This is my message to fellow Christians, especially evangelicals: We know better. We know better than to applaud the current mistreatment of immigrants in America.
This is my message to fellow Christians, especially evangelicals: We know better. We know better than to applaud the current mistreatment of immigrants in America.
When Szmara founded Immigrant Connection, a church-based network of legal clinics that assist immigrants, in 2014, some churches wanted to get involved, others said it was a good idea, and there was little resistance, he said. Now, he said, critics treat his work as anathema and ask him if he’s lost his faith.
As the Minneapolis and St. Paul area was inundated with federal immigration agents using deadly force, Anabaptists have worked to respond in love to support their neighbors and each other.
As people of faith, we’re often asked, “What should we do?” Scripture doesn’t offer a playbook for every moment, but it does illustrate a pattern of care, courage, and justice that can give shape to what our resistance looks like. What it doesn’t offer is a Jesus-shaped excuse to sit things out, even when the violence feels far away.
Almost exactly a year ago, Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, stood in a pulpit in front of the newly inaugurated President Donald Trump and preached a sermon that called on the commander in chief to have “mercy” on immigrants and other communities.
Thirst, that is what African American men and women in the U.S. were feeling in the 1950s and 1960s because of the discrimination and racism that they were experiencing.
“We all feel a wound in our body of Christ, knowing what’s happening to them,” said Fran Gardner-Smith.
At first glance, the Nativity scene outside Lake Street Church in Evanston, Illinois, has all the traditional hallmarks: Figures resembling Mary and Joseph stand near a baby Jesus, who rests in a manger.
But this year, the details are decidedly different. For starters, Mary and Joseph are wearing gas masks. Jesus, who typically is depicted lying in hay, is instead nestled in a reflective blanket often used by immigrants in detention, with his hands bound with zip ties. And behind the family stands three Roman centurions wearing vests with a very modern label: ICE, or U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
On Nov. 18, the pastor of an 80-person Latino Pentecostal church got a concerning WhatsApp audio message. The message, allegedly created by an unidentified pastor, circulating among Atlanta-area evangelical faith leaders, claimed massive immigration raids would occur there that week on Thursday and Friday.
