Ecumenical Faith Statement on Immigrants in Artesia

The following is a reprint of a joint ecumenical statement of faith drafted by several clergy. 

                Southeast New Mexico is facing a crisis that cuts at the heart of Christian faith and practice. With the recent notification by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that upwards of 600 Central American refugees would be housed at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center campus in Artesia, it has served as a rallying call for many local citizens as well as local elected officials. Tragically, much of the most vehement response has been exceptionally negative, couched in fear, fueled in highly politicized rhetoric, and grounded in anything but solid Biblical, Christian, moral, and humanitarian concerns. As faith leaders and Christian pastors in Eddy and Lea Counties, this is our call to speak a word of Christian grace, morality, and common sense in regard to the looming crisis.

                Scripture repeatedly, and unapologetically, calls for God’s people to welcome the stranger, the alien, the orphan, the widow, and the sojourner. Leviticus 19:33-34 recalls the sacred memory of the time when the people of God were once the unwanted immigrant in Egypt. Central to the Biblical narrative is the call to remember the harsh treatment and slavery inflicted upon the Hebrew people and to live in such a way as to never return such inhumanity upon other aliens. Jesus Christ also emphasized this vital law of God’s grace, compassion, and welcome. Most notably, in Matthew 25 reminds us that our salvation hinges on caring for “the least of these.” Furthermore, James writes that for our religious faith to be genuine and authentic, it must make as priority our call to care for the orphans and widows in their distress. As these immigrant women and children from Central America are brought to our backyard in Eddy County, Christianity demands we respond with compassion.

                Extending hospitality to the stranger and welcoming the alien is not a practice that comes easily and also brings an understandable degree of fear. Naturally, we tend to fear that which we do not fully understand. Accordingly, many in our community have expressed outrage at the decision to house these people at FLETC. At issue for many is the presumed illegal presence. Romans 13 calls for reasonable submission to the sovereign laws of the land and its governing authorities. Therefore, having presumed the immigrant’s guilt for violating the law, Romans 13 is hastily referenced to legitimize swift and decisive punitive measures both in the name of Scriptural authority and legal obligation. This, in spite of the reality that our criminal code both presumes innocence and calls for just and humane treatment of arrestees who are imprisoned.

                Reading further in the same chapter of Romans, Scripture calls for love as the fulfillment of the law rather than legalistic and punitive adherence to the law. Jesus Christ modeled the priority of human compassion over legalistic adherence throughout his ministry. In speaking of loving God and loving neighbor, Jesus told the parable of three men. Two upheld the letter of the law and maintained their ritual holiness and purity by avoiding the stranger in need. Yet it was one who broke the law and crossed the cultural, religious, and moral codes of the day to meet a stranger in need. We remember that lawbreaker as the Good Samaritan. Therefore, even in the midst of the legitimately illegal status of their presence on US soil, the commands of God in Jesus Christ are for love, not fear or punishment.

                Much of the controversy and emotionally-charged outrage over these immigrants is endemic of our own nation’s broken immigration system and the political rancor over how to best address immigration on a comprehensive, defensible, and humanitarian basis. While the current situation raises the issues in very powerful ways, expressing hatred toward, fear of, or anger with the women and children housed at FLETC serves nothing to resolve the national debate. Rather, it only diverts precious energy and engenders a destructive spirit of mistrust that is contrary to Christian love and hospitality. As Jesus Christ calls us to turn the other cheek and walk the extra mile, let us not look down on the immigrants for being here until we both understand their real reason for coming and work collaboratively and prayerfully to seek just, reasonable, and defensible immigration reform on a federal level.

