Mark Boykin, senior pastor at Church of All Nations in Boca Raton, is calling on GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain to retract his comments “calling for an electrified fence on the country’s border with Mexico that could kill people trying to enter the country illegally.”
A press release issued by Boykin adds:
It is appalling that in this day and age politicians resort to incendiary and cruel comments to pander to voters. Mr. Cain has brushed off his comments as being merely joke and we are not laughing. … Regardless of what side of the immigration issue you happen to be, we need to agree that the issue is a human issue. Mr. Cain was referring to the electrocution and mauling of God’s children. This is not about political correctness, this is about basic humanity.
Boykin, who calls himself a Republican and a conservative, tells The Florida Independent that “it is irresponsible and dangerous for a presidential candidate to espouse that kind of heated rhetoric to a base to try to score points. If this is the template for Mr. Cain’s foreign policy, it is dangerous.”
Boykin says that Cain owes the “entire Hispanic community a retraction and an apology. Can you imagine eletrocuting someone for a civil transgression?”
He defined the Church of All Nations as one with widespread representation from more than 50 nations.
“I know people who have come through Mexico, I know many who have come and overstayed their visa, so I know the hardships these people live through, but to suggest electrocution is beyond anything I’ve ever heard before,” Boykin says. “I subscribe to the law, please understand that. If they want to build a wall, I understand that, but to electrocute people for a civil transgression is just too much.”
“This is about a man who is trying to score points by throwing red meat to I guess the tea party or some extremist group,” Boykin tells the Independent.
Boykin adds: “[Cain] wasn’t joking. When somebody tells a joke, people laugh. When somebody says something in earnest, people clap, and they were clapping and cheering when he said that.”
“If [Cain] suggests he was joking, he is a liar,” Boykin says.
Video of Cain’s “electrified” fence comments:
