Great coverage by the Richmond Times-Dispatch of a press conference held at the Islamic Center of Virginia featuring dozens of faith leaders from Central Virginia speaking out in favor of civility and religious freedom in our public debate.
The Rev. Donald Gibson
This is a guest post by the Rev. Don Gibson. Don is pastor of Basic United Methodist Church and Rayos de Esperanz congregation in Waynesboro. This article was originally published in the April 2010 issue of the Virginia United Methodist Advocate and is used here with permission from the Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church.
“When the alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” Leviticus 19:33-34
“I assure you, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters; you were doing it to me!” Matthew 25:40
In 2005, while gathered for a Sunday afternoon Bible study, members of Basic United Methodist Church were challenged to live in the realities of the ancient right of sanctuary. Cries for help, interrupting the persistent hum of the air conditioner, called to action the students of the Word, offering a dare to live the Word.
Felipe, a young, homeless, Hispanic man, stumbled helpless into the social hall and into the arms of strangers. Intoxicated and beaten, Felipe’s instinctive response was to remember the teachings of his childhood, the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) and of Paul and the slave Onesimus (Philemon 1:1-25).
Felipe’s childhood was one to be forgotten. Though deeply loved, he lived with and in the realities of stark and unchanging poverty. His persistent childhood dream was to one day leave behind the hardship of his homeland, Mexico, hoping to provide “more” and “better” for his family. “Dreams are not probable,” his mother would remind him, “however, the Word of God will lead you to true prosperity, a prosperity that this world cannot ever take from you.”
As Felipe lay bleeding in the arms of strangers, reality confirmed the well-known truths of his mother. What now would be truth for Felipe? Would he find strangers unable to love and receive him, strangers embattled in the immigration issues that grip the politics and opinions of his “dream-land?” Or, would he, as in the fondly remembered Bible stories of his childhood, be welcomed, bandaged, fed, offered shelter and loved?
Our world is becoming increasingly globalized. This process has effects on culture, political systems, economic development and societal expectations. For many, this globalization offers an awareness of something better, something more. These seemingly “new” realities of globalization and the human inclination to draw battle lines are, in fact, nothing new at all. The story of the United States is the story of immigration. Ours is a history characterized by waves of ethnic groups arriving to these shores searching for freedom and prosperity. Each wave has brought with them hopes and dreams of a better life in addition to unique strengths and contributions. The U.S. has long been conflicted over the issue of immigration – both welcoming newcomers and resenting them. What is new, and desperately needed, is a fresh perspective of our own approach as Christians.
In a well-known and much-loved Bible parable, the Good Samaritan beckons us to remember and to ask, What is the current context of this story and how are we called to live in it? The parable says more than “It’s good to help people in need.” One if not the most important questions asked is, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus, in teaching the expert in law, offers that whenever others are in need, God expects us to be a neighbor to them.
In our current context we must remember that neighbors can come in strange places, unusual situations and can be found in the most unexpected persons. This parable beautifully explains the commandment of loving God with all our heart and our neighbors as ourselves, without any reservations. It also demonstrates the intensity of God’s love toward a sinful world. All of us were once like the suffering man, traveling through life sick, wounded and robbed, left to fend for ourselves at the mercies of the world.
As a Christian, I believe my faith calls me to view all people, regardless of citizenship status, as made in the “image of God” and deserving of my respect. I choose, based on the instruction of Christ, to show compassion for the stranger and love and mercy for my neighbor. Is not our purpose to always be working to make His “kingdom come, His will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven?” As Christians we are called to love our neighbors. The Bible is explicit in instructing us to welcome aliens and strangers in our land, and to love them as we love ourselves. In these times, we must learn to listen to the ever-present, still speaking voice of God. If and when we do, we will learn how to respond to our sisters and brothers, our neighbors, residing among us.
