The Rev. Cristina Rathbone (center) of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston joined the interfaith rally against religious bigotry held at the State House on Sept. 7.
With the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks approaching and anti-Muslim incidents on the rise nationally, Massachusetts Episcopalians joined an interfaith crowd of about 150 which gathered at the State House in Boston on Sept. 7 to denounce both terrorism and religious bigotry.
“The recent stabbing of a Muslim cab driver in New York City, the recent burning of a mosque in Tennessee, the proposed burning of the Qur’an by a pastor in Florida—such acts are fueled and enabled by a climate of fear, hatred and intolerance, by what has turned into an assault on Islam and our Muslim-American neighbors,” the Rev. Nancy S. Taylor of Old South Church, UCC in Boston told the crowd.
“The vitriol against Islam goes much deeper than the opposition to the proposed Islamic center in lower Manhattan,” Taylor said. “We cannot and will not allow this to go unchecked. It is life threatening to Muslims and it is disfiguring our national soul.”
Taking place beneath the bronze gaze of a statue of Mary Dyer—a Quaker hanged on Boston Common in 1660 for her religious beliefs—the event was a press conference to release an interfaith statement and pledge, “To Bigotry No Sanction, To Persecution No Assistance.”
About 3,000 supporters, to date, have signed the pledge, available here.
The event was equal parts rally and ritual, with members of the crowd waving placards that read “Bigotry is Blasphemy” and “Standing on the Side of Love,” while Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders made impassioned speeches before a phalanx of local television news cameras. It ended with each in the assembly silently placing a commemorative stone at the Dyer statue’s feet.
Bishop Suffragan of Massachusetts Bud Cederholm commended the interfaith pledge to diocesan clergy in a Sept. 2 e-mail. “This is a critical moment in our communities and country for people of faith to stand up for what our God teaches us through the prophets, including Mohammed, and our Lord Jesus Christ. If we don’t, who will?” Cederholm wrote.
Other religious leaders who spoke at the event were Rabbi Eric Gurvis of Temple Shalom in Newton; Dr. Abdul Cadar Asmal of the Islamic Society of New England; the Rev. Hurmon Hamilton of the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization; the Rev. Walter Cuenin, Roman Catholic Chaplain at Brandeis University; the Rev. Sue Phillips of the Unitarian Universalist Association; and Dr. Nick Carter, President of Andover Newton Theological School.
--Tracy J. Sukraw