Learn. Pray. Blog.

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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You can subscribe to receive the Virginia United Methodist Advocate by visiting their website online by CLICKING HERE.

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.

Corey Stewart, the Chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, has been making news headlines over the past couple of months. Mr. Stewart became prominent in the national media particularly after Arizona signed the notorious immigration bill SB1070 into law. This is because Mr. Stewart is very outspoken in his desire for Virginia to follow in Arizona’s footsteps and pass nearly identical immigration legislation in the Commonwealth.

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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.

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The Arizona law has reignited the immigration debate and it has special significance for Virginians now that the law will show up at the General Assembly in the upcoming session. An article in the Catholic Virginian eloquently states the need for reform:

A system that causes families to be ripped apart as undocumented workers are placed in detention centers for civil (not criminal) offenses or deported is broken and in need of reform.

A system in which the number of available visas doesn’t match the demand for labor, especially in the agricultural, construction and service industries, is broken and in need of reform.

A system that compels desperate human beings to risk death to enter our country illegally to perform menial work for less than minimum wage is in need of reform. Let’s face it, they are exploited by employers willing to ignore labor laws in exchange for cheap labor.

A system that results in state and local governments, frustrated by the lack of national legislative action, adopting measures directed toward immigrants is broken and in need of reform.

A system that strips individuals of their human dignity is broken and in need of reform.

This article was submitted by Jimmy Culpeper from Chesapeake. Jimmy sheds light on a very crucial point. Too many people are focused on closing the borders. However, this won’t solve because almost half of illegal immigrants in American entered legally.

We need to fix our broken immigration system, not put a band-aid on the rash. We need to reform our borders AND our visa allocation process so that people can actually have an opportunity to come here legally. We need to reform our detention policies so we’re not breaking apart families. We need to make sure illegal immigrants in America earn their way to citizenship instead of living in the shadows.

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!”

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Well we knew it would happen. Despite Gov. Bob McDonnell’s disapproval of Arizona’s un-American & anti-immigrant law, there is a full-fledged campaign to bring this law into our Commonwealth:

Prince William County Board of Supervisors Chair, Corey Stewart, today announced the “Virginia Rule of Law Act” on WINA’s The Schilling Show.

Prince William County is also the place infamous for passing an Arizona-like Anti-Immigrant bill of its own that decimated it’s economy.

Doug Madison, the owner of Mailbox Junction and a Stewart supporter, said he believed the immigration issue was just that: an immigration issue. But a whopping 40 percent loss after the first month of the crackdown left Madison with faltering support for the county leadership and scrambling for ways to compensate.

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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.

Arizona State Flag

An Explanation of Arizona’s “Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act”.

On April 23, 2010, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into law Senate Bill 1070, “Support our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act.” On April 30, 2010, Governor Brewer signed into law House Bill 2162, which amends certain sections of Senate Bill 1070. The act becomes effective 90 days after the last day of the legislative session, which will be July 29, 2010.

Below I’ve broken down what the law actually does, section-by-section. This type of legislation will almost certainly show up at the 2011 General Assembly session in Virginia so it’s is important for us to understand what it will mean for us.

SUMMARY, SB 1070 will:

• Make it a state crime to be in the country illegally
• Require immigrants to have proof of their immigration status
• Require police officers to “make a reasonable attempt” to determine the immigration status of a person if there is a “reasonable suspicion” that he or she is an illegal immigrant, unless it would hinder or obstruct an investigation, and race, color and national origin are not to be only factors police officers consider
• Allow lawsuits against local or state government agencies that have policies that hinder enforcement of immigration laws
• Target the hiring of illegal immigrants as day laborers by prohibiting people from stopping a vehicle on a road to offer employment and by prohibiting a person from getting into a stopped vehicle on a street to be hired for work if it impedes traffic

Below is the section-by-section breakdown:

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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.

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.

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A great article by Saif Khan, an Iraq War veteran, who served as a combat engineer in Mosul, Iraq, as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2004–2005. He served in the Virginia Army National Guard for eight years.

As an Iraq War veteran and an immigrant, I’d like you to think about the immigrant troops holding the line in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan. The second soldier to die in Iraq was an undocumented Guatemalan immigrant; he was awarded citizenship posthumously.

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By creating an accountable, fair and realistic path to citizenship, we could potentially add tens of thousands of new service members, thus providing relief to our men and women in uniform and allowing those who consider the United States their home the opportunity to defend its values abroad.

Our leaders have a solemn duty to honor this history of sacrifice by immigrant servicemen and women and their families.

The story of Jose Rosales helped us remember how immigrants and immigration are what have made America great. But we still have a daunting task: fixing our broken immigration system and dealing with the 11-12 million “illegals.” Christian Ethics Professor David Gushee writes with much needed clarity about how we must reform our system:

Those of us who have advocated for some kind of comprehensive immigration reform are fully aware that it is not good that immigration laws have been broken en masse. But we are also aware that because America is not the kind of nation (thank God) that will deploy its military and police forces to embark on a Nazi- or Soviet-style forced deportation of eleven million people, we have to find a more creative approach that fits with our values.

