The mayor of Lancaster, California, has apologized for pro-Christian comments he made recently before a group of pastors.
Mayor R. Rex Parris said in his address that Lancaster was “growing a Christian community,” and after controversy developed he issued an apology. City Councilwoman Sherry Marquez posted on Facebook comments about a Muslim honor killing on the East Coast, thought better about it, and pulled the comments an hour and a half later. She has also apologized.
The Antelope Valley Human Relations Task Force responded and heard from community residents Monday night. Task Force chairman Darren Parker tells OneNewsNow that hate crimes charges against Parris and Marquez will not be sought.
“The organization will send a letter,” he explains. “It was voted on by the entire body, recommended along with our legal counsel, that unanimously we would send a letter recognizing that in fact something had happened, and that in fact people were harmed by this.”
Parker said the apologies were helpful. But the Council on American-Islamic Relations has filed a federal complaint against both parties. Brad Dacus of the Pacific Justice Institute complains that the case demonstrates that hate-crimes laws chill free speech.
“With the hate-crimes bill in place, this is probably just one example of many to come of attempts to try to silence people of faith,” says the attorney. “And that’s why we must aggressively correct this and make sure these individuals and their rights are protected against this kind of outrageous intimidation and silencing.”
The letters from the Task Force, according to the Antelope Valley Press, were to tell Marquez that her remarks were “divisive and inflammatory” — and the mayor that his were “divisive and exclusive rather than inclusive.”
