The Rev. Dr. Tracy Keenan of New Castle Presbytery offers a faithful response to the immigration debate
November 6, 2024
Editor’s note: This article first appeared here in Presbytery Pause, the newsletter of New Castle Presbytery.
Photo used by permission of Abara from Laurie
Smith Photo, lauriesmithphoto.com)
Imagine you and your family are living a quiet life as best you can in a city in Central America and a local gang leader decides he wants your 14-year-old daughter as his “girlfriend,” and won’t accept no for an answer.
Imagine your child’s survival depends on medical care that is not available in your homeland.
Imagine militias from neighboring countries or communities have overrun your community and you have to run for your life.
There’s a lot of heated rhetoric right now about immigrants. And it’s clear that our immigration system needs a lot of work. It is underfunded, understaffed, and many of the attempts to fix it have hobbled through partisan rancor and landed in half-baked solutions. At the same time, migration numbers are up all over the world, and not just at our southern border, due to conflict, natural disasters, persecution or the desire to earn a better living.
Let’s look at three things when confronting the immigration question: our biblical mandate as Christians, our responsibility to seek the truth and our call to act faithfully.
As followers of Jesus, we are called to the biblical law to love our neighbor and to treat the foreigner as our own.
“I was hungry and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Jesus in Matthew 25:35, CEB).
There are at least a dozen more verses along these lines.
We are called to love these neighbors of ours. At the same time, we are called to be as wise as serpents and innocent as doves (Matthew 10:16). That means separating fact from fiction.
The Immigrant Justice Committee (IJC) of New Castle Presbytery recently traveled to the Texas/Mexico border to see for ourselves how people are seeking both compassionate welcome and security.
The Rev. Dr. Tracy Keenan (Contributed photo)
We spoke with Border Patrol and Homeland Security officers, both current and retired; legal representatives who help immigrants navigate the complex system of courts, status classifications, and detention centers; a Presbyterian pastor who is also an EMT tasked with tending to the injured or the dead in the borderlands; shelter workers in Mexico where migrants await their appointment with U.S. Customs; and the Abara organization, which seeks to educate and work for holistic solutions to the snarls of immigration processes.
IJC understands the call to see the human face of the sojourner who is vulnerable and far from home and to advocate for human rights. We also understand the need for border security and the need for a well-ordered and well-supported system of immigration.
The immigration system in the U.S. is badly in need of revision, and it has been for many years and under many administrations. This is nonpartisan. We don’t have to choose between loving our neighbor and protecting our communities. Healthy policy can mean compassionate welcome, secure borders and even an enhanced economy.
Let’s be the church that is faithful in our response:
- Advocate for better policies.
- Help our new neighbors get on their feet and learn their way around this new country, so they can become a robust part of our society, economy and culture.
- Allow law enforcement, Border Patrol, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to do their work of identifying and rooting out the criminal element without painting the whole of immigrant groups as malevolent.
- Advocate to support immigrant workers, and in so doing, work for the general well-being of our economy as well as human rights. We don’t have to choose between loving our neighbors and protecting our communities.
Our visit to El Paso and Ciudad Juarez was made possible by some funding from New Castle Presbytery’s Ignite and from each participant, and was hosted by Abara, an organization with connections to Tres Rios Presbytery dedicated to building peace and pursuing a holistic border response. We’d be happy to share more about our experience with your churches or mission teams. Email us here. New Castle Presbytery highly recommends Abara if you are interested in a trip to the border to learn more.
Rev. Dr. Tracy Keenan, Missional Presbyter for New Castle Presbytery, Special to Presbyterian News Service
Today’s Focus: Rev. Dr. Tracy Keenan of New Castle Presbytery offers a faithful response to the immigration debate
Let us join in prayer for:
PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Kimberly Wells, Mission Specialist, Director’s Office, World Mission, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Vivian Wesson, Executive Vice President & General Counsel, Board of Pensions
Let us pray
Gracious God, you lavish on your people a profusion of gifts for mission and ministry, evangelism and outreach. Continue to inspire and guide us as we strive to be more responsive to the needs of our churches. Energize and equip us for those kingdom tasks to which we are called as Christ’s followers in a hurting world. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment