Mayor Parris: ‘I sincerely apologize’
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REACHING OUT – Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris brought together leaders of faith in the Antelope Valley to clarify his position stated earlier about Lancaster being a Christian Community during a press conference Monday at City Hall.
RON SIDDLE/Valley Press
From the Antelope Valley Press, Tuesday, February 9, 2010:
By Charles F. Bostwick and Dennis Anderson
Valley Press Editors
LANCASTER – Mayor R. Rex Parris issued an unequivocal apology to groups of any and all faiths who he said might have felt excluded by his remarks 12 days earlier to Christian ministers about “growing a Christian community.”
“It was about a week and a half ago that I spoke to the Christian ministerial association and said I wanted to grow a Christian community,” he said during a City Hall news conference. “But in talking to my friends of 30 years, it was clear that a lot of people felt excluded.”
Parris spoke from the City Council chambers podium, accompanied by area representatives of the Hindu, Sikh, Jewish and Muslim communities as well as fellow Christians and Councilwoman Sherry Marquez.
What Parris said he had intended was to express that Christians are a community who love their neighbors.
“I sincerely apologize to anyone who felt excluded,” the mayor said.
“Our communities are robust and vibrant when we do everything we can to facilitate all churches and all faiths and ensure they have a vibrant role in the community.
“When we have diversity we have friction,” Parris said. The question, he said, is “how to have a robust community without making anyone feel excluded.”
Parris said many friends of his, representing many faiths, met with him on Sunday to advise him and to make their feelings known about the response of different faith groups to his remarks delivered Jan. 27 in a “state of the city” speech to an invitation-only audience, largely composed of Christian clergy.
He also acknowledged that an opinion column by Rabbi David Hoffman, published Saturday in the Antelope Valley Press, made him recognize the significance of his statements of the many faith groups that fall outside Christianity.
The mayor’s Jan 27 comments followed complaints that Councilwoman Marquez had posted comments on her Internet Facebook page that characterized Islam as a religion that is violent and fosters violence against women.
At Monday’s news conference, Marquez rose to address the group gathered at City Hall and said, “I have been asked to apologize. I apologize.” Then she stroke from the council chambers.
Hoffman, rabbi of Beth Knesset Bamidbar in Lancaster, said, “When Mayor Parris said he wanted to ‘grow a Christian city,’ I thought that what he meant was that he wanted a more moral and ethical community.”
Hoffman added: “Then there is an implication that other religions are somehow less moral and ethical.”
The rabbi said that if the mayor sincerely wants an interfaith forum for Lancaster he must “move forward and persist in a meaningful interfaith dialogue.”
Turning to Parris, Hoffman said, “It’s important for you to know that my people in this town were hurt and upset when you said you were growing a Christian community.”
So, Hoffman said, he was “really glad” to hear the apology.
Next to speak was Dr. Eugene Morong, who identified himself as a “psychiatrist, a Jew and former chief of staff at Antelope Valley Hospital.” Morong characterized the mayor’s remarks to the ministers as “an egregious statement.”
“When I went to Hebrew school, I was beat up by Polish and Italian kids who beat me because I said I wasn’t a Christian,” Morong said. “My mother lost 30 people in the Holocaust so I have strong feelings. . .
I’ve known Rex for many years and he has accomplished much of a positive nature. I said, ‘You are an intelligent man, a professional man. How could you lend yourself to say something like this?’”
Morong said he would like to see the mayor “go to every congregation in the city and clarity his understanding of the relationship of separation of church and state.”
Speaking on behalf of area Muslims were Dr. Bassam Hadaya and Dr. Abdallah Farrukh. Hadaya said he has known Parris for 20 years and is proud to be his friend. In the Sunday meeting with Parris, Hadaya said he asked, “Why do we need this conflict?” Hadaya added, “We voted Rex Parris Mayor of Lancaster, to be mayor of everybody, Christians, Jews, Sikhs, Muslims.”
Hadaya added: “We do accept what Mr. Parris meant, that to be a good Christian is to be a good neighbor.”
“Muslims are also good citizens and proud of this community,” Hadaya said.
Parris introduced Farrukh as one of his closest friends and “a man who saved more lives in this community than anyone I ever met.”
Farrukh said he was speaking as an American citizen born in a Muslim house in Lebanon, where the nation was nearly destroyed by combat between warring religious factions. For centuries, he added, Europe was ripped apart by religious wars.
“America was formed by people who were running away from religious bigotry . . . Only in this country do we have freedom to speak out,” Farrukh said.
Farrukh took note of the Baptist faith of the mayor and of state Sen. George Runner, R-Lancaster, and said, “I know there is not a bone of bigotry in any Baptist I know.”
Speaking for the Hindu community was Kris Venkatappa, vice president of the Indian Community Association of the Antelope Valley.
Of Parris, he said, “He is a good-hearted friend. This is a huge misunderstanding.”
“I don’t find any discrimination in him,” Venkatappa said. “Let us come of a free heart . . . Let us not bring this religious issue as a big issue.”
Gurnam S. Pannu, a representative of the Sikh community, said there was nothing wrong with Paris being proud of his religion. He said all believers should be able to be proud of their religion and express that.
Bishop Henry Hearns, pastor of Living Stone Cathedral of Worship in Littlerock and Parris’ predecessor as mayor, said Parris made his comments about “growing a Christian community” because he felt as comfortable among the ministers as if he was in his own home.
Parris said he’s going to have a lot of congregations to visit over the next year on Saturdays and Sundays.
“For us to have a vibrant and healthy community requires vibrant and healthy synagogues, mosques, churches and temples,” Parris said. “If we’re going to be a city of light, we need to b e a Baptist light. We need a city where we are free to be bright as we can be.”