Oct. 23, 2019
To the Editor,
In the last weeks, two east side faith communities were the victims of vandalism.
May Memorial Unitarian Universalist Society’s Gay Pride Rainbow flag was burned, and the remains left in the Memorial Garden where the Sunday School children found it on Sunday morning. St. Alban’s Episcopal Church’s front door was painted with a 666, which is widely accepted as a sign of the devil and the Ku Klux Klan.
The pastors of the two churches provided a forum for congregants to share their fears and reactions, provided pastoral care, and spoke out to media.
Are these isolated incidents or is this a pattern of fear-filled and hate-filled behavior? FBI statistics for 2017 report that, across the US, more than 7,000 incidents of hate crimes were reported to authorities, and 1,700 of these were religious hate crimes. It is well known that hate crimes are massively under-reported. We can conjecture that these two incidents in Syracuse represent a small fraction of what might be happening to our religious communities.
We as a community of faith leaders recognize that, as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Our collective voices from the many different religious traditions call for healing, caring and non-violence. The kind of community we envision includes a safe place for every person, and worship without worry for all faiths.
On behalf of all of our faiths, we send our love and support to St. Alban’s and to May Memorial, as regardless of whether we are Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jews, Unitarians or other, we are at our roots neighbors to one another. On Tuesday, Nov. 5 at noon, please join with May Memorial as they hold a monthly vigil on behalf of the creation of a caring community.
Ms. Madalyn Smith
Convener, Round Table of Faith Leaders
InterFaith Works of Central New York
Shiu-Kai Chin, PhD
Chair, Board of Directors
InterFaith Works of Central New York