Disciples, Apostles, and Saints!
It doesn’t take much to stir a hornets nest, does it? But there is something about the language of crisis that discourages thoughtful and generous conversation. Particularly the nature of why we might construe our conversation itself as a debate between opposing and predictable sides. Crisis thinking reduces our options and a commitment to the truth.
Some would have us flatten the conversation, to make us consider all immigrants as the same, regardless of status or originating circumstances, regardless of laws or means of doing things “the right way,” regardless of international laws, treaties, and relationships, which is way more ideological than wise or honest.
The breadth of scripture offers a remarkably consistent voice of encouragement for the immigrant experience, naming specifically that we are to treat the immigrant as native born because we, too, are immigrants (Leviticus 19:34). Few practitioners in modern politics offer such a positive depiction of relationship, nor the willingness to explore such adjustments to laws that would encourage us to practice such a command faithfully.
The siren of simple solutions seduces us when we need to be honoring the complexity. But it is the complexity itself that is revealing. That you and I can get a background check in weeks, but a potential immigrant is on a waiting list for a decade. This isn’t a system designed for community — it is designed to prevent us from considering the lived impact of our laws on people just like us.
With love,
Drew+