Many millions like Felipe are leaving their homelands because of economic necessity, war, famine and persecution, and are looking to acquire enough wealth to fund a new way of life here or for families back home. For many, sadly, this never becomes their reality. However, Felipe did, one very hot August afternoon, encounter the truths of his childhood imitated by those who dared to live the Word while defining a word – neighbor!
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This is a guest post by the Rev. Greg West. Greg is pastor of the Puerto de Gracia Hispanic outreach at Grace Harbor United Methodist Church in Suffolk. This article was originally published in the April 2010 issue of the Virginia United Methodist Advocate and is used here with permission from the Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church.
Lloyd Bolt (center) "joined the great fiesta in the heavens one year ago," says the Rev. Greg West. Bolt is surrounded by some of his grateful amigos.
“Porque nuestra ciudadanía está en los cielos, de donde también esperamos ardientemente al Salvador, el Señor Jesucristo” — (Filipenses 3:20).
“But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. — (Philippians 3:20).
After being appointed to start a church in north Suffolk in 2002, I often drove around praying for the people who might be a part of this new ministry. Some of the first people I saw were Hispanics working in the fields at a nearby tree nursery. I pulled in and introduced myself to some of the supervisors. They were helpful and eager for me to meet the workers. They also shared, “You’ve got to meet Lloyd Bolt. He works with the Hispanics around here.”
Friendships with the amigos happened quickly as they are so appreciative of any “gringo” who speaks some Spanish; and a partnership with Lloyd, a faithful Quaker brother, began.
The majority of our amigos come from Mexico and Guatemala on a government H2B visa, which enables them to work in the United States about nine months of every year. Over the last seven years we have gathered with them for fellowship, worship, teaching both the Scriptures and English. One of our goals in mission at Grace Harbor is to establish long-term relationships with brothers and sisters and churches in Latin America. I didn’t know exactly how this would work, but I knew it was God’s heart.
We have had a faithful team of friends who found it a blessing to share life together with the amigos. Lloyd Bolt often led the way as we connected the amigos with doctors and dentists, fought bedbug infestations, helped when the Hispanics were victims of crime, and met various other needs. Lloyd traveled to some of the cities and pueblos where the workers lived, always receiving a big welcome. He brought video greetings from their husbands, sons, brothers, cousins and friends. These always turned into large gatherings and celebrations. Then Lloyd would film the families in Mexico and play those videos here to a full house.
These were beautiful, moving and sometimes agonizing moments. I watched as fathers saw their newborn children for the first time via video. I saw expressions of love and caring touching the hearts of these men so far from home. I witnessed a broken-hearted wife with children in her arms appealing to her faraway husband to break off the affair. While mission was a strong focus of mine in seminary, I underestimated the power of simple acts of love to accomplish God’s mission in the world.
Our ministry with these hardworking amigos has sometimes brought controversy with people unconnected with Grace Harbor. When people say, “They should have to learn our language,” I reply, “First-generation immigrants to this country rarely master the language — whether they are Italian, Hmong or Latino. However, the second generation has no problem with English.” When people say, “They shouldn’t be here,” or “They are taking our jobs,” I ask them to try to imagine being in their shoes. “If you could move north to Canada and earn in one day what it would take you two weeks to earn in your country if you could even find a job, then would you go to Canada? What if also you saw that your children were hungry because of your inability to earn money, would you travel then, even if it were illegal?”
These are difficult issues, and as followers of Christ we cannot forget the command to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” A passage from the Old Testament that I lift up is:
“The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 19:34)
One of the greatest joys in being with our amigos is experiencing how the gospel transcends cultures, nationalities and geography! When a young man from Chiapas, Mexico, with dark skin and Mayan features trusts in Jesus to rescue him from his sins, new life comes just as it happens with all who trust in Christ! If we would see the sovereignty of God as well as the systemic injustice in so many of the people movements around the globe, then the church would mobilize to offer them Christ in word and deed.
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This is a guest post by Darren Rippy. Darren is a graduate student in the Master of Public Policy program at the College of William & Mary. He is a summer policy fellow at the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy.
