Leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America have urged U.S. government officials to expand the categories of hate crimes to include crimes considered anti-Arab, anti-Sikh, and anti-Hindu in the wake of last month's mass shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin.

ELCA said leaders of the church, including The Rev. Mark S. Hanson and other church ministry leaders submitted a "Statement of Record" to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee as it held a hearing on Wednesday entitled "Hate Crimes and the Threat of Domestic Extremism."

"As people of faith, and as Americans, we uphold the values of inclusion, plurality and diversity and seek to live according to the commandment that summarized the law: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Mark 12:31), stated The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop and other ELCA ministry leaders in the statement.

ELCA requested that new federal hate crime data collection categories be introduced, including anti-Arab, anti-Sikh, and anti-Hindu.
An Obama administration official submitted testimony to the committee for Wednesday's hearing indicating that his agency was considering such a move.

"The Department has been contacted by several Members of Congress and advocacy groups requesting that the FBI begin to collect data on hate crimes directed toward Sikh individuals. We have taken these requests seriously and are examining the issue carefully," said Roy L. Austin Jr., Deputy Assistant Attorney General Civil Rights Division, United States Department of Justice.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who chairs the subcommittee holding the hearing, said he hoped Wednesday's hearing would "help us to redouble our efforts to combat the threat of domestic terrorism and take whatever steps are necessary to protect vulnerable communities.

Testimony submitted to the committee included officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Department of Justice, the son of one of the Oak Creek shooting victims, an expert in domestic extremism and former Homeland Security intelligence worker, and a New York University professor opposed to adding hate crime laws, arguing criminal law is sufficient.

(Links to their testimony are available at the Judiciary committee's website here.)

ELCA leaders also urged Congress, the White House and appropriate government agencies to:

- "ensure robust and comprehensive implementation of the Matthew Shepherd and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act";
The act, signed into law in 2009, expanded the federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a person's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.

Previously the law only covered race, color, religion and national origin.

ELCA leaders also urged the government to:

- "establish formal interagency efforts, in partnership with community stakeholders, including religious communities, to address hate crimes"; and

- "contribute to a civil discourse, setting a moral standard that adheres to the ideals that our nation and many of our faith traditions hold in common: fairness, equality, dignity and respect."