June 11, 2009

CHICAGO – The Rev. Mark S. Hanson wrote letters to 14 Jewish leaders in the United States, expressing his "sadness and concern" at the shooting incident June 10 at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Hanson is presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the nation's largest Lutheran denomination.

Stephen Tyrone Jones, a security guard at the memorial, was killed. Police shot and wounded the alleged shooter, an 88-year old man. The suspect remains in a Washington-area hospital in critical condition.

The full text of Hanson's letter was released June 11:

I write to express my sadness and concern about the impact of the shooting which took place on June 10, at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. It is reprehensible that such an attack occurred at this place of solemn remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust. Our prayers are with the families of the guard who was killed, as well as with all those present or who work at the Museum and who will remain traumatized by this terrible event.

Even though this was the act of one disturbed individual, it is deeply troubling that anti-Semitic acts, such as this one, are still occurring. Such acts only increase anxiety and fear in your community and threaten the security of all. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America deplores the presence of anti-Semitism in our society and has called upon its members to recognize in it "a contradiction and an affront to the Gospel, a violation of our hope and calling." (From the 1994 "Declaration of ELCA to the Jewish Community) Therefore, we will continue to live out our pledge "to oppose the deadly working of such bigotry, both within our own circles and in the society around us." (Declaration, 1994)

ELCA News Service