Welcome and Justice for Immigrants and Refugees:
A Moral and Faith Matter
In the diverse city of Dearborn, Michigan, we love one another as neighbors and live together in peace.
So in the days following the executive order that limited travel for people from 7 majority Muslim countries, a local group, Forward Action Michigan / Dearborn decided that it was important to show solidarity with Muslim neighbors by standing together. Earlier in the week, I stood and spoke in solidarity with Muslim neighbors at a press conference at the Islamic House of Wisdom. On Saturday, February 4, elected officials, civic and religious leaders and others gathered for a STANDING TOGETHER FOR JUSTICE AND PEACE rally. My remarks for these 2 events follow.
For many of us, this is a faith issue. A moral issue.
In the Hebrew scripture lesson many Christians heard last
Sunday, we heard the prophet Micah telling the people very clearly how people
of faith are to live: “Do justice. Love
mercy. Walk humbly with God.”[1]
So it weighs heavily on my heart and on my conscience to
know that our nation has placed an indefinite hold on admitting refugees who
have fled Syria and elsewhere, people who have been in a vetting process that
lasts 2 or 3 or more years, mostly women and children.
The Christian tradition shares the Hebrew scriptures with
Judaism. In the Hebrew Scriptures, we are taught that we are to love those who sojourn with us. We are to
treat them as natives, and we are not to oppress foreigners.[2]
As a Christian, I follow Jesus, who taught that the most
important commandments are to love God and to love our neighbor as myself.[3] For Christians, how we treat “the stranger”
or “the other” is central to our faith and is seen as a test of our faith. In the 25th chapter of Matthew,
Jesus makes it clear that how we treat “the stranger” is how we treat him. Also in Matthew 25, we hear our gospel telling
us that the nations will be judged by how we treat those who are marginalized,
including the stranger.[4]
When we are told that the executive order is simply a matter
of fulfilling campaign promises, I remember how much that campaign was based on
peoples’ fears, especially fear of those who are different. The truth is, when we live together in community, when we get to
know each other, we learn that we have so much more in common than we have
differences. All of us whose ancestors
were not Native American in heritage or brought to this country in chains are
descendants of immigrants who came here to escape persecution or danger or hardship,
to seek a better life for themselves and their children.
Those of us who live in diverse communities like the
Dearborn area have learned that our neighbors and friends are loyal Americans who
want the same things we all do: to live
in safety and peace, to make a decent living and provide for their families, to
have their children get a good education.
We care for one another. So we
need to stand together in solidarity, because there is power in standing
together.
There are those in power who would like us to choose to live
in fear of the other. If we choose fear,
they will convince us that we need a bigger and stronger military, we need war,
we need more prisons, we need more walls, we need to keep people out of our
country who are different and those who practice a different faith.
But my faith teaches us that we are commanded to love our
neighbor and to welcome the stranger. It
also teaches that “There is no fear in love and that perfect love drives out
fear.”[5]
So we need to stand together, in love and respect, as
friends and neighbors. We need to stand against injustice. We need to stand
up for
what is right and moral and just for all.
Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor
Littlefield Presbyterian Church
Convener of Dearborn Area Interfaith Network
February 4, 2017
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