Virginia’s Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli, announced recently that Virginia will be joining eight other states in filing an amicus brief in support of Arizona’s tough immigration law SB1070.
In his statement, Attorney General Cuccinelli discussed his amazement that the federal government has decided to sue Arizona. While discussing the “joint federal-state cooperative immigration enforcement program” that Congress has created over the years, the Attorney General failed to address any of the troubling aspects of Arizona’s new law, such as the potential for racial profiling that SB1070 creates.
This is a guest post by Darren Rippy. Darren is a graduate student in the Master of Public Policy program at the College of William & Mary. He is a summer policy fellow at the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy.
Inscription on the Statue of Liberty
“Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
‘ With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
This is a guest post by Darren Rippy. Darren is a graduate student in the Master of Public Policy program at the College of William & Mary. He is a summer policy fellow at the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy.
Arizona’s controversial immigration law has garnered intense scrutiny — and refocused our attention around the issue of immigration reform and illegal immigrants.
Public discourse concerning the law has been fiery and politically divisive. Critics have labeled it as racist, xenophobic, and possibly unconstitutional. As usual, the media has depicted the issue as a strictly red-blue, left-right divide. The result has been the usual conjuring up of loaded images concerning immigration, which is mainly that undocumented persons are here to do America harm and must be kept out.
During an interview on WTOP, Gov. Bob McDonnell voiced skepticism concerning particular aspects of the Arizona law:
I’m concerned about the whole idea of carrying papers and always having to be able to prove your citizenship. That brings up some shades of some other regimes that weren’t necessarily helpful to democracy.
Prominent faith leaders have called into question the morality of Arizona’s new law, and the enforcement-only strategy in general. Cardinal Joseph Mahony, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles, asserts,
The tragedy of the law [Arizona’s new law] is its totally flawed reasoning: that immigrants come to our country to rob, plunder, and consume public resources. That is not only false, the premise is nonsense.
Jim Wallis, President and CEO of Sojourners, has called the Arizona law a social and racial sin. He explains in a recent blog post,
We all want to live in a nation of laws, and the immigration system in the U.S. is so broken that it is serving no one well. But enforcement without reform of the system is merely cruel. Enforcement without compassion is immoral. Enforcement that breaks up families is unacceptable. And enforcement of this law would force us to violate our Christian conscience, which we simply will not do. It makes it illegal to love your neighbor in Arizona.
On this solemn day, we must think about all those who have sacrificed. Elaine in Roanoke over at Blue Virginia has a great blog post about the history of Memorial Day:
Perhaps we all would benefit from following then-President Clinton’s May 2000 resolution asking all Americans to pause for one minute at 3 p.m. on Memorial Day in order to “consider the true meaning of this holiday. Memorial Day represents one day of national awareness and reverence, honoring those Americans who died while defending our Nation and its values.”
We encourage faithful Virginians to take a few minutes at 3:00 P.M. today to pray:
Merciful God, we honor those who have fallen in war and our hearts are with loved ones overseas. We ask for your blessing to bring them home unharmed. May your grace and mercy give rest to those who made it home, but left a piece of themselves elsewhere. Above all, give us courage & wisdom to work for peace & justice so fewer and fewer of our best should have to leave for war. For this we pray, Amen.
How do we, in honor of such sacrifice, build a world that is safer? That has less war and violent conflict? Since September 11, 2001 there have been over 5,000 deployed from the Virginia National Guard alone, plus thousands more who are active duty Army, Navy, Air Force & Marine Corp. How do establish justice and peace in ways that reduce violent conflict to only where it is absolutely necessary?
Valerie Dixon at Sojourners talks about the importance of having a vision for peace and never forgetting peace when we think of war:
We cannot bring the vision to fruition if we do not believe that such is possible. Rather than acting in faith, we go with what we know. We know human fear, greed, and will to power. We know the bluster of ultimatum. We know the will to vengeance. We know less of love, generosity, the will to cooperation, and forgiveness. However, these virtues are not completely unknown. They are not impossible to live and to expand to the level of international conflict.
