health and vitality of the Presbyterian church.”

It’s clear that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), is dominated by clerical bureaucrats who are politically correct leftists. We have blogged about their attacks on the United States for being an imperialistic “empire,” their semi-approval of gay clergy, and their approval of replacing the formula for the Trinity (“Father, Son and Holy Spirit”) with a variety of sappy politically correct phrases.

But this one takes the cake. We are, in a sense, happy to see it. That’s because we are always happy when secular leftists posing as Christians out themselves.