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One hundred and fifty religious activists assembled from May 7-9 in the Chicago suburb of LaGrange Park, Illinois for a conference initiated by the Palestine Human Rights Campaign, a support group for the PLO, and co-sponsored by two Christian "peace" groups, Pax Christi and Sojourners. The purpose of the conference was to coordinate strategies to generate anti-Israel and pro-PLO sentiment especially among U.S. Protestants and to counteract the effect of pro-Israel evangelical groups.
Among the action recommendations, proposed by Sr. Miriam Ward of the Sisters of Mercy and professor of humanities at Trinity College in Vermont, was that churches finance a project with staff in the U.S. and fieldworkers in Israel and the West Bank for the purpose of "spying on the Israelis."
Sr. Ward said that by the time the Israelis caught on to what was going on and expelled a fieldworker, they would have a replacement ready. The proposal was accepted without dissent and ways of obtaining church funds for it were discussed.
Denounces evangelicals
Although Reverend Jerry Falwell was not mentioned by name at the conference, the thrust of many of the speeches was the need to counter his influence among evangelical Christians, Dr. Vernon Grounds, retired head of a Baptist seminary in Denver said that evangelicals are Israel's "most potent force in the U.S." and that...