The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America responds to Donald Trump‘s police-state saber-rattling with this guidance on proper Christian welcome of strangers:
Our communities are bracing for nationwide raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to begin on Sunday. Planned raids are reported to focus on 10 major cities where the Department of Justice has sped up immigration cases for thousands of recent arrivals.
Mindful of the biblical call and our strong Lutheran history of welcoming the stranger, our faith community strives to love our neighbors as ourselves. Since original posting, additional ways to respond include:
- A SIGN-ON LETTER
- ELCA AMMPARO is collecting signatures on a letter addressed to Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan. It opens: “We are faith leaders from all across the country who are deeply troubled by the implementation of inhumane border policy by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Today, we call on you to respect asylum law and protect the rights of asylum seekers and children.” Read the letter in full and consider adding your name as a faith community member (clergy or lay), from Facebook.
- CONTACT QUICK SHEET
- A list of local raid response hotlines and contact information for select cities compiled by the American Immigration Lawyers Association listing was shared by ELCA AMMPARO on Facebook.
- SACRED RESISTANCE MOVEMENT
- ELCA partner Church World Service offers the #SacredResistance network for houses of worship that are willing to resist the raids on the local level through rapid response, creating safe spaces to accompany partner organizations in deportation defense, accompany undocumented community members through public facing safe spaces that can provide shelter, food, clothing, legal service and assistance in family reunification when possible. More information online.
- ADDITIONAL PRAYER RESOURCES
- Finding words for our prayers can also be shaped with a great compilation from the Archdiocese of Chicago, “Prayers & Intentions for Immigrants and Immigration Reform,” as well as Prayers of Intercession ideas available in the Sundays and Seasons library [ELCA Advocacy, “Responding to Our Sorrow with Action,” ELCA blog, 2019.07.12].
The ELCA’s original June 28 post on Trump’s anti-immigrant fascism reminds the faithful that “One of every six Lutherans in the world was a refugee or displaced person after WWII.” Both Scripture and history demand that Lutherans succor those seeking refuge, not be suckers for the fascists who torment the vulnerable.
Nobody tell ‘God-fearing’ Stace Nelson….
Given Stace’s anti-immigrant views, he may have more to fear from God than our ELCA friends.
Proud of the ELCA!
The opportunity for we Christians to follow “what would Jesus do” will make the evangelicals crazy.
Nothing like having Border Patrol commandeered by and anti-immigrant choice who makes light of children’s deaths.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/07/border-patrol-chief-carla-provost-offensive-facebook-group.html
Nevermind Lutherans, dog his/her/itself probably can’t redeem this thug.
The cartel pays them to make the trek and the ELCA gets paid to disburse them. Sweet business model.
Now if you start working your kid too hard or spanking them we’ll find reasonable cause to separate you from your child. Drag them across a desert, smuggle drugs or engage in human trafficking we’ll demand to keep you together with your pimp.
Thankfully the trump tariffs and the anti immigration concentration camps will make it so white folks can harvest strawberry’s and tomatoes in the hot sun to work on their tan, beats golf. Maybe, just maybe these newly tanned white folk can pick up a banjo and sing the rhythm and blues with real feeling. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDzN-rmbLrM Bring back the limbo.
Drag them across a desert, smuggle drugs or engage in human trafficking we’ll demand to keep you together with your pimp.
And your proof that this is what is happening is? You label all these people as criminals without a shred of evidence to back your assertions.
Never mind. Drumpf says it is so, and that is all that matters.
stace will have heartburn over these guys in his party:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-27-republicans-who-voted-with-democrats-to-block-trump-from-taking-military-action-against-iran/ar-AAEfgmE?ocid=spartanntp
oh, deplorable (neck-breaking “which one????”); citation on that news that its cartel money?
I feel honored and exceedingly humbled to have served the people who make up the ELCA.
The ELCA and other Mainline churches have a solid grasp on carrying out the words of the Gospels, emulating to the best of their abilities the actions of Jesus. This. This is what Jesus did with Samaritans, women, children, the sick, ill, poor, criminals, eunuchs, etc. This is what Christians do.
The behavior of the tv evangelical leadership and many evangelicals/traditionalists/conservatives in the pews clearly indicates that they’re not interested in Jesus. It’s so often the most fervent “bible believers” who manage to be the most hateful. It’s not only the GOP which has shredded itself, but the Religious Wrong as well.
If you’re looking for true Christian models, look to the Mainliners.
Greg Deplorable has an inflatable doll representing Sean Hannity that he sleeps with.
Greg, are you accusing the ELCA of participation in criminal activity? Are you saying the ELCA statement above runs counter to Christian principles?
Greg shows the shifting standards to which I’m held. I’m regularly criticized for not being Christian, but when I point to an accurate application of Christian principles to social action, I’m told those aren’t really Christian principles.
Right-wing evangelicals and people like “Greg Deplorable” don’t actually care about Jesus at all, except to use him as a team mascot.
“I’m regularly criticized for not being Christian, but when I point to an accurate application of Christian principles to social action, I’m told those aren’t really Christian principles.”
Join the club, Cory. You should hear certain pastors squeal like a pig when I talk about how the entire Bible says that usury (charging interest on money) is an abomination before the Lord.
Eve, those pastors seem to be mistaking Scripture for their noses. We can all pick our noses….
https://qz.com/1663596/framed-photo-of-tomi-lahren-hangs-in-us-border-patrol-headquarters/
Stace Nelson’s anti immigrant attitudes put him at odds with this nation’s founders. A guest editorial from the Billings Montana Gazette in todays RC Journal (7-15-19) points out a bit of factual history Stace and his fellow immigrant dehumanizing companions might want to reflect on before they continue with anti-immigrant efforts:
So, the current efforts to exclude people seeking safety, freedom and economic security here in the US by
– using concentration camps to discourage immigration,
– seperating children from families and isolating these kids without adequate provisons for basic needs,
– sending federal “jack-booted” thugs into the homes of families to “round up” immigrants,
– creating a propