Christian Contemplations #2: The Church and the Dignity of Humanity
The Trump administration's immigration cruelty
Evening everyone! YES this is still the MCIMAPS report. This evening post is the second issue in my new “Christian Contemplations” series. This series is me discussing political and social issues with a bent toward a Christian perspective.
Those who know me, or even if you follow me for awhile, know I am a devoutly religious individual. In addition to wanting to write about religious topics for my own spiritual fulfillment, I want to present a counter to the MAGA movement’s distorted version of Christianity. I lay out more of my reasoning for starting this series in the opening to my first issue, so check that out below for more.
Honestly, so much has been happening in the last few weeks that keeping up has been hard. As I have been tracking and writing about day-by-day political developments, a war has erupted between the Trump administration and several religious denominations. As Trump and his allies work to cut off foreign aid, push mass deportations of immigrants, and stop refugee programs, the Churches and religious leaders have begun to push back. As the religious orders point out that such steps by the administration are un-Christian, they have become subject of attack by MAGA loyalists.
So many layers of critiques by churches and subsequent attacks by MAGA have emerged. As a result, I am going to address a few things across several articles. Today’s article focuses on a core issue the Christian churches have been pushing in the last month regarding immigration. They key message from the church has been the dignity of all people.
With everyone debating immigration quotas, what to do about VISAs, or foreign aid budgets, the Christian faith has preached one constant; that all people are children of God and worthy of dignity and care. Through all the political debate, this universal constant must be maintained. Otherwise, America has no right to call itself a “Christian nation.”
Attacks on Immigrants and Aid
The inauguration of Donald Trump led to a rapid fire of anti-immigrant actions. Trump’s actions, many of them executive orders, are going to be tied up in courts for awhile. These included things like claiming birthright citizenship is not a thing, cancelling immigration appointments at the border, and using the military to assist in deporting the estimated 11 million people in America without proper paperwork. The deportation proposals include having immigrants sent to El Salvador, even if that is not their country of origin. Trump is also using Guantánamo Bay as a site for deportations. As the administration insists this is for gang members, the lack of clarity on who is being sent where makes any claims dubious.
The Trump administration is also revoking the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) status for hundreds of thousands who are at risk in their home country. The TPS status for 600,000 Venezuelans as been repealed, despite the fact Venezuela is in the hands of an authoritarian administration that cracks down in dissidents. I wrote about the nation last year. The TPS status for 500,000 Haitians has also been revoked. This is a continuation of MAGA attacks on Haitians, which I first covered in this article on Springfield, Ohio.
In the first days of the Trump administration, the US Government stopped its refugee settlement program. This program allows refugees fleeing persecution to enter the country after a very lengthy vetting process. This is notably different from people crossing the border. These are people making efforts from within their nation. This freeze, btw, stopped people already clear to make the trip to the United States, from being able to leave. This story really perfectly summarizes the cruelty of how this is being done…
Gabriela had been preparing for the arrival of her parents, her brother and other relatives who had tickets to fly to Los Angeles from Guatemala in early February after their refugee status was approved in November. The family had to flee Guatemala because Gabriela refused to let her children be part of violent gangs and the family started getting death threats.
Once her family got their plane tickets, they sold their house and all their belongings, and she had taken out an $800 loan to buy them furniture for their new home, said Gabriela, who requested to be identified only by her first name for fear that something would happen to her parents in Guatemala.
Then on Tuesday, their flight was canceled.
“We are still in shock. We don’t know what we can do, we don’t know what will happen,” said Gabriela, who came to the U.S. through the refugee program last year. “I hope something changes, and they can come.”
The administration’s freeze on foreign aid has seen especially strong condemnation from Church groups. While US aid makes up almost 40% of worldwide aid, the money is often managed from religious organizations. One of these, Catholic Relief Services has stated plainly that without the US aid, millions would die.
“It’s a complete stop. Millions of people will die, and hundreds of millions more will suffer,”
It has been pointed out many times before foreign aid as a share of the US budget is far lower than other nations. However, thanks to our massive economy and GDP, that little bit has a massive impact in the world. As religious groups have pushed against the cutting of aid, they have subsequently been attacked by MAGA with claims that they have greedy reasons for their efforts. THAT attack is going to be a subject of my second article on this topic. So we will put a pin in that for now.
