By Charles Poole
To our immigrant neighbors, in the name and spirit of Jesus Christ, “I am sorry.” I am deeply sorry for the actions of the United States government which have caused so much fear and pain for so many of our immigrant friends.
The deportation of non-criminal undocumented immigrants is a sin against millions of our immigrant neighbors, and a sin against the Law of Love, which Jesus said matters more than anything else. (Matthew 7:12 and 22:34-40)
The cumulative weight of scripture is clear about the special place which refugees and immigrants hold in the heart of God: Exodus 12:49 says, “There shall be one law for the citizen and the immigrant.” Exodus 22:21 says, “You shall not oppress the immigrant.” Leviticus 19:34 says, “You shall love the immigrant as yourself.” Leviticus 25:23 says, “Because all the land in the world belongs to God, in the eyes of God we are all immigrants.”
Then in the New Testament, we read, in Matthew 2:13-23, of Mary and Joseph, crossing borders to seek the safety of their child, Jesus. The Holy Family; refugees seeking sanctuary from political violence.
It is in the name of that same Jesus, the Jesus who was once, himself, the child of asylum-seeking parents, that I call upon the United States government to repent of its campaign of fear against immigrant persons. And it is in that same holy name of Jesus that I ask forgiveness from God, and from our immigrant neighbors, for our xenophobic, anti-immigrant, national sin. Amen
In the eyes of God,
All persons are immigrants.
In the eyes of God,
We are all immigrants.
All the world is one family
All people are welcome.
The whole world is welcome,
In the heart and the arms of God.
All persons welcome,
The whole world is welcome,
For in the eyes of God,
All, yes, all of us are immigrants.
-Pastor Poole