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Primary Candidate Attacks UCC Opponent

HARTFORD (07/18/2006) -- Miriam Masullo, a New Canaan resident running for the First District Congressional seat from outside the district, has charged her Republican primary opponent with association with "an organization that, under its current leadership, has turned leftist and anti-Republican; and is facing unanswered charges of anti-Semitism and of harboring implicit pro-terrorism sentiments" -- the United Church of Christ. Her opponent, Scott MacLean, who received the Republican convention delegates' support in May, is a retired UCC minister.

In a six page open letter to the First District Republican Leadership, Masullo charges that in its two 2005 General Synod resolutions related to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, the United Church of Christ endorsed Palestinian violence. "An official UCC resolution asks for economic sanctions for Israel," she wrote, "only because that nation has chosen to defends its borders against terrorism. In confluence with justification for suicide bombing, that posture could be easily viewed as implicit support of terrorism."

Connecticut Conference Minister Davida Foy Crabtree said, in a statement, "The Middle East is fraught with complexity, never more so than now. The United Church of Christ stands united against all forms of terrorism and it has certainly never 'justified suicide bombings.' We affirm our Middle East partners' clear opposition to violence and suicide bombings."

In reality, the 2005 resolutions specifically condemn terrorism and violence on the part of all parties to the Middle East conflict. The resolution Concerning Use of Economic Leverage for Promoting Peace in the Middle East does not name any particular group as a target for economic action. Instead, it calls upon UCC bodies to support demilitarization of the region, to support peacemaking organizations, and to work to change the behavior of organizations that profit from the perpetuation of violence.

Masullo's charge that the UCC has endorsed suicide bombing is directly contradicted by the text of the Economic Leverage resolution, which refers to prior General Synod actions when it says, "the Twenty-Third General Synod of the United Church of Christ affirmed its participation in and commitment to the World Council of Churches' Decade to Overcome Violence (2001), condemning all forms of violence including but not limited to the violence perpetuated in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict including acts of suicide bombings by Palestinians; and the use of force by Israelis in perpetuating occupation of Palestinian lands."

The resolution opposing Israel's West Bank security barrier "specifically affirms the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, fully supporting the right of Israel to exist in peace with its neighbors and protect itself within secure and internationally recognized borders." It opposes the barrier's construction as an obstacle to peacemaking that is inconsistent with international and Israeli law and which seriously endangers progress on the Road Map for Peace.

In accordance with Federal tax law and its deep respect for the principle of separation of church and state, the Connecticut Conference of the United Church of Christ makes no endorsement of a candidate in this or any other political contest.