                As a matter of faith and Biblical authenticity, it is vital that all Christians approach the immigrants staying at FLETC with utmost compassion. As the prophet Zechariah made clear in the 7th chapter, God does not honor proper religious ritual and sacrifice when the people of God also oppress the widow, orphan, and alien. It is a sentiment echoed in Amos 5:21-24, Micah 6:6-8, Isaiah 1:10-20, Hosea 6:6, Hosea 8:11-14, Jeremiah 7:22-23, and Matthew 25:31-46. God has made the command clear. This is no time for fear. In faith, our call is to be the Good News and stand in solidarity with Christ with confidence and love. Our call is perhaps best summarized in the words of Micah 6:8 which reads that we are to love kindness, seek justice, and walk humbly with God.

Rev. Harold Armstrong, First Presbyterian, Hobbs

Mr. Justin Remer-Thamert, New Mexico Faith Coalition for Immigrant Justice

Rev. Geri Cunningham, St. Peter Lutheran, Carlsbad

Fr. Rod Hurst, Grace Episcopal, Carlsbad

Rev. Nick King, Carlsbad Mennonite

Rev. Ron Collins, Carlsbad Mennonite, Retired

Rev. Betty Collins, Carlsbad Mennonite, Retired

Rev. David Wilson Rogers, First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Carlsbad

Rev. Gene Harbaugh, First Presbyterian Church Carlsbad, Retired

Rev. Steven Voris

Hobby Lobby and Christianity

Monday’s Supreme Court ruling in favor of Hobby Lobby has incredible implications that people of faith must take seriously. Unfortunately, the populist rhetoric surround the decision not only fails to address the real issue, it dangerously masks it in a destructive assault of self-righteous arrogance and superiority. As Christians, we need a different approach.

Religious freedom and the Constitutional right for us to practice our religious faith without undue interference of the government, as well as our right to not be forced to compromise our religious beliefs is a central truth that I hold very prominently. (The very fact that I have the freedom to write this blog hinges on that freedom.) The owners of Hobby Lobby have been long recognized (renowned or reviled—you choose) for their conservative, evangelical Christian faith. At the core of the faith expressed by many Conservative Christians there are major aspects of the Affordable Health Care Act that conflict with the values of personal responsibility, independence, and the role of governance in society that are vital the Evangelical Christian faith. It is understandable and I appreciate the fever to defend the tenants of such faith. Truly, the decision was a victory for Conservative, Evangelical Christianity therefore celebration is in order. I get that!

Religious freedom has another side, however. As many have pointed out, the so-called “freedom of religion” in the Constitution also means that we are to have freedom from religion and, freedom to not have someone else’s expression of religious faith thrust upon society as a whole. For many Americans—both devoutly Christian and non-Christian alike, the ruling is seen as one very narrow expression of the Christian faith as given the power to impose their religious beliefs on the whole nation. What is particularly troubling for many is the belief—right or wrong—that women’s rights, equality under the law, and essential freedom were trampled. Therefore, this ruling is seen as a cataclysmic step backward and a serious defeat to genuine religious freedom, not to mention women’s reproductive rights and therefore must be denounced as a serious miscarriage of justice. I get that!

Unfortunately, the whole case is much bigger that one corporation’s presumed religious freedom or the responsibility of faithful Christians to exercise religious freedoms in upholding God’s will. It would be nice if were that simple. The Hobby Lobby case is convoluted in partisan politics, vastly conflicting and contradictory interpretations of what “freedom” truly is, vehemently held religious, social, and political beliefs regarding the practice of abortion, the extremely controversial political firestorm of health care in America, and an emotionally charged citizenry that either viciously hates the current President of the United States a United States or staunchly defends him. Virtually all of these volatile perspectives are held within uncompromising and largely uninformed belief systems that are fueled fear rather than fact. Therefore, win or lose, the battle lines in this Supreme Court ruling were drawn long before the case was ever heard by the Justices and those lines actually have little to do with the principle of religious freedom.

