wfn.org | United Church of Christ and Christian Church letter to President Bush

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

United Church of Christ
Office of the General Minister and President

Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Office of the General Minister and President

President George W. Bush
The White House
Washington, DC
                                                                April 2, 2002
Dear Mr. President,

With sincere Easter greetings, we write to you as the world's
attention is focused again on the Middle East and the ever worsening
situation between Israelis and Palestinians.  Having just celebrated Holy
Week, our spiritual focus has been on Jerusalem.  Unfortunately, the hope
and joy we celebrate has been tainted by the pain and suffering that
continues in the land of the Gospel's promise.

Three months ago, during the season of Advent, we wrote to you
expressing our concerns regarding the prospects for peace in the Middle
East, and our hope that your administration would take an active role in
encouraging negotiations toward a just resolution of the
Arab-Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  Those concerns and hopes have become
ever more urgent in the wake of the very aggressive Israeli incursion into
and re-occupation of Ramallah, Bethlehem, and other Palestinian cities,
during which President Arafat has been isolated and imprisoned, and
hundreds of Palestinians have been wrongly detained.  We have strongly
condemned the violence of both sides, but fear that the persistence of
violence by those who have a stake in maintaining the conflict is being
used as a pretext to avoid a vigorous pursuit of peace.

The suicide bombers have inflicted pain and death on many innocent
Israelis and our deepest sympathy goes out to the victims and their
families.  At the same time, a major military campaign that Israel claims
will last "several weeks" counteracts the peace Israel claims is her goal,
and inflicts pain and death on many innocent Palestinians.  To cut off and
humiliate the only Palestinian leader with whom the Israelis can negotiate,
and concurrently impose heavy restrictions on the lives of so many innocent
Palestinians who have suffered long enough under the violence of
occupation, also demonstrates a violence that will only generate more
anger.  Taking steps toward a  just peace cannot depend upon the cessation
of aggression.

We implore you, Mr. President, to recognize that it will require an
active and level-headed international approach to end the current crisis,
which has reached gravely serious levels.  It will also require the
intervention of the community of nations to help arrive at a long-term
resolution that is fair and just. An essential component of a just solution
is the end of the occupation, rightly affirmed in the recent U.N. Security
Council resolutions.  The United States is in a unique position to play the
central role to this end, and we believe that it must do so, and must not
wait.

As you know, the story of the crucifixion on Good Friday is one of
true pain and suffering.  Christ's suffering is our human condition of
despair.  As Christ felt as if he had been abandoned by God, so too many in
the world feel abandoned in their despair.  We have just celebrated Easter,
though, and know the triumphant hope that is victorious over death.  We are
called to act on that hope.  In Israel and Palestine, let us do what we can
to demonstrate the hope of God's love.

Very sincerely,

(The Rev.) John H. Thomas                   (The Rev. Dr.) Richard L. Hamm
General Minister and President              General Minister and President
United Church of Christ                         Christian Church (Disciples 
of Christ)
700 Prospect Avenue                           130 E. Washington St.
Cleveland, Ohio 44115                          Indianapolis, IN 46204
(216) 736-2100                                     (317) 713-3100