I’ll end with words from one of our most celebrated veterans:
“Peace and justice are two sides of the same coin.”
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
A great prayer from our friends at Sojourners about the disaster in the gulf:
As the cleanup in the Gulf of Mexico continues, we pray once again for those involved in those efforts, and for those who have lost livelihoods. We mourn the devastation and pollution, and we repent of our complicity in the systems that allow such destructive accidents. Forgive us, Lord, and by your Spirit, make us better stewards of your creation. Amen.
Click here to protect clean air and take action on Climate Change legislation in Congress.
Below, Imam Muhammad Salaam of Richmond VA talks about a Muslim perspective on creation care.
A piece in the Midlothian Exchange describes an interfaith effort in Chesterfield County VA:
In any interfaith engagement, the balance between practical issues and theological dialogue is not easy. Our dialogue, however, functions in a “beyond-the-talk” kind of attitude in the hope that these encounters will produce concrete results on the ground. Such dialogue has unveiled a joint community service project with the International Hospital for Children. The three faith communities are seeking to raise funds ($5,000) to sponsor a critically ill child from South America and bring that child to the one of the local hospitals for treatment.
This is exactly the kind of interfaith community engagement that Virginia needs. Faith should no longer build walls among communities. Instead it should be a conduit that connects Virginians together as they try to promote the common good.
It’s great to see that the folks in the Bon Air area of Chesterfield County are living this richer understanding of faith. It’s something we’ve seen at the General Assembly as Virginians of many faiths came together to protect health care for children, seniors and the disabled.
We hope to see more Virginians of faith stand up for the low and middle income Virginians, especially now that Gov. McDonnell is raising their taxes.
This is a guest post by Anjum A. Ali. Anjum has her MA in Islamic Studies, concentrating on Islamic Law, and is trained as a paralegal. She currently works with Hope in the Cities/Initiatives of Change and has two small children. Her husband Hadi YazdanPanah serves on the Board of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy.
I attended the Virginia Law Foundation’s 2010 Law Day Conference which brought together law professionals, public policy analysts, advocates and educators to discuss how speech, as a tool, can impact our world positively or negatively. We discussed how to maintain free speech while still controlling words of hate and fear that contribute to, and almost always incite, the kind of violence which besets our world today.
This is a guest post by Martin Beifield Jr. Rabbi Biefield is the Sophia and Nathan Gumenick Senior Rabbi of Congregation Beth Ahabah in Richmond Virginia. He is also a member of the Board of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy.
The United States faces a multitude of problems which demand our vigilant attention. The economy, war in Iraq, healthcare, and climate change, among others, compete in the polls for the number one position for what the American people are most concerned about. Each has a legitimate claim. Let me add one more to our agenda. It does not have the same urgency as some of the others but it is, in its own way, quite important to the health of our nation. There is a clear erosion in our country of the wall of separation between church and state. All of our constitutional rights, privileges, and obligations are precious, and we should not ignore threats to any of them.
When the first amendment to the Constitution says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” it is saying two things. It prohibits Congress from passing laws which restrict or interfere with an individual’s exercise of religion. This is referred to as the free exercise clause. It means that we are free to practice a religion or free not to practice a religion and that the government can not interfere with the way we do either one. When it says that Congress may not establish religion, it means that Congress can not create a state or national religion, favor one religion over another, or favor religion in general. This is referred to as the establishment clause.
Fox News Firebrand Glenn Beck will speak at Virginia's Liberty University
Liberty University, founded by late televangelist Jerry Falwell, has announced that its graduation speaker will be Fox News
evangelist Glenn Beck.
LU has had interesting graduation speakers in the past including Chuck Norris and Ben Stein but few of their tapped commencement speakers have had such a controversial pattern of taking direct attacks at mainstream Christianity which seeks to fulfill God’s call to compassion and justice. Beck is not exactly the most compassionate person on TV today.
