Friday, October 23, 2020

The Immigration Coalition's Conference, Day Two

Day Two of The Immigration Coalition's national conference on immigration included a talk by D.A. Horton, who is an Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies at California Baptist University.

"There is one race, the human race," Horton emphasized. 

He talked about the difference between race (a social construct, based on skin color) and ethnicity (based on country of origin).

Horton said that throughout history "there has never been a time of ethnic conciliation," so ethnic reconciliation isn't logically possible. All our ethnicities go back to one point so we need to "stop withholding compassion of Christianity with one another."

He said we express that compassion through our inner character, refusing to act in animosity towards the immigrant. "We need to stop being passive-aggressive [in our actions]... We need to show respect and dignity. We are all broken. We all have issues."

Horton gave practical tips as to how this can play out in real life, through how we communicate ("call out the sin of distrust, particularly shown in racism." Look to the actions of Jesus. "If someone could have profiled the human race, it was God. But Jesus didn't." (Romans 5:8).

He continued, we need to ask God to search our heart, to be honest, confess where we've come short and walk in the fruit of forgiveness. And we need to work this out in the context of community. "Every human being is how God defined our neighbor. Every human being is made in the image of God." 

Horton concluded that racism, sexism and xenophobia should not be part of the church.

Gabriel Salguero, (co-pastor of The Lamb's Church in New York City)then spoke about how to respond to immigrants and immigration reform. He used the book of Hebrews (written to a church in distress and conflict) as a reference point.

Salguero explained that orthodoxy (what we believe, including its expression in worship) needs to be linked with orthopraxy (the way we live). 

"Love and justice are to be intertwined," he said. "But our worship is divorced from relationship. Does your worship and orthopraxy reflect God?"

For Salguero this means "loving your neighbor, the stranger and even your enemy."

This should play out in hospitality towards the immigrant, the stranger, the refugee. But Salguero cautioned "remember Christian orthopraxy isn't safe. God doesn't call us to safety."

The crux of the challenge, he said "is that much of our worship [dogma] is based on spiritual amnesia." We've forgotten God's heart towards the foreigner. 

He said we easily fall victim to dualistic thinking that separates orthopraxy from orthodoxy. So offering hospitality gets lost in this gridlock. "We can disagree on policy, but not on virtue," he said.

Towards the end of his session, Salguero made the point that "Christian identity is incarnational. That means Christianity is not a religion of tolerance. It's a religion of love, rooted in relationship."

"Remember hospitality," he urged. "We serve a migrant Jesus. When you're looking out at the hungry immigrant at the border, you're looking at Jesus. When you see a child fleeing religious persecution, you're seeing Jesus. When you're seeing a mother running away because she doesn't have enough [to care for her children], you're seeing the family of Jesus."

Daniel Carroll (on the faculty of Wheaton College) then offered a view of the book of Genesis as a book "that is full of migration."

He noted that, "the history of humanity is a history of migration."

Carroll pointed out that Abram, Issac, Jacob and Joseph were all migrants. Their reasons for migration were looking for food, looking for water, or fleeing violence. "The same reasons we find today."

"But migration is connection to the mission of God," he said. This group of Old Testament immigrants "were meant to be a blessing to the people of the world." 

Carroll said the blessing was both spiritual and material. Including finding food and water, but also peace from war and a Sabbath rest. "It's a multi-dimensional blessing," that includes "a spiritual relationship with God."

He summed up "Don't forget that you were migrants. The church began as a church on the move, a multi-ethnic church." This is the DNA of the church.

Jason Lee (of the Acts 17 Initiative) then led an interview with Jenny Yang and Matthew Soerens (both from World Relief.)

Yang noted that "it's been a challenging year," with deep cutbacks on U.S. resources devoted to immigration, combined with the Covid-19 pandemic.

She said the challenge involves meeting immediate needs and making sure that immigrants are included in policy advocacy.

Yang gave the example of the current administration in the White House setting the immigration total at 18.000 for this year. But with the federal fiscal year almost over, just about half of that has been filled. The DACA policy is also under attack.

Soerens reported that the administration has shut down legal immigration at the border. Historically the yearly quota for accepting immigrants into the U.S. was around 95,000. Although the president sets the bar, he said Congress needs to use its influence to change this quota back to where it was.

For Soerens, this means we need to contact our Congressional representatives and senators, especially those who are members of relevant Congressional committees to reset this ceiling. "They can influence how the administration acts," he said.

Yang added that "advocacy can happen at all levels. Advocacy should be a muscle that the church needs to exercise." Including advocacy for resettlement programs, showing up for local public hearings on the issue of immigration and advocating for initiatives for services to immigrants.

Soerens suggested we need to inform ourselves scripturally before attempting advocacy. Then supplement this foundation by having a firm grasp on the statistical facts. 

Yang finished up the interview by saying advocacy should include school systems and social services for immigrants and refugees.

Following this presentation, Yang had a separate session on what the Bible teaches about advocacy.

"As a little kid, you cry because something is wrong," she said. "As we become adults we have the ability to voice our concerns when something is wrong around us."

She called advocacy "being a voice for Christ."

"The church has a responsibility," she pointed out "to speak up, to advocate... Jesus did ministry in community. He expressed the truth of who God is... Jesus was an intercessor on behalf of others."

Yang encouraged us to get to know our immigrant neighbors, to make sure there are adequate systems and structures in place to support the dignity of immigrants.

As she finished up her session, Yang used the prophet Nehemiah as an example of how to advocate. Nehemiah included lamenting, involving community in reaching out, and sustained activity in rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem. 

Yang added, "We have to pray and fast about the things we care about," she said.

She concluded by mentioning the website For The Health of The Nation.

Mika Edmondson (a pastor and member of The Gospel Coalition) followed Yang.

He used the book of Leviticus (19:1-2, 9-10, 33-34) as a guide to advocacy.

"Sojourners were vulnerable to exploration and neglect," he began. He said that Leviticus offers a blueprint for "expressions of social holiness," as to how to treat immigrants and refugees.

Edmondson said this type of advocacy should be imitative ("be holy as God is holy.") "God is the standard for how we treat our immigrant neighbors." 

Social holiness should be empathetic ("don't forget you were once strangers in a strange land.")

Using the example of the biblical principle of gleaning (leaving the borders of a field unharvested, public and open for gleaning among foreigners). Edmondson said this means a portion of public resources should be purposely set aside for the stranger, the immigrant, the refugee. This principle should guide when discussing policy decisions involving resources. 

These resources should also be desirable. "Not just subsistence but [with the goal of] living at an equitable quality of life."

And these resources should be consistent. Edmondson said that the Biblical concept of gleaning was consistent. All fields had the borders set aside for this purpose. It was public and neighbors could readily see if anyone wasn't following this policy.

Edmondson concluded: "It was a system of love, an expression of God's love for immigrants."

For more information on The Immigration Coalition, click here.

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