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About three weeks ago, the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme erected a sign on the front lawn that said, "Do Justice, Love Kindness, Dismantle ICE, We Stand With Minneapolis."
The sign drew immediate controversy.
Some suggested the sign potentially violated rules that govern the town's historic district, but the sign does not appear to be in violation of any zoning rules.
Others argued it's inappropriate for the church—a tax-exempt nonprofit—to take a biased political stance on behalf of a single party.
However, while tax-exempt nonprofits are generally prohibited from participating in or intervening in political campaigns on behalf of (or in opposition to) candidates for public office, churches can discuss issues, host debates, or speak on faith-related politics without endorsing specific candidates.
First Congregational's Senior Minister, Rev. Dr. Steven Jungkeit, said the sign reflected his personal concerns, as well as the congregation's concerns about "the way ICE has been turned loose in American cities, and upon rural communities," and about the "violence being done to human beings."
"When we see other human beings treated the way ICE is treating people, it does damage to the soul," Jungkeit told The Day.
Then on February 15th, Jungkeit delivered a sermon entitled, "A Sublime Madness," in which he built upon the anti-ICE messaging displayed in front of the church.
Rev. Jacob W. Dell, Pastor of the First Congregational Church of Woodbury, denounced Jungkeit's February 15th sermon in a letter sent to Leslie Jackson, Area Conference Minister of the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ (UCC), on February 19th.
Dell explained how Jungkeit used Reinhold Niebuhr's concept of "sublime madness" as an "imaginative power" that is "capable of disrupting normalized injustices." Jungkeit cited Dietrich Bonhoeffer's participation in an "assassination plot against Hitler" as a potential instance of "sublime madness," along with other examples.
"He applies this directly to contemporary issues, warning of ICE's planned $38 billion expansion of detention 'warehouses' and 'mega-centers,' and 'promises to surround voting stations this coming November with the kind of masked gunmen we have seen in the streets of Minneapolis," wrote Dell.
Jungkeit urged his congregation to confront agents and employees at ICE headquarters in Hartford on Ash Wednesday, demanding they "repent," "turn back," and "walk away from the harm they're inflicting upon our neighbors." Disagreement with the policies was framed as complicity in "white supremacy movements" or "hardness of heart."
Dell is concerned about how inflammatory rhetoric like this "vilifies traditional Christian communities in Connecticut" and instead paints them as "embodying societal evil deserving radical moral confrontation, disruption, and 'shouting.'"
Dell says that a sermon like Jungkeit's will incite harassment against traditional Christians, making them feel unsafe, even inside their very own church.
"Jungkeit's sermon echoes Sen. Chris Murphy's shameful, hostile treatment of Jeremy Carl during his February 2026 Senate confirmation hearing for Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations, where Murphy aggressively grilled Carl on views about "anti-white discrimination" as "the most pervasive and politically salient form of racism today," pressed him relentlessly on the "erasure of white culture" (including Carl's reference to "going to a certain type of Christian Church" and differences between white and Black churches), called his nomination "heartbreaking," deemed him "wildly unqualified," and amplified attacks that target traditional Christian expressions and heritage in Connecticut," wrote Dell.
Dell explained how he and his congregation have been "subjected to repeated harassment, mischaracterizations, hostile inquiries, and other pressures" which provoked an "uninvited visit from The Rev. Darrell L. Goodwin, Executive Conference Minister & President of the SNEUCC."
"In light of that experience, I am simply calling out the clear hypocrisy and double standards at play here," wrote Dell. "I am not seeking to initiate any formal complaint process or disciplinary action—just highlighting that the same intense scrutiny applied to my preaching should logically apply to rhetoric that similarly risks making any group feel targeted and unsafe in our denomination."
Meanwhile, Jungkeit doesn't think it's controversial to call for dismantling a federal agency he believes is guilty of "disappearing people"; instead his church has encouraged, members to join anti-immigration initiatives led by the Women's March, one of the groups behind the on-going revolution to undermine the Trump administration.
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