United Methodists Continue Efforts to Counter Hate Crimes

By Adeyemi Oshodi*

News Media Contact: Linda Bloom · (212) 870-3803 · New York, N.Y.

   Through witness, support and education, the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries is uniting with others to find new responses to counter hate crimes.

   Collaborating with church leaders, community members, and anti-hate groups, the board's task force on Ministry in the Midst of Hate and Violence recently renewed its call for a continued and thorough investigation into the hanging death of Raymond Johnson, a 17-year-old African American youth, in rural Kokomo, Miss.

   Johnson was found hanging by a belt from a pecan tree in his front yard on June 16. Though authorities have ruled the death a suicide, the youth's family insists that he was murdered in an act of racial hatred. They suggest Johnson was killed by a group of white men who had previously harassed him in public when they saw him with a white woman.

   The teen's death attracted the attention of the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, who have organized rallies and met with government officials urging further investigation.

   After attending a rally in Kokomo, Sandra Peters, a board consultant for Ministry in the Midst of Hate and Violence, emphasized the need for national and local faith agencies to work together to solve the case. "We need to witness and try to provide the victims and the victimized community with a faithful response," said Peters.

   In evaluating this case as well as several others, the board task force worked with its Women's Division to identify hate crime laws in each state. These inquiries are part of a national network where United Methodist Women write state legislators to obtain hate crime laws and draft legislation. The program seeks to inform and empower citizens to support or improve each state's hate crime laws.

   Lesley Crosson, a board executive, said empowering the public is a vital step toward reducing hate crimes. "It's so important that people know that hate crimes occur every single day," she explained. "The church needs to be at the forefront, calling attention to the fact that this is going on."

   Crosson noted that attention must be focused on issues like church burnings, which have faded from public light but are far from over.

   According to the National Coalition Church Burning Research Center, churches continue to burn at an average rate of over 18 per month, with 130 this year alone. Officials note that most fires are occurring in the same geographical location -- southern and mid-western states. They suggest that hatred of race, gender, or religion were factors in each fire.

   Religion was truly a factor when an Indiana man pleaded guilty in July to setting 26 churches on fire over a five-year period that ended in 1999. Jay Scott Ballinger, who calls himself a missionary of Lucifer, entered his plea in federal court in Indianapolis. Justice Department reports note Ballinger frequently expressed malice toward Christianity.

   Among the churches he confessed to setting on fire were Sumach United Methodist Church, Wardell, Mo.; Milledgeville (Ind.) United Methodist Church; Pleasant Hill Methodist Church, Elkton, Ky.; Stidham United Methodist Church, Lafayette, Ind. and Community United Methodist Church, Brookville, Ohio. "Hate crimes continue," Crosson said. "Though it is not reported, churches continue to burn." Fires that damaged Providence United Methodist Church and destroyed a Baptist church in Elmore County, Ala., on June 6 have recently been ruled arson by the Alabama Fire Marshal.

   The Board of Global Ministries is continuing to help those damaged churches and their communities in many ways. Through donations, they have provided financial contributions and materials to assist in rebuilding numerous burned churches.

   The mission agency has enlisted the help of the public to track church burnings across the nation. They created a network where people collect and send them newspaper clippings regarding church arsons. Organizers say the network has helped them discover patterns between the crimes.

   As part of the initiative to assist communities, the task force also is working with the Center for Democratic Renewal to update the publication, "When Hate Crimes Come to Town." The updated book will include information on how churches can respond to hate crimes, as well as how to track Internet-related hate groups.

   In coordination with the Women's Division, the task force is documenting incidents of any hate-based crimes. The information is being stored in a database that eventually will be used for research. Their collection, Peters noted, is becoming one of the largest in the nation.

   More information about the work of the Ministry in the Midst of Hate and Violence program is available at the Board of Global Ministries web site at http://gbgm-umc.org/programs/antihate/.

   *Oshodi, a student at Miami University of Ohio, is a short-term intern for United Methodist News Service.