When I woke up this morning, this wasn’t the post I planned on writing. I was, this weekend, going to write about the Ninth Circuit’s decision in the James Huntsman lawsuit, where the en banc panel unanimously found for the church. (I’ll write about it, but later.)
But after making breakfast, I read Peggy Fletcher Stack’s article “Sanctuary Is Out” (Patreon link here). And, while I don’t have words that fully capture my reaction, I’m deeply hurt and disappointed in the church and its leaders.
On Thursday, the church issued a news release to the general membership. I liked it more in theory than in execution, but it was fine.
But simultaneous with that news release, it sent a letter to general authorities and local leaders. This letter allows local leaders to use fast offerings to help with food, clothing, and medical expenses of undocumented immigrants (good). It instructs leaders not to provide legal advice (good, unless the leaders are in fact attorneys) or testify in legal proceedings (not great, but that’s been the church’s policy).
And it instructs church leaders to not provide (or, at most, provide limited) housing assistance and transportation (bad).
And, on top of that, unlike the Quakers, the church says that “Church buildings and resources should not be used to help shield individuals from law enforcement.”
Now I’m not entirely sure what that means, but it sounds like the church doesn’t even care if ICE enters our chapels (and temples?) without a warrant to arrest our neighbors and fellow congregants.
This is deeply unchristian; this is us washing our hands of our scriptural, religious, and moral obligations to the poor and the marginalized. And look, I have sacrificed a lot—time, money, and talents—for the church. And in large part, I made those sacrifices so that the church had the capacity to protect the people who need its protection, had the ability to minister to those who need its ministrations.
I didn’t (and don’t) sacrifice so that it can abdicate its prophetic role and duties.
The church has a moral duty to protect the poor and the needy, including (perhaps especially) undocumented immigrants. Moreover, it is in a unique place to provide true aid to them. In the US, it is protected by a constitutional right to religious liberty and free exercise. It has the money to fight for them, and it has a not-quite-in-house law firm to lead that fight.
And the church has never hesitated to fight for religious liberty where it felt that the LGBTQ community infringed on its free exercise rights. And it can’t be that the institutional church is selfish, only interested in fighting one side of culture wars.
So I sit here, typing a post I didn’t plan on writing, delaying a post I really wanted to write (I enjoy the James Huntsman litigation stuff!), deeply hurt and deeply disappointed in the church’s failure to live up to its rhetoric and live up to its obligations.
Photo by Miko Guziuk on Unsplash