The fundamental issue is about control. Who is going to control this country and our incredibly diverse citizenry? When issue-based political posturing rises in response to a split decision such as in the Hobby Lobby case, the driving force is a vehement push for control and there are factions that are willing to sacrifice almost anything to obtain it. Both sides of the argument are guilty and, as long as we believe we are truly acting out of the authenticity of our Christian faith, both sides invoke the name of God as the legitimacy of our unyielding argument against those whom we know are just deceived, ignorant, and destined to destroy all that is good and holy in our nation.

Perhaps, as a people of faith, there is a better way. It is time that we, as Christians, step back from our fiercely partisan political posturing and put a stop to the unholy division of God’s children into Conservatives and Liberals (or Fascists, Communists, Radicals, Progressives, Extremists, Socialists, or whatever arbitrary label is carelessly thrown about). It is time that we take note of the overall ministry of Jesus Christ. He never advocated for a particular economic or political system. Jesus taught to render ultimate authority to God (Mark 12:28-30), love our neighbor as ourselves (Luke 10:25-37), give to Government what was due to Government (Luke 20:20-26), and to work for the establishment of Biblical justice (Luke 4:18-21). As Christians, Christ calls us to a life of service that improves the world for all, not just a faithful labor that creates a world which suits one’s own political, economic, religious, and social desires. Christianity, at its best, is a religious faith that serves the common good.

The Hobby Lobby decision—along with any number of split-decision rulings by the Supreme Court of the United States that tap into deeply-held religious convictions—has the power to divide the Body of Christ in ways that are devastating to our shared ability to represent God in this world.

Therefore, as Christians, perhaps we would be better suited to serve our Lord by casting off the idolatrous clothes of our partisan rancor and invest our energy in working to restore faith, hope, and trust amongst each other. Otherwise, in our fear-driven efforts to prove how right we are and how wrong they are, we may very well destroy everything that is good about both sides as the whole thing collapses in under the weight of our own pride and arrogance.

