wfn.org | [UCC NEWS] UCC leaders calls Sen. Frist's action 'dangerous effort

[guessb@ucc.org]

United Church of Christ
United Church News
The Rev. J. Bennett Guess, News Director
216/736-2177, guessb@ucc.org

For immediate release
April 21, 2005

Interjection of religion into judicial appointment debate is evidence of
'dangerous effort to divide,' says United Church of Christ leader

Joining other prominent religious leaders, the leader of the
1.3-million-member United Church of Christ today (April 20) called upon
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to distance himself from recent efforts
to interject religion into the debate over federal judicial appointments.

The Rev. John H. Thomas, the UCC's general minister and president, said
Frist's planned participation in an April 24 telecast to churches ?
sponsored by the right-wing Family Research Council ? "represents one more
highly public and dangerous effort to divide this country by falsely
accusing his opponents on the issue of Senate rules and judicial opponents
of not being faithful."

A front-page story and editorial in The New York Times on April 16
underscored how Frist is equating those who support the filibuster to block
judicial appointments as being the same as opposing people of faith.
Thomas is one of many national religious leaders planning to send a letter
to Frist on Thursday, saying, "It is simply not truthful to assert that
supporting the filibuster amounts to an attack on people of faith."

"Since the election we've seen an intensifying of efforts by the religious
and political right to dismiss and demean the faith and the moral
commitment of those who disagree with them," Thomas told United Church
News. "With all that threatens to divide Christians today, we don't need
United States senators driving a wedge between us for self-serving
political gain."

Sandy Sorensen of the UCC's Justice and Witness Ministries in Washington,
D.C., said her agency is asking members of its Justice and Peace Action
Network to "flood Frist's office with calls and e-mails" through use of its
advocacy website <ucctakeaction.org>.

"[Frist] has moved the public dialogue into a new arena of divisiveness and
mean-spiritedness where religion is being used as a weapon," Sorensen said.
"It's incumbent upon us to respond when he says that people of faith in
good conscience can't disagree on issues."

Thomas said it is dangerous when political leaders label differing
political perspectives as unfaithful.

"The fact is that while conservative and liberal Christians disagree on
many important matters," Thomas said, "they share faith in Jesus Christ,
cherish the Bible as the guide for living, and care deeply for the moral
values of strong families, justice for the poor, compassion for the
vulnerable, and sustaining a safe environment."

Diane Masters, a member of First Congregational UCC in Fremont, Mich.,
said
she is disturbed when politicians use faith as a divisive tool.

"I think it's very insulting," Masters said. "The Family Research Council
certainly has the right to do what they wish, but to have our politicians
backing them is certainly disturbing."

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