| As the church we must reject hate, one person at a time  BY JUDY YOUNG Imagine yourself moving into a quiet suburb with good schools after years of living all over the world as a foreign-service spouse. Then imagine your horror when, one year into living in your new haven, you open the newspaper and find that some of your neighbors homes have been vandalized and sprayed with graffiti insulting their race and origin. This happened to me three weeks ago in Olney. Those targeted included an immigrant family from Kuwait, a black family and a Jewish family. The taunting words and symbols included references to Bin Laden, the KKK and swastikas. Worst of all, two of the families had been attacked in similar ways before. I froze as I read the Washington Post article describing this horror. Then I began making phone calls. I found out that there was a meeting the next night of the Greater Olney Civic Association. I determined to attend, but what would I say? The General Board of Church and Society and its concern in fighting hate crimes came to mind, and the help they provided was invaluable. Roger Carlson, pastor of Oakdale Emory UMC in Olney, then introduced me to the clergy association for our region, the Northeast Montgomery County Clergy Association. That group became the locus of efforts to speak out on this issue. The fact that the local civic association was having its monthly meeting in the next few days was a real God-incidence. Planning began immediately, and did not stop when we found that the culprits in this case were teenagers, including one from the same high school my sons attend, Sherwood. This kind of hate does not spring full-grown into a teenagers mind. Generally they learn these attitudes in their communities, if not from their parents. Most who worked on the vigil were parents. We reject hate partly to show our children that hate can, and must, be rejected. The idea that seemed most doable was to have a candlelight vigil in support of the victims and to make clear Olneys specific welcome for minorities and immigrants. But there was a catch. At the meeting of the civic association, an alternative response brushing the incidents off as unimportant kid stuff might have been adopted, since that seemed to be the local police answer. The Washington Post article was called exaggerated, and concern was visibly deflated until a respected long-time resident, John Lyons, stood up to say that the association must, nevertheless, condemn such crimes. With the help of the clergy association, I planned a vigil, receiving invaluable help from Helene Rosenheim, the Olney Community Liaison of the Mid-County Regional Services Center for Montgomery County Many e-mails and phone calls later, 200 people, including some of the victims, came to our neighborhood vigil. They came from synagogues and churches, from the white, black and various immigrant communities. The next day, I got an e-mail from Theresa Robinson, a neighbor who had walked in our procession around the affected homes with one of the victims, a lady from Jamaica, and with another neighbor from Lebanon. She commented that, Walking with those two women for such a cause was very rewarding, and being part of the large group listening to the speakers in the beginning was very moving. I was very impressed with the political, activist, and religious representatives, and was pleased to see so many people turn out for this event. Realizing what it had meant to these women made all the work of organizing the vigil worthwhile. We can lead others to reject hate, and as the church of Jesus Christ, we must. Judy Young is a seminary student at Wesley Theological Seminary and a creator of Olney For Diversity Olney Against Hate. This motto, created and designed by two Sherwood High School students, was displayed on stickers worn by those who attended the vigil. | 
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