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Last week, an immigrant from Guatemala was murdered defending his neighbors in Chantilly VA:

Jose Rosales was a devout Christian. He sent every spare penny he made as a landscaper and handyman back to his family in Guatemala, and he was so strong and industrious that he did the work of three men. He had the complete trust of the Brar family who hired him.

In turn, Rosales appreciated the steady work the Brars gave him in their construction and real estate businesses and around their 10-acre Centreville property and 9,000-square foot mansion, especially in tough economic times.

So on Monday morning, when two armed men broke into the family’s four-car garage, Rosales stood between them and the Brars. “Get away from my brother and my mom,” he said.

Jose Rosales was shot and killed defending the Brar family. His death reflected his life, working hard and being faithful. His death also comes at a time when our Nation is trying to grapple with a broken immigration system.

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Many are worried that having to carry your papers in Arizona is un-American. Some have even compared it to Nazi Germany’s treatment of the Jews.

Rabbi Thomas Louchheim, from Tucson Arizona, writes movingly:

The Prophet Micah demands in God’s name that we “live justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.” This legislation is an affront to God’s command. It is an affront to human dignity and to human rights. It fractures our sense of community, even those who are here legally, who now become afraid and unsure of just how equal they are in the eyes of this odious law, which is the embodiment of hubris and arrogance. As religious faithful we must stand up and say “No!” This piece of legislation is too close to having those who look Hispanic wear a badge, like the Jews had to wear in other countries prior to and during World War II. We fought (and won) that war to end such injustice and discrimination.

This comparison has Glenn Beck outraged! C’mon, using comparisons to Hitler to make a political point is ridiculous, right…?

What goes around…

Virginia’s Cold Stance against People without Documentation

By: Hannah Anderson

Recently, I was told about an undocumented immigrant living in Southwest Virginia who saw a woman collapse in her front yard.  In a panic over what to do about the situation, he called a friend (who has legal status) living in a different county and told them to call 911. He was afraid to call the police himself because state law allows police officers to inquire about the residency status of any person when investigating any given situation.  Reporting this event, even when being a good samaritan, could have resulted in his incarceration and deportation.

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The Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General has released a report about immigration enforcement programs in Prince William & Loudon Counties highlighting the need for better oversight of immigration enforcement and detention. We are a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. Welcoming the stranger with compassion is at the heart of the immigration debate. Our immigration system should reflect values such as justice, strengthening families and respect for the dignity human beings. Unfortunately, our immigration enforcement policies have been problematic. According to the Washington Examiner:

A federal immigration enforcement program used in Prince William and Loudoun counties needs better oversight, according to a report from the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security.

“With no specific target levels for arrest, detention, and removal priority levels … ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] cannot be assured that the 287(g) program is meeting its intended purpose, or that resources are being appropriately targeted toward aliens who pose the greatest risk to public safety and the community,” sad the report

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On Thursday February 19^th I had the pleasure of attending a subcommittee of the House Committee on Militia, Police & Public Safety. The meeting took place at 7:30AM (these early bird subcommittee meetings are always a blast!). I arrived a minute or two after 7:30AM and the meeting had already started. The room was small and it was brimming with people. There was barely standing room inside and I had to shoulder my way in.

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I arrived at Monday’s 8:30AM Senate Courts of Justice Committee meeting  a few minutes late and found a PACKED house. I was there tracking six different bills and so, it seems, was everyone else. Every single seat and every spot against the wall was taken. There was even a healthy crowd outside the entrance of the committee room. This is pretty typical so close to the end of the legislative session. If a bill isn’t heard and passed out of committee by today, it’s most likely dead.

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Last Friday Feb 6^th I attended a House Courts of Justice meeting in the late afternoon (it didn’t start until 4PM!). I was there to support a bill that would expand the definition of human trafficking in Virginia and stiffen the penalties. This was H.B. 2016 patroned by Delegate Adam Ebbin.

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Delegate Morgan Griffith has introduced a bill to stiffen the penalties against extorting people without documentation. Introduced as HB 1841, it provides that a person who extorts money or property by threatening to report someone to the authorities for being an illegal alien or threatens to withhold immigration documents is liable to that person for damages in the amount of $10,000 as well as attorney fees.

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A moving piece in the New York Times that crystallizes what is at stake in this debate. You can read it by CLICKING HERE.

A quote from the piece is below:

The Times reported that federal immigration prosecutions had soared in the last five years, overloading federal courts with misdemeanor cases of illegal border crossers, who are tried and sentenced in groups of 40 to 60 for efficiency. At the same time, prosecutions for weapons, organized crime, public corruption and drugs have plummeted. The Arizona attorney general called the situation “a national abdication by the Justice Department.”

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