United Methodist leaders in Springfield, Ohio, and across the U.S. are standing in solidarity with Haitian migrants and condemning hateful rhetoric that targets them and their newly adopted homes.
“We are doing our best to support each other,” said the Rev. Vicki Downing, pastor of Grace United Methodist Church in downtown Springfield. “It isn’t us and them; it’s just us.”
Her congregation is one of many in the western Ohio city that counts Haitians among its parishioners. On any given Sunday, she said, about eight to 12 Haitian residents attend worship at Grace. Over the past few years, Downing has baptized three Haitian-American babies.
But this past week has shrouded her entire community in a pall of fear.
Springfield — about 27 miles northeast of Dayton — has been rocked by at least 33 bomb threats since former President Donald Trump and his Republican running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance, began pushing false claims that the city’s Haitian migrants were eating people’s pets. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, also a Republican, told ABC’s “This Week” that “there’s no evidence of this at all.”
Read more at this link.
No comments:
Post a Comment