Immigration

I got to Sunday School late, about halfway through. On the dry erase board, Patricia had already jotted down a quote from the BCP: “God you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth.” Also on the board were the words: widows, orphans and aliens. While I was there, she added the phrase: legal does not equal moral. The topic: immigration.

The handout was entitled “A Pastoral Letter from the House of Bishops”, written from Phoenix in September last year. The salutation: Dear People of God. The content is basically the church’s position on immigration, as a reflection on the immigration crisis in Arizona, the US and everywhere.

As a class, we know we were charged with contemplating what our duty or response as Christians should be to the issue. What does God say? As the Evangelicals so eloquently put it, WWJD? (What would Jesus do?)

It is a very tough topic though to get your mind around. It has to do with legal issues, economic issues, border issues. It has to do with political issues. Are the illegal workers treated humanely? Are they getting healthcare for free? Should they be rounded up and deported? Or granted amnesty and allowed to become tax-paying citizens? And what about the ranchers on the border in Arizona? What’s our Christian duty to them? What about guest worker programs where we bus them in and get the cheap labor, then bus them back? And why don’t they do something about their own economies?

I guess being from the South, I don’t think about racism in terms of Hispanic people, though I know that is real. But one thing I do know from personal experience is that racism is not just about fear of the unknown, fear of not having enough, fear of that which is different. It’s also about letting those things bubble up into hatred, where all of a sudden it’s ok to do to other people (or allow to be done to others) what would be unthinkable if it were a person’s own sister, daughter, wife, brother, son, husband.

The House of Bishops’ letter made nine points (and I’m abbreviating:
1) People cross borders to escape poverty, hunger, injustice and violence. “We categorically reject efforts to criminalize undocumented migrants and immigrants, and deplore the separation of families and the unnecessary incarceration of undocumented workers.”
2) Deplore inhuman policies like raids, separation of families, denial of health services.
3) Calls on the US government and all governments to create fair and humane immigration policies.
4) Respects that governments have to protect their people, including securing borders.
5) The Episcopal Church is committed to getting rid of racism, and recognizes how it impacts debates on immigration.
6) “We confess our own complicit sinfulness as people who benefit from the labor of undocumented workers without recognizing our responsibility to them.”
7) Don’t discount concerns about the danger of uncontrolled immigration to our safety and economic well-being. But says concerns should be “approached within the broader context of a national commitment and covenant to inclusion and fellowship across all lines for the sake of the common good.”
8) Citizens should remember the good of a nation lies beyond its own self-interest.
9) It offers a resource for further theological study, “The Nation and the Common Good: Reflections on Immigration Reform.”

So that’s what the House of Bishops thinks. Now I wonder WWJD?