Unbinding

He was a close friend of Jesus Christ whose friendship was not enough to garner the attention he and his sisters thought appropriate. Yet, when the great need came, Jesus was nowhere to be seen. They sent word, hoping against hope, for Jesus to come before it was too late. However, it was not going to happen. Jesus delayed—simply procrastinated for all they knew—his return and Lazarus died.
     Four days after his death, Jesus finally arrived and, much to the dismay of Lazarus’ sisters, seemed rather unconcerned with the brutal reality. He had other things in mind.      Mary and Martha were angry with God, angry with Jesus, and grieving bitterly over the death of their brother. “If you had been here,” Martha chastised Jesus, “my brother would not be dead.”      Martha was a practical woman. She had little use for vague spirituality and talk of things which were beyond her logical, reasonable, and highly rationalized existence. She is remembered as the one who was so distracted with housekeeping and proper decorum that she had no use for the teaching and blessing Jesus had to offer. She lived, bound in a world where truth is defined in mathematical, practical, and functional rules which could not be broken, not even by Jesus Christ. Controlling her environment with these rules and practical sensibilities was critical to her identity. She was one who had to know what was happening and thrived on being in control of the process. It gave her security, peace, and assurance.  It is easy to understand her anger at Jesus. At the death of her brother, and Jesus’ seeming lack of concern for the situation, she was out of control and that made her angry, afraid, and defensive.      “Lord, if you had been here,” Mary then called out to Jesus, “my brother would not have died.”  Yet, unlike her angry sister, Mary’s cry was in tears. She was a deeply passionate woman; the one to wear her emotions on her sleeve, the one to disregard her sister’s practicality for her spiritual dreams and hopeful visions. She believed in a God bigger than practicality, sometimes to her own demise. Yet, like Martha, Mary was also in the throes of grief. She was bound up in a world of raw spirituality and fanciful hope. It was Mary that disregarded the important chores of the house in order to sit at the feet of Jesus and it would be Mary who would opulently anoint the feet of Jesus only days before his crucifixion—an outlandish expression of spiritual love that all the practical disciples found ridiculously wasteful and irresponsible. It is easy to understand why she felt so betrayed since the faith she clung to so tightly had failed to deliver. Her brother was dead and there was no getting him back. The controlling forces of life and death had closed in on her brother, rendering prayerful hope and fervent faith irrelevant. Painfully accepting the inevitable, she poured her tears out at the feet of Jesus seeking some form of reassurance to assuage her catastrophically broken heart.      Jesus met these two women in their grief—Martha in her anger stemming from her complete loss of practical control over her world and Mary in her tears stemming from her inevitable surrender to the practical control of natural forces. Two people, bound in the chains of their own limited theology and understanding of the world, each engaging Jesus in the only way their faith would allow.      Together, they approached the tomb where the body of Lazarus was buried. Then, in a powerful demonstration of his amazing empathy and compassion, Jesus cried at the tomb of his dead friend. Then, through his tears, Jesus demanded that the tomb be opened.      Inside lay a man who had been friend to many. Like his sisters, Lazarus was also bound. Yet unlike the emotional bindings of stark partiality or blind spirituality, Lazarus was bound in the shroud of death. His was a physical binding—constrained to the bands of cloth used to envelop the body prior to burial. Yet, Jesus transforms the reality to open the eyes of all that we may see a much deeper binding.    
     Jesus Christ prayed, and then cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus! Come out!” Much to the amazement of all gathered, Lazarus—the man who had been bound in death—began to walk out. Jesus had liberated him from the bonds of death. Yet the scene was woefully incomplete. Lazarus had life, but he could not live. Death still shrouded him. Although no longer dead, he remained bound in the burial clothes and tight bindings in which his body was tightly held. Even his face was covered. Truly, Lazarus was the living dead—physically alive and yet unable to live. It would take a second miracle to grant true life!       Leaving the miracle incomplete, Jesus then turned to those gathered to witness the power of God. He called out to everyone present, “You! Unbind him and let him go.” Jesus gave Lazarus his life, but he entrusted the people of Bethany, the village where Mary, Martha, and Lazarus lived, to liberate him from the bindings so that he could truly live—it took a community to fulfill the miracle of Jesus Christ!      At least three people were unbound that day. Martha was freed from her bindings of practicality and the need to control her world. Mary was released from her bindings of hapless spirituality and her need to spiritualize everything without regard to reality. Lazarus was released from the bindings of death and the discouraging culture which, if left bound up, will inevitably destroy the true life of any Christian community. All because of Jesus’ power and the faithful efforts of the gathered community.    
     Yet, in this story from the 11th chapter of John, unbound more than just these three. All of Bethany was unbound from their fear of death, their strict adherence to coldly rational practicality, and their blind faith in unrealistic superstition. They were unbound from their prison of death as they came together to unbind the one to whom Jesus had given new life. They were unbound from individuality to become community.      
      The culture of death to which Lazarus, Mary, and Martha were inextricably bound has often been restored in our modern culture. Holding strictly to Martha’s practicality, Mary’s Superstition, or Lazarus's solemn existence, the church will stay bound Imagine, the church that has been given new life in Jesus Christ may never be able to lift its hands in praise to the God who gives us life. Fixed on what is wrong, what can never be, or what is simply irrational will only drive a church back into the tomb where life cannot thrive. The call of Christ, however, echoes past the pages of scripture, across the span of time, and barriers of culture, language, technology, and belief. It calls to us today. To the Mary’s and Martha’s of our church, Jesus calls out. To the bystanders just waiting to see what God will do, Jesus calls out. To the people afraid of the death of our church, Jesus calls out. To the people who see only hope and promise, Jesus calls out. To those who are angry, Jesus calls out. To those who are in tears, Jesus calls out. To you and I, the ones who look longingly at Jesus with the heartfelt and dismayed frustration that Jesus should have done more to preserve this church we so love, Jesus calls out. Now it is our turn, for Jesus has called out:
“Unbind him, and let him go!”