March 10, 2006.
To our Brothers and Sisters:
We are appalled at the recent desecration of your houses of worship. We want you to know, brothers and sisters, that we regard this attack against you as an attack against all of us, for we are all together the people of God. We offer you our deepest sympathies and our prayers that God may guard your hearts and keep you in safety, and that those who have done this will be brought to justice. In whatever way we may be of help or encouragement to you, we pray that you will but ask.
We read that police blame these crimes “on the church’s downtown location.” If this is true, we are equally appalled that those who are sworn to the protection of all citizens seem to have abdicated their responsibility for some based on their location. We can only imagine that they may have a similar disregard for those who live or work in the neighborhoods surrounding our houses of worship. Given reports of such attitudes, it is not a far stretch of the imagination for those who may be looking at our fair city from outside to speculate that the city has little regard for the welfare of its poor, its minorities, and others of its citizens who live in its lower rent districts. As those who have been called by our Lord to be on the side of the poor, the forgotten, and the victimized, we say SHAME on the leaders and citizens of our city who have allowed our downtown neighborhoods to fall into such a state of neglect and to become infested with crime. In as much as we have been complicit in this neglect, we humbly and earnestly repent and vow to become actively involved in the welfare of all our city’s citizens of every faith.
Whether these crimes have been committed by youths, as has been reported, or by others, we call upon our members and the citizens and leaders of our city to decry these acts of desecration as the cowardly acts of hatred and prejudice they are. They are not jokes. They are not random acts. Though they may appear to be signs of a passing teen-age rebellion affecting one or two particular religious groups, they are in fact signs of an already severely deteriorated social conscience and a diminished sense of civic responsibility. As such, they are an evil in our midst. We must pray at all times and work against such evil, and we look forward to working hand in hand with you, brothers and sisters, to bring all the redemptive power of our God to bear in rooting it out. We call upon every community of faith within our fair city, and those of the nearby towns, to join us in prayer and in action.
May the grace of our Lord abide with you, and may the peace of God rest upon our city.
Shalom,
Rev. Caspar James Green
Pastor