Press Release: IPC Decries Recent Rise in Violence Against Immigrants

Washington DC December 19, 2008 The Institute for Progressive Christianity (IPC), a Progressive Christian think tank, joins numerous national civil rights groups in officially condemning the sharp rise in hate crimes against legal immigrants and undocumented workers. The latest FBI statistics on crime show a fourth consecutive year of increasing violent attacks against the Latino population living in America. This alarming fact is plainly correlated to the intensification of the political debate on immigration and the increase of inflammatory language used by numerous pundits.

IPC President Rev. Mark Farr declared, "Those with the power of the airwaves and the political soapbox have a higher duty to care for the nation, which includes all of its citizens. We call upon our leaders to live up to their calling and bring us together with their words, rather than divide us." He continues, "The Bible and our Constitution both call for Americans to respect the lives, liberty, property and privileges of our fellow citizens and neighbors. Which of these documents do public commentators such as Rush Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs and Ann Coulter not understand?"

Our statement comes in the wake of two recent hate crime murders that targeted Latinos in New York. Two Ecuadorian brothers in NYC were assaulted just a month after another Ecuadorian immigrant in New York, Marcelo Lucero, was beaten to death by a group of teenagers. Witnesses say the most recent victims, Romel Sucuzhanay and his murdered brother Jose, were called anti-gay and anti-Latino slurs during the attack. This incident illustrates the dramatic statistical increase in attacks against Latinos and the GLBT community since 2003.

Janet Murguia, President of the National Council of La Raza, notes and laments the young age of the alleged attackers. "That hate has trickled down to a new generation is very disturbing", she said while emphasizing the growing climate of hate over the whole national immigration debate. "Words have consequences, and hateful words have hateful consequences". As Rev. Farr observes, "This rise in hate crimes indicts everyone of us. As Americans we condemn and reject the thinking that breeds these attitudes, and we call upon every citizen to stand up for justice."

Jesus said in Matthew 7:12, "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you...." The IPC hopes these universal words, known as the Golden Rule, will be the guiding principle for every faith community on this vital issue.

Thus we call upon:

• Responsible owners and editors of all media to adopt a journalistic standard that will not tolerate the propagation of fear and hatred of any minority group.
• The Justice Department to take steps to increase reporting and enforcement of hate crime laws in local jurisdictions where only nominal participation has been the norm.
• All local, state and federal officials to publicly declare their unequivocal support of the rights of all citizens in their jurisdiction.
• The Congress and President-elect Obama to support passage of the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crime Prevention Act (S.1105, H.R. 1592) which ensures that federal law covers the full range of hate crime by adding sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, and disability to the forms of discrimination already included.

We conclude our statement by calling upon fellow Christians and all people of faith to unite in universal repudiation of all purveyors of fear and hate, to remember in this season of the year, that Jesus came to show the way to peace by his example of loving acceptance of all of God's children.

Institute for Progressive Christianity

Rich Warden
prosper772@comcast.net
410-975-0335

http://www.instituteforprogressivechristianity.org

Gary Vance
gvance1@gmail.com
931-852-4101

Faith Newswire email: srockwell@instituteforprogressivechristianity.org