Greg Moran, Moran writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.
May 5, 2019 Sunday
Home Edition of Los Angeles Times
Conference caps a week of vigils and conversations about the rise in violence.
After a deadly mass shooting six months ago, members of a local faith-based organization decided to hold a conference that tackled the broader theme of hate. It would bring together a racially diverse interfaith group of leaders and activists for a morning of discussion.
That conference, sponsored by the group Continuing the Conversation and held at the Rock Church in City Heights on Saturday, took on new — and unintended — urgency a week after a gunman opened fire inside the Chabad of Poway while members observed Passover services, killing one person and wounding three others.
While the conference was organized in response to the mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh that killed 11 people, the Chabad shooting was much on the minds of the approximately 150 people who attended. It capped a week of candlelight vigils, memorials and conversations on social media and in private homes across the county as the public has grappled with how to respond to the latest violence.
The conference brought together leaders from Muslim, Jewish and Christian faiths. They discussed the rise in hate crimes in the county and nationally, and the challenge it poses to churches and communities.
Carla Stayboldt, co-chair of Continuing the Conversation, said the aim of the conference was to gather a cross-section of races and faiths to discuss the issue. “We wanted to bring people together that aren’t usually together,” she said.
Panels featured a rabbi, an imam and ministers from various Christian traditions, as well as civil rights leaders. All said they were deeply troubled not only by the shooting but by the rise in hate crimes and attacks on houses of worship.
“This past week has been very challenging,” said Tammy Gillies, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish-based nonprofit. She said that a recent audit by the ADL showed anti-Semitic incidents increased 27% in California from 2017 to 2018.
She warned that statements from politicians fuel intolerance, citing President Trump’s refusal to condemn white supremacists at a rally in Charlottesville, Va., two years ago.
She said politicians have a bully pulpit, and faith and community leaders need to speak up when it is abused by either party. “They need to use that for the good,” she said, “and we need to hold them accountable.”
Keynote speaker Miles McPherson, pastor of the Rock Church, told the conference that society now too easily splits into warring camps: “us” and “them.” He advocated an alternative, one he wrote about in his recent book, “The Third Option: Hope for a Racially Divided Nation. He said that option is to “honor what we have in common” and not what separates people.
“We are more similar than we are different,” he said.
The conference also discussed the fear permeating many congregations not only after the Chabad shooting but other attacks on churches, mosques and synagogues. Rabbi Michael Berk of Congregation Beth Israel in San Diego said Jews here are “scared and worried” because of the recent events. “Look into the heart of Jews you know and understand the fear they now have,” he said.
Berk said that in the coming weeks, he expected the conversation among congregations will not be whether to have guards — many synagogues already do — but whether they should be armed. Imam Taha Hassane, director of the Islamic Center of San Diego, said that discussion will also be happening in his community, as well as whether to incorporate metal detectors and bag searches into security routines.
He said it saddened him that faith leaders now have to talk about “what kind of fence we need to build around our houses of worship.”
In the end, conference participants suggested simple steps, such as going to services hosted by a faith different from your own, or reaching out to people you don’t normally interact with. “We are living in a weird, different world,” Hassane said. “May God help us all.”