The Church Stands with Migrants
The first month of Trump administration policies have led to widespread condemnation from Church groups; especially Catholic organizations. Honestly anyone truly surprised that several religious orders would oppose the Trump immigration plans is someone who doesn’t know the first thing about Christian doctrine.
Even before the inauguration, it was clear a clash between the administration and the Catholic Church was coming. Cardinal Robert McElroy, who was just recently appointed the new archbishop of Washington, D.C by Pope Francis, addressed the push for mass deportations in the days leading up to January 20th.
“The Catholic Church teaches that a country has the right to control its borders. And our nation’s desire to do that is a legitimate effort. At the same time, we are called always to have a sense of the dignity of every human person. And thus, plans which have been talked about at some levels of having a wider indiscriminate massive deportation across the country would be something that would be incompatible with Catholic doctrine.
The first sentence of that quote is VERY important to understand. Much of MAGA’s feud with the Church centers around them saying “countries have a right to protect their borders.” They act like the criticism from the Church is the Church saying “borders are irrelevant, no one is an immigrant.” In reality, the Church message has constantly been “immigration controls are valid, its how things are handled that matters.”
McElroy appears to be someone who is going to be a major figure in the ongoing immigration fights. He has not shied from speaking truth to power in the weeks following the inauguration. The line of attack is focused around the inhumanity of the Trump administrations actions.
On his February 9th sermon, Cardinal McElroy stated….
"We must speak up and proclaim that this unfolding misery and suffering and, yes, war of fear and terror cannot be tolerated in our midst. We must speak up and say: 'Go no farther' because the safety ... humanity of our brothers and sisters, who are being targeted, are too precious in our eyes and in God's eyes."
Another line that bluntly stood out from that Sermon
"God created all of us in dignity. We are all children of our God. And when misery and fear and terror are unleashed upon the land, we cannot stand silent."
And finally, to again recap that the Church is not opposed to border control or immigration restrictions.
"It is not a targeted effort to secure the border. It has become an indiscriminate campaign to bring fear into the hearts of every undocumented person, man, woman, mother child, family in our society."
Cardinal McElroy is not the only one in the church that is sticking up for migrants. Across the assorted religious news services and channels I follow, I’ve seen more and more videos and articles about the need to help migrants. The “Breaking the Habit” YouTube Channel, led by Franciscan Friar Casey Cole, lays out the Catholic position on immigration.
As Friar Casey has commented on immigration on Youtube and Instagram, you will find no shortage of angry comments from people insisting they know Church principles better than they guy who lives in a monastery and has taken a vow of poverty. It is truly a stunning site to see.
As the Catholic Church stakes out a firm position, a prominent former Baptist leader is also offering his insights.
Jesus Christ Was a Refugee
Cardinal McElroy is hardly the only religious figure to lace into the actions of the Trump administration. Christian thought leaders across the country have been speaking up. Russel Moore, a prominent leader in the Baptist church for much of the 21st century, has been long at odds with Trump over immigration and other issues.
As far back as 2015, Moore took Christians to task for not supporting Syrian refugees fleeing ISIS.
"Evangelical Christians cannot be the people who turn our back on our mission field. We should be the ones calling the rest of the world to remember the image of God and inalienable human dignity, of persecuted people whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim or Yazidi, especially those fleeing from genocidal Islamic terrorists."
Moore has never gotten along with Trump, an issue that led to him facing revolts within the Southern Baptist Conference and eventually leading to his leaving. Today he is the editor-and-chief of Christianity Today. From that pulpit, as well as his newsletter, he has taken the anti-immigrant and anti-refugee right to task.
His editorial: “Yes, Jesus Was a Refugee” can be read in full here. In it, Moore not only points out the indisputable fact that Jesus spent much of his life as a refugee, but that anti-migrant sentiments are contradictory to Christian teachings.
The matter right now is not just the global backlash against refugees but the glee with which some anti-refugee figures celebrate their rejection and revile those who would remind them that Jesus of Nazareth was, in fact, a refugee.
