Whatever you did to the least of these

My church, Raysville Friends, has had a relationship with Iglesia Amigos from the time when it was only an idea.  One of our members was part of the planning committee for the church plant.  On May 3, I and others accompanied Sonia to a routine check-in, where she was taken into custody and transferred to a holding facility in Brazil, IN.    I suggest reading the words of her pastor, Carlos Moran:

Today we have lost one of the pillars, she was one of the founding members of our church. Sonia is very special, one of the best sisters. She was generous, she gave her time and her money to contribute with any project we had going on in our church. She was always present she rarely missed a service unless she was severely ill or out of town. She did not only say she loved her church, her life said so. At church we sing a song that speaks about the poor widow who gave everything she had, Sonia did not only sing the song she was that poor widow, she embodied that women Jesus noticed at the temple. Sonia will not only be missed by her family and her church, she will also be missed by the community around her. She raised funds for other members of the community who had been deported, she provided child care for other children; one child in particular is the child of a single father. That father told her the day before she reported to her check in: what am I going to do with my daughter if you are deported, who will watch her as I work. Sonia was always volunteering or helping someone in her community, whether it was through Faith in Indiana, helping clean the church building or running an errand for a friend, she was always there to help. Sonia was one of those persons that embodied God first, God second, God third, and God always because of that she gave herself fully to her brothers and sisters who bear the image of God, her family, her church and her community. We know that Sonia sometimes would go with out in order to help another person, and for that reason we are now willing to go with out to help her and her family. People can come and go but this absence will truly be missed, simply because her life said to God here I am Lord use me. The blessings we received through her life is prove that God is real and good, we have truly experience the presence of God through her life.

This is morally wrong, this is what hate looks like. Children coming home from school and a father struggling to tell them that their mother is behind bars and that she will only be released in El Salvador. This is the work of the devil, to divide and right now he must feel victorious as yet again a family has been ripped apart, as yet again the church has lost one their pillars as yet again a light has been shut down in the community. I am praying that on the day of judgement God will have mercy on this country, I am calling my brothers and sister to repent because we have done wrong and the children are the ones suffering. It is still time to remember Jesus words: ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ We still have time to repent before the King tells us: Depart from me,you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. — Carlos Moran, Pastor Iglesia Amigos (Indianapolis)

Sonia’s children are born in the United States, and are American citizens, but they will either seek asylum in El Salvador, or they risk becoming wards of the state.  This is a case that affects my Church community, however there are many similar cases, and the number of such cases will only grow as people who had status under TPS or DACA lose their status.

As Carlos Moran said “This is what hate looks like”, hate makes American citizens into political refugees who must grow up in a foreign country.  A go fund me account has been made to help with expenses related to Sonia’s detention, likely including funds to help the children resettle in El Salvador.

https://www.gofundme.com/solidarity-with-sonia

Thoughts on the refugee crisis

I’ve been pretty angry about anti-refugee rhetoric.  Every time I look at facebook I see it.  My governor, and the governor of the former state I lived in have said that ‘they’ are not welcome in the state.  I’m shocked at how many people agree with this.  I have even seen suggestions that we need to consider even 3rd generation Arab-Americans a threat.

While my heart goes out to people made homeless by civil war throughout the world, and those who live in refugee camps — I am not ready to endorse or oppose our policy on refugees.  My feelings are not political, but religious and personal.  Because my position as pastor, I refrain from making political comments, or comments on policy.

The religious feelings are simply because of a theme in scripture:  Torah law has several passages that are like Leviticus 19:34:    “The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.”  Jesus also tells people in Matthew 25:31-46 that we will be judged for various behaviors including whether or not we welcome the foreigner.  I literally look at facebook, and am shocked by how many professing Christians feel it is better to be among the goats.

Another thing that makes me angry is I know history.  I know the state government of Indiana, where I currently live, was controlled by the KKK in the 1920’s.  I know at the same time governor Henry Allen of Kansas campaigned to make the Klan illegal saying that the Klan “introduced into Kansas the curse that comes to civilized people, the curse that rises out of unrestricted passions of men governed by religious intolerance and racial hatred.”

In the early 20th century, the second KKK focused on “Americanism.”  They were not only anti-black, but anti Catholic, and anti-immigration.  They felt that these people coming in from Eastern Europe, Ireland, and Italy would destroy the American way of life.  The idea that “they have no intention of integrating”, and “their grandchildren will still be a threat” is the very ideas of the KKK.

The KKK failed to stop immigration.  Those who want to keep the Arabs out are already nearly 150 years late;  Syrians started entering the United States in large numbers in the late 19th century.  What is feared happened long before I was born, Arabs are entrenched in our society and going nowhere.  They own businesses, they go to work, they are our neighbors.  Many of them never even think about being Arab any more than I think about being a barbarian, descendant of Germanic tribes and Celts.

This is where it gets personal:  I love Arabs.  I do not mean I love Arab culture, or Arab food — I mean, when people talk about preventing Arabs from entering, and driving out Arabs who are already settled in Kansas, they are talking about friends of mine.

When I was studying Theology at Friends University; the Christian community that was most supportive of me was not my own community, but Arab Christians.  Our favorite bookstore owner attended the Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral;  He was at every theological lecture by a guest speaker that Friends University hosted.  His store was also a place of study, and discussion groups on history and theology that he organized.

Father Stephen, the priest at St. Mary’s spend hours encouraging me as a student of Theology, and helping me understand Christian history and the shades of meaning in arguments which are centuries behind me, and don’t always sound relevant in my culture.  He also would give me food to take home, noting that students are poor; I know that other students had a similar experience; a couple students chose to go to an Orthodox seminary when they chose to go on with their education — and I have every reason to believe they were ordained Orthodox priests.

Even if I did not have personal connections to the existing Arab community in Wichita, I would still love Arab people.  I’ve learned that some of the people of significant Arab ancestry are some of the American neighbors I have who attend the local ‘community church’, and who have no more connection to Arab Culture and the Arab community than I have to the “Celtic community”, the Saxon community, or the Nordic community…. or a number of other ‘communities’  For context, this is zero connection, except when asking where my ancestors came from when they entered the United States.  When I learned that I had Arab friends who were just Americans like me, I saw proof the KKK was wrong:  They do integrate.

This brings me to the point that makes me angry:  whenever there is such rhetoric, somebody takes it on himself to act out violently.  Governors imply they are shutting down the borders of states, and ‘keeping out’ people who already have the right to live and work in the United States, which is bluntly, as unconstitutional and hateful as sunset towns; and by being part of the rhetoric they increase the danger.  The danger we imagine from immigrants is far less than they danger they face from anti-immigrant violence.  This rhetoric puts my friends in danger, including friends who have no less claim to being American than I do.  I am angry that my friend’s safety would be sacrificed for political gain.

For those who wish to donate and help refugees, including those who are still in refugee camps, Orthodox International Christian Charities is taking donations, and is active in this work.  I donated a little: but, it is so little that my heart asked “what is this among so many?”

Continued