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

Gary Vance


gvance1@gmail.com

931-852-4101