AAMIA Members Revs. Frank Dunn and Joseph Smith attended yesterday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on The Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 (S.909), where Committee Chair Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) acknowledged the work of AAMIA toward passage of this critical legislation. Witnesses included Attorney General Eric Holder, Jr., Author Janet Langhart Cohen, University of Dubuque Theological Seminary Professor Dr. Mark Achtemeier, US Commission on Civil Rights Commissioner Gail Heriot, The Heritage Foundation’s Brian W. Walsh, and the Anti-Defamation League Washington Counsel Michael Lieberman. You can view the webcast of the hearing here.

AAMIA and PFAW have submitted letters in support of the legislation, along with a fact sheet on the legislation, and myths and facts about hate crimes protections. AAMIA and PFAW have been out in front combating the lies from the right wing that this bill will silence pastors who speak out against homosexuality and same-sex marriage.

While they were at the hearing AAMIA staff and Rev. Joseph Smith caught up with author, playwright and producer Janet Langhart Cohen, a witness before the committee, and learned more about her Anne & Emmett Project, a play about a beyond-the-grave conversation between Anne Frank and Emmett Till. The play was scheduled to premiere at the US Holocaust Museum the week of the unfortunate tragedy at the museum where Officer Stephen Johns was killed in the line of duty by an avowed white supremacist.
 

“You think its hot now, wait until we turn up the heat on [Congress] with our activism on health care reform.” - Rev. Timothy McDonald, Pastor of First Iconium BaptistChurch in Atlanta.

Rev. Timothy McDonald, chair of our African American Ministers In Action, closed out yesterday’s Interfaith Prayer Service for Healthcare Reform with a message inspiring hundreds of participants in yesterday’s Congressional lobby visits and march to continue to ring the alarm in their churches and communities on the urgent need for healthcare for 46 million uninsured Americans.

He reminded those in attendance of the book by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, “Why We Can’t Wait” and why we absolutely cannot wait for health care for our brothers and sisters. Rev. McDonald said our country could no longer look at the healthcare system as a profitable institution, we must see it as a civil right for all Americans. Under the theme “Believing Together,” he called for all of us – rabbis, pastors, priests, ministers, community leaders, laypersons, concerned citizens – to build bridges and take the message and the energy from the day to our neighborhoods, communities, churches, and everywhere else to demand healthcare for all Americans.

He implored us to not remember this moment as just an event, but an event that sparked a movement.
 

During floor debate on the Hate Crimes House Bill, Rep. Bobby Scott entered into the record the good work of our African American Ministers in Action. He held up our letter in support of the Hate Crimes legislation, and our fact sheet on the bill.

Thanks to Rep. Scott for the shout out, and to the ministers for their hard work on this critical legislation!