“There simply isn’t enough capacity even for the local community. It’s much harder with a population that has been abandoned in places that are extremely difficult,” said Karen Perez, the country director for Jesuit Refugee Service in Mexico.
“There simply isn’t enough capacity even for the local community. It’s much harder with a population that has been abandoned in places that are extremely difficult,” said Karen Perez, the country director for Jesuit Refugee Service in Mexico.
A group of religious organizations and faith leaders in Minnesota has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, alleging the agency is violating their religious freedom by denying them access to immigrant detainees at a local federal building.
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.
