Dear Friends in Christ,
Please hold in prayer our congregation at San
Luis Obispo, an Open and Affirming Church, and Pastor
Curt Miner. The church has had three separate vandalism
incidents since posting a sign with the words "A Family
of Faith for Everyone" with the rainbow symbol on their
church sign. The crimes have been listed as hate
crimes because of the content of their sign (the first
thing vandalized) and because the property is a place of
worship. In addition, our Altadena church, also
Open and Affirming, led by Pastor Joe McGowan,
experienced a phone message with anti-gay slurs and
threats to the property. This, too, is in the arena of
hate crime or threat.
Either of these is
disturbing, two are too many. And there may be more of
which I have not heard, though I hope not... I find this
simultaneously not surprising, because we know we have a
long road ahead of us in the struggle for all persons to
be treated justly and with dignity and respect; but I
also find this profoundly disappointing because at the
same time we are making great progress in that
struggle. In the years since an Association in
this Conference ordained Bill Johnson as the first
openly gay pastor, our United Church of Christ and the
nation in which we live has changed---not enough, but
notably, in welcoming all persons and affirming their
gifts for ministry. But clearly we have a
long way to go.
And concern about
hate crime is broader and deeper than in relationship to
sexual orientation, though that would be enough. Not
long ago, I heard on public radio that Southern
California is the center of a dense number of hate
crimes of all sorts---against persons or groups of
various religious, racial, ethnic, and sexual
orientation identities. Some of us from this
Conference recently met with a group from the Jewish
community and one rabbi's synagogue had been defaced the
night before. All of this is something which
people of faith must stand firmly against, witnessing in
every way possible that hate and acts of hate are
utterly unacceptable. We all want to think that
such things are perpetrated by some unwell individual
'out there' but I know from actual encounters that there
are members of racist hate groups who are members of
United Church of Christ congregations. We know
that 'mainline' type young people are being reached by
hate groups through rock music. Hate is an
insidious force that we in the church must learn to
recognize and confront. Our culture of 'niceness'
sometimes pretends that evil and hatred no longer exist
but they are at work in our world and we of the church
have the powerful force of honesty and love to confront
them. If we will.
In this Conference
as across the UCC and across the country, we have
different perspectives on matters regarding marriage,
immigration and other important issues. But I
firmly trust that we of the United Church of Christ and
of the Southern California Nevada Conference are of one
mind in affirming that hate is unambiguously against the
gospel of Jesus Christ. Threats and acts of hate
are to be resisted and denounced. And persons, groups,
churches, mosques, or synagogues which are threatened or
victimized by hate must be actively supported.
Join me in prayer, dear UCC friends, for
the Spirit's power to stand against the evil of hatred
and for God's infinite, extravagant love. The words are
simple, the work is not---but do it we
must.
Blessings,
