Last week, the incoming Trump administration announced it will rescind a 2011 ICE policy that keeps government officials from entering sensitive location such as schools, churches and hospitals to carry out immigration raids and deportations. The mere thought of this change should be concerning for Americans who care about basic decency and human rights.
Much could be written about how this endangers the mission of schools and hospitals, but I specifically want to focus on how this relates to churches and places of worship. Without a doubt, this action is a direct threat to religious liberty and practice.
Will McCorkle
The concept of seeking sanctuary for those in need goes far back in Christian and Jewish history. The Hebrew Scriptures describe God setting up a city of refuge for people who accidently killed another person to be protected from those seeking revenge. The early church also practiced this virtue and assisted outsiders and the vulnerable. Jesus told his followers those who welcome the stranger or foreigner welcome him.
In more recent history, groups like the Quakers were involved in housing enslaved people fleeing from the South in the Underground Railroad. During World War II, Christian leaders sheltered Jewish people from the Nazi onslaught. Perhaps the most famous was Corrie Ten Boom and her family, who were sent to a concentration camp for fulfilling their Christian duty in protecting Jews in Holland.
Even more recently, the Sanctuary Movement was started in the 1980s to resist the U.S. policy that did not allow those fleeing the U.S.-backed military dictatorship in El Salvador to obtain asylum. It started with a small Presbyterian church south of Tucson, Ariz., and then spread throughout the nation. Congregations housed these individuals despite it being against U.S. policy because they believe they served a higher law of humanity by following God. Catholic, Protestant and Jewish congregations were involved in this movement.
Although Trump never has been very religious himself, he has used religion to bolster his political support and is often seen with pastors as they pray over him. However, it seems when religious leaders actually want to follow their faith traditions and protect the most vulnerable in the society, he has no issue with completely infringing on their religious practice and likely even putting them in legal jeopardy.
We must actively resist policies that break up innocent families, deport people back to situations where their lives are at risk and create so much social strife.
It is time once again for the church to step up, follow Jesus and resist the forces of authoritarianism and xenophobia in our present day. I pray Jewish, Muslim and other faith leaders also do the same. If the mass deportations Trump promised actually do occur, we must stand in that gap despite his attack on immigrant communities and ultimately faithful congregations.
Will McCorkle serves as an education professor in Charleston, S.C., and is a board member with Practice Mercy Border Ministries. He writes on the topics of immigration, peace and faith.
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