The Presbyterian Publishing Corp. — responding to criticisms of a new book it has published that asserts American military and political leaders were involved with planning the 9/11 attacks — issued a news release Aug. 11 stating that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) does not endorse the claims the book makes.
The controversial book — Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11: A Call to Reflection and Action — was written by David Ray Griffin, a retired professor of philosophy and theology at Claremont School of Theology in California.
Since its publication by Westminster John Knox Press earlier this summer, Griffin’s book has riled up Presbyterians who have argued that Westminster shouldn’t have published the book and that it is bringing more trouble down on an already divided, declining denomination.
Griffin contends in the book that the Bush administration perpetrated the attacks as a way to expand American imperialism — and disputes that the World Trade Center towers toppled because Muslim extremists flew a pair of jets into them, sparking fires and killing thousands. (More of his views can be gleaned from a speech he gave on March 30, 2006 https://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2006/911-Myth-Reality-Griffin30mar06.htm in Oakland, Calif.)
Some Presbyterians have responded by saying that Westminster John Knox’s decision to publish the book is an embarrassment to the PC(USA).
“At first, I thought this was just another hasty, thoughtless, denominational decision by people in a left-wing echo chamber without the benefit of common sense,” wrote Whitman H. Brisky, the clerk of session at First Church in Evanston, Ind., in a letter to Presbyweb.com.
“But now it appears these guys actually thought about what they were doing.”
In its response to the criticisms, Presbyterian Publishing Corp. states that “some have chosen to cloud the issue by claiming, falsely, that the book was published by the PC(USA).”
The corporation is one of six agencies of the PC(USA), but receives no denominational funding.
Westminster John Knox publishes a range of books on theology and spirituality, not all of them from the Reformed tradition; books specifically intended for Presbyterian audiences are published by Geneva Press. And Davis Perkins, who is president and publisher of the Presbyterian Publishing Corp., argued in the press release that Westminster John Knox “publishes a plethora of books by non-Presbyterians without being branded as disloyal to the interests of the PC(USA).”
In an interview, Perkins said Presbyterian Publishing Corp. has published some of Griffin’s earlier books, going back to the 1970s.
He said Griffin “came reluctantly to this whole 9/11 conspiracy notion, didn’t believe it at first and then started looking at the evidence and became persuaded.”
Asked if he agrees with Griffin’s underlying thesis, Perkins said: “I don’t have an opinion on that. It’s my job as a publisher to make sure the book reaches its market and gets a hearing.”
That’s what he hopes will happen — that people will read the book, decide if they agree or disagree with Griffin’s conclusions regarding the cause of 9/11, and consider as well what they think about his views on how Christians should respond to American foreign policy.
Perkins said, “There’s no question we knew the thesis was provocative and controversial.” But he said he has been surprised by responses that “have somehow tried to identify this as an official Presbyterian statement, which it is not. It is the statement of one particular author with one particular point of view. … What has surprised me about this controversy is the way in which somehow we’ve been very naively and maybe perniciously presented as promoting an official Presbyterian stand on 9/11 and the Bush-Cheney administration,” when “nothing could be further from the truth.”
So far, the reaction to Griffin’s book has been overwhelmingly negative, Perkins said — with about 95 percent of the comments being “very critical and uninformed.”
But he says the book is well researched, whether or not people agree with its conclusions.
And “whether the Bush-Cheney administration was behind 9/11 or not, the American foreign policy is being advanced under the guise of an American empire,” Perkins said. “Christians have a responsibility to engage these issues, debate them, and hopefully act in a faithful way of discipleship.”
He said in the press release “this book is not an off-the-wall polemic, but is a considered work that deserves to have a place in the public forum of discourse about Christian faith and U.S. policy.”
Others see it differently – as evidenced in a flood of befuddled and angry letters that have hit the Internet. “I am totally ashamed and appalled” by Westminster John Knox’s decision to publish Griffin’s book, wrote David W. Turner, a pastor from Barnwell, S. C., whose letter appeared on Presbyweb.com.
“It makes one wonder what the hell is going on in the minds of those who are calling the shots in our franchise,” wrote Robert R. Kopp, pastor of First Church in Belvedere, Ill., also on Presbyweb.com. Kopp continued later: “If I didn’t know Jesus wins in the end, I would be really, really, really depressed in this meantime.”