A great column in the New River Voice about Social Justice and Faith Communities in Virginia.
The debate about what is the appropriate role of religion in American politics has heated up in recent weeks, this time thanks to Glenn Beck and his vitriol toward social justice advocates with religious connections.
Mr. Beck, one may assume, considers the halls of Congress and our state legislatures to be the purview of lobbyists with more “legitimate” objectives than the likes of Rev. Jim Wallis of Sojourners who relentlessly pressures those holding the purse strings in government to remember the needs of the poor. In Virginia, we have The Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy (VICPP), and its member faith groups and justice seeking individuals who have similar designs on our General Assembly.
Many people think that Virginia is part of the Bible Belt. While we certainly can claim our share of televangelists like the late Jerry Falwell Sr., Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, and of course Pat Robertson the truth is that the landscape of Virginia’s faith community, the faithscape if you will, is more diverse than that these days and not just in NOVA.
Consider a small entry on the VAPilotOnline.com Web site featuring a Hindu family. While Hindus have lived in Virginia for generations, few ever received such positive attention from mainstream media. Their sisters and brothers in the Jewish community have been part of Virginia since the 18th Century. Today it is not uncommon to also know Buddhists, Sikhs, Unitarians, and a heavenly host of other faiths living together in our communities. Hey! Quakers are your Friends.
The diversity of expressions of faith in the Commonwealth should not surprise any of us as Virginia’s population continues to culturally and socially diversify. In many ways, given the tribal nature of faith itself, faith and cultural diversity go hand in hand. What will be very interesting to see is a 22nd Century Virginia when those tribes have intermarried and it is virtually impossible to know a family that is not racially, culturally, and most likely religiously diverse. That faithscape may provide a whole new era of religious unity and spiritual depth.
As a Christian, that sounds a whole lot like the reign of God to me.
A new video about Social Justice & Christianity
A great video from our friends at Sojourners. Enjoy!
Hannah Anderson from Christiansburg VA writes movingly about health reform:
Moral principles of major world faiths consistently declare that people should not be simply left to suffer because they cannot afford a basic necessity. Just as those without money to pay for food should not be left to starve, those without health care insurance should not be made to suffer physically and financially.
Fox News icon Glenn Beck is comparing congregations that work for social justice to bastions of communism, and he is telling viewers who attend those churches to leave. Holding up a swastika and a soviet flag, Beck recently ranted on Fox News that houses of faith preaching justice are like Nazis.
I don’t know Glenn Beck personally, and I only occasionally hear him on AM radio, but I am saddened that he wants to split congregations along the lines of those who care for the poor and those who think helping others is really not their job. Of course he has no theological or scriptural basis for his position, choosing instead to characterize everyone who uses the phrase “economic justice” as anti-American. I could not disagree more.
Many faith leaders from around Richmond have given very strong and thoughtful responses to our visitors from Kansas last Tuesday. For many folks, especially individuals like Jay Ipson, Tuesday’s events brought back bad memories from an uglier time filled with violence and hate. But what perspectives and thoughts did Tuesday bring out for younger Virginians?
Below are some thoughts from Interfaith Center Intern Cilla Kasper, a young Jewish Virginian:
On March 2nd, 2010, about 300 people took off from work and school to gather at the Virginia Holocaust Museum. They began arriving around 10:30 a.m. to stand together in silence. They were of all faiths and came to stand in solidarity with their Jewish neighbors against the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), an anti-Semitic group based out of Topeka, Kansas. This was my first interaction with the WBC. While I always knew there were groups similar to theirs, I had never heard of the WBC until yesterday.
Hate is meant to incapacitate righteousness. We witnessed hate this week in Virginia when the Westboro Baptist Church came to the Commonwealth. They’re the jewskilledjesus.com and godhatesfags.com crowd. While we rarely use protests to draw attention to an issue, the fact that the Kansas-based anti-Semites sought to protest the Virginia Holocaust Museum motivated us to turn out folks to that sacred space.
