Following the November 2010 My Brother’s Keeper symposium on hate crimes, at which 150 people gathered to educate ourselves about hate crimes and to articulate a Christian response and a Christian imperative to respond, organizers of the symposium have compiled a video from the event and written a study guide to accompany it. The video and study guide, together with resource materials researched and prepared for the symposium, are available for congregations interested in deepening their own awareness and witness against hate violence and the biases and prejudices that feed it.
You can order the study guide packet online, or download an order form to mail in. The resource materials from the event and links to online resources are also available on the My Brother’s Keeper webpage.
Immigration forum builds on My Brother’s Keeper success
What the November 2010 symposium made to clear to all who participated was that the event itself was only the beginning. We need to take what we learned back to our congregations and communities, to continue to build relationships across communities and to challenge ourselves and our conference to speak out and witness against hate, intolerance and all forms of violence.
Symposium organizers have acted on this realization in a number of ways. One was to produce the video and study guide. Another was to introduce a resolution at this year’s annual conference that encourages local congregations “to study and discuss the problem of hate crimes together as a community” and that requires to the conference to help provide appropriate study materials, specifically naming the My Brother’s Keeper study guide.
A third outgrowth of the My Brother’s Keeper symposium was in encouraging activists who were just beginning to consider a similar forum on immigration issues. Many of the key organizers of My Brother’s Keeper have gone on to be instrumental in pulling together the upcoming Know your neighbor, know yourself forum on immigration. The lead group is the NYAC Task Force on Immigration. MIND is proud to be a part of the coalition organizing the forum.
The Saturday, October 22 all-day event will held at Memorial UMC/Central Korean UMC in White Plains and will address the crisis faced by our immigrant communities in the face of ongoing political hostility, prejudice and unjust immigration policies. The day will focus on countering myths and misinformation about immigrants, grounding ourselves in the Biblical basis for solidarity with immigrant communities and giving ourselves the tools to move our congregations into action.