Jesus being a refugee is not some new form of “woke” Christianity - as MAGA might claim. Rather it is longstanding Church doctrine. Outside of the fact Jesus went town to town in his adult years, the story of his childhood is one of fleeing persecution. The Gospel of Matthew talks about baby Jesus and his parents fleeing to Egypt to avoid the wrath of King Herod. In the editorial, Moore points out several Biblical figures that would qualify as refugees per our current definitions: including major old testament figures like Ruth and David.
Moore lays out, as other Church leaders have, that immigration limits and controls are a valid option for governments. Moore, like everyone else, is not arguing for no border controls or limits on population. However, as he clearly lays out, the option of closing ourselves off and doing nothing for those who need aid or a safe harbor is impossible under Christian principles.
No country can take every refugee, any more than any person or church can care for every widow or orphan. A country taking prudential measures to screen and vet refugees is wise and necessary for that country to maintain its duty to uphold justice and order
But while Christians can disagree on the policy numbers of refugees that a country is able to welcome, we have no right to dissent from the Bible on what we are to think of refugees themselves or on the motivations with which we should approach responding to them.
Moore also called attention to a growing concern in the church pews themselves. Pastors have reported members questioning the Sermon on the Mount; believing it to be “weak” and “liberal talking points.” MAGA idiolatry is infecting the church.
Pope Francis’ Letter on Immigration
The Church push-back to Trump has not gone unanswered. MAGA leaders have lashed out at Church leaders, often accusing them of having financial incentives. That is something I will be addressing in my next issue.
Meanwhile, JD Vance laid out this flawed argument with his ‘ordo amoris’ lecture. Here Vance was quoting the “order of love” concept pushed by Saint Augustine. Through this, Vance argued that duty to ones nation, community, family comes first. Vance’s version of “order of love” is overly simplistic and has received a great deal of pushback from religious leaders. You can see reactions here and here. The first link, from America Magazine - a Jesuit publication - lays out the theology in detail and how Vance misuses it.
Not long after Vance’s arguments, things ratcheted up in a major way when Pope Francis himself opted to weigh in on the ongoing debate. His letter to the Bishops addressed the fight over immigration and affirmed the Church position on welcoming those fleeing persecution and poverty. The entire letter, which is not long, can be seen in the link below.
The letter lays out the firm Catholic Church position on immigration. While affirming the right of nations to create border controls and dictate immigration standards, Francis emphasizes the importance of treating those fleeing poverty and persecution with dignity and love.
In the early parts of the letter, Francis quotes Pope Pius XII, who wrote the “Apostolic Constitution on the Care of Migrants”
“The family of Nazareth in exile, Jesus, Mary and Joseph, emigrants in Egypt and refugees there to escape the wrath of an ungodly king, are the model, the example and the consolation of emigrants and pilgrims of every age and country, of all refugees of every condition who, beset by persecution or necessity, are forced to leave their homeland, beloved family and dear friends for foreign lands.”
Francis continues the letter…..
Likewise, Jesus Christ, loving everyone with a universal love, educates us in the permanent recognition of the dignity of every human being, without exception.
Here Francis directly points out that deporting people who commit crimes, or broad efforts to keep populations safe, are legitimate. However, the broad swath of deportations is not in keeping with Christian doctrine.
At the same time, one must recognize the right of a nation to defend itself and keep communities safe from those who have committed violent or serious crimes while in the country or prior to arrival. That said, the act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness.
Francis also directly addresses the ordo amoris line that Vance and others in the right wing have focused on. In this section, he points out the flawed way the notion of “ordered loved” is being implemented by MAGA backers.
Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups. In other words: the human person is not a mere individual, relatively expansive, with some philanthropic feelings! The human person is a subject with dignity who, through the constitutive relationship with all, especially with the poorest, can gradually mature in his identity and vocation. The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the “Good Samaritan” (cf. Lk 10:25-37), that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception.
