Cruelty is a sin. That such a self-evident truth might need to be said out loud never had occurred to me until recently; my own nation’s current campaign of cruelty against migrating people prompting me to say what should go without saying: Cruelty is a sin.
From the intentional deportation of undocumented immigrants to third countries where they have no family, to the revocation of Temporary Protected Status for hundreds of thousands of people who came to the United States seeking refuge from danger, to the deportation of immigrants when they appear for their Intensive Supervision Appearance Program appointments, to the effort to annul birthright citizenship, to the ruthless creation and gleeful celebration of “Alligator Alcatraz,” our nation has embraced a campaign of cruelty against migrating families, a campaign of cruelty to which people of faith need to say a clear and united, “No.”
Chuck Poole
Immigration enforcement committed to public safety would focus its resources on detaining those who commit violent crimes. But detaining noncriminal undocumented immigrants near worksites, clinics, houses of worship, schools and parks is clearly not about public safety. Rather, it is a campaign of cruelty intended to intimidate.
One small but painful example of the human cost is a church in the border region of Texas which, in the past few weeks, for the safety of their congregation, had to cancel their vacation Bible school for fear of ICE detentions.
What can people of faith do in the face of this campaign of fear against our immigrant neighbors? I am certainly no expert or guide, but if you are feeling as helpless as I, here are a few possible responses to this critical moment, a moral crisis moment when the soul of our nation is at stake:
“Doing nothing is not an option, even if the little we can do feels like standing in an ocean dipping with a thimble.”
- We can carry with us, everywhere we go, copies of some of the verses of Scripture that speak to God’s concern for and our responsibility to migrating people, verses such as Exodus 23:9, “You shall not be cruel to the immigrant”; Leviticus 19:34, “You shall love the immigrant as yourself”; Leviticus 25:23, “Because all the land in the world belongs to God, in the eyes of God we are all immigrants”; Deuteronomy 24:17, “You shall not deprive an immigrant of justice”; Zechariah 7:9-10, “Show kindness to one another and do not oppress the immigrant.”
- Those who are able can go to the nearest Immigration and Customs Enforcement office and register their opposition to ICE operations near worksites, schools, parks, clinics and houses of worship. There may be many ways to have that conversation; for me it has been to say to the ICE officer or ISAP worker that our nation’s current approach to immigration enforcement is a campaign of intimidation, cruelty and fear against millions of our immigrant neighbors and it needs to stop.
- As a small act of solidarity with our Hispanic immigrant neighbors, we can learn at least one important sentence in Spanish. For example, Amaras al inmigrante como a ti mismo. (You shall love the immigrant as yourself.) Or No oprimiras al inmigrante.(You shall not oppress the immigrant.) Or En el nombre y espíritu de Jesucristo, hacemos un
- llamado al gobierno de los Estados Unidos para que se arrepienta de su pecado anti-inmigrante. (In the name and spirit of Jesus Christ, we call upon the United States government to repent of its anti-immigrant sin.)
In the face of our nation’s tragically institutionalized, sinfully weaponized, dangerously militarized xenophobia, such responses seem so small. But doing nothing is not an option, even if the little we can do feels like standing in an ocean dipping with a thimble.
For people who claim the name of Jesus to go about our ordinary everyday lives saying nothing and doing nothing concerning this current national moral crisis of government muscle-flexing against our most vulnerable neighbors would be, to invoke an overused colloquialism, to “fiddle while Rome burns.”
If we wait until we can do something big before we do something small, we never will do anything at all. And in this moment of moral crisis, doing nothing is not an option.
When any corner of our nation has reached the point at which VBS is cancelled for fear of ICE, then it is time for people of faith in every corner of our nation to call on our government to repent of our present national sin; to say in words as kind as they are clear and as clear as they are kind, “En el nombre y espiritu de Jesucristo, hacemos a llamado al gobierno de los Estados Unidos que se para arrepienta de su pecado anti-inmigrante.”
Chuck Poole retired in 2022 after 45 years of pastoral life, during which he served churches in Georgia; North Carolina; Washington, D.C.; and Jackson, Miss. He has served as a visiting preacher and teacher on the campuses of multiple universities, seminaries and divinity schools. He was the founding teacher of the Wood Street Bible Class in Jackson, which he led for 21 years. The author of nine books, numerous published articles, one gospel song and the lyrics to three hymns, Chuck has served as a “minister on the street” and as an advocate for interfaith conversation and welcome. He and his wife, Marcia, now live in Birmingham, where he serves on the staff of Together for Hope.
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