Near the end, Francis lays out his final plea…
I exhort all the faithful of the Catholic Church, and all men and women of good will, not to give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters
This letter has drawn major anger from MAGA backers, with Trump’s border Tsar directly attacking the Pope. The letter is seen, correctly in my opinion, as a direct response to current US policy and a firm laying out that such policies are not keeping with Christian principles.
Speaking of…
Christian Defiance Against Unjust Laws
The calls from church leaders has only intensified over the last several weeks. The National Catholic Reporter laid out a stunningly-forceful op-ed; railing against what they saw as clear cruelty from the administration.
Cruelty is the only term that adequately describes the terror coursing through refugee and immigrant communities now living in unremitting fear of the indiscriminate tactics underway. Children who go to our religious education classes and sit in our church pews with their parents can't help but understand the stakes — their parents may be taken from them.
The op-ed, which also covers the issue of foreign aid freezes, also directly states that many churches are looking at ways to protect their flock.
Religious congregations of every persuasion and religious leaders across denominations and faiths are spending inordinate time and effort devising clandestine plans to protect immigrants from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.
No doubt some of my conservative readers will read the above quote and think “how dare they!” To you, I say, you don’t know your Gospels as well as you think. Every good Christian is obligated to protect people from this lawless and cruel administration. To hand someone over to ICE, regardless of their legal status, is to hand them over to thugs who will ship them off to god-knows-where. Your obligation to flawed-law does not override your obligation to Christ.
MAGA has gone after any churches or individuals pushing aid for undocumented immigrants. (Cannot wait to see the reactions to this article). The Mission to North America for the Presbyterian Church has a list of resources for undocumented immigrants on their website. However, after conservative attacks, the site went down. You can still see it in the internet archive. All it does is offer options for folks to get legal aid and ways to integrate to legal status.
Here we can look to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the prominent anti-NAZI Pastor from Germany in the 1930s and 1940s. In his 1933 pamphlet, “The Church and the Jewish Question” - which aimed to stand up for Jewish people amid anti-Semitic attacks - Bonhoeffer laid out how Christians must respond to unjust laws and actions.
FIRST, questioning the state as to the legitimate state character of its actions, that is, making the state responsible for what it does.
SECOND is service to the victims of the state’s actions. The church has an unconditional obligation toward the victims of any societal order, even if they do not belong to the Christian community. “Let us work for the good of all”. These are both ways in which the church, in its freedom, conducts itself in the interest of a free state. In times when the laws are changing, the church may under no circumstances neglect either of these duties.
“THE THIRD possibility is not just to bandage the victims under the wheel, but to jam a spoke in the wheel itself”
You can read more about Bonhoeffer from my January article covering his spiritual rise while visiting Harlem.
I hardly lay claim to having a good answer on when the time comes to resist state laws in the name of Christ. It is a difficult process that is prone to abuse risk’s being self-serving. This topic will be explored in more detail in the article I’m working on regarding Churches and allowing ICE into the buildings.
And if you think calls for resistance and defiance are a bridge too far. I present a story that PERFECTLY sums up the monsters we are dealing with. Here Phil Vischer, most famous as the creator of VeggieTales, recounts the story of an Christian refugee from Iran, where she is at risk of death, being deported to Panama.
The full story has been picked up by the New York Times in the last day or so. You can read all about it here. While her religious status does not matter, as I favor refugee status for those at risk for any reasons, its amazing to see “Christians” in Phil’s replies argue that he is wrong to care.
Even as some call her their “sister in Christ” they insist “but she must be sent back to where she is from.” Again, said homeland would have her killed. These individuals, like our Vice President and countless others, profess their faith but do nothing to act on it. They disregard the dignity of those seeking safety and a better life. The argue against religious leaders and instead focus on what the President they worship says. For them, I feel Matthew 7:21-23 perfectly sums it up.
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
I am hardly a perfect person and am barely qualified to lecture anyone on Christian dogma and morality However, in this debate, the Gospels are clear, the Church positions are clear, and our internal consciousness are clear. Those who stick with these hardline and cruel immigration practices have seen their hearts hardened and twisted by politics. I implore anyone reading to this, who backs Trump on immigration but also claims Christ, to look to the Gospel of Matthew.
Ask yourself, are you so sure Jesus would know you when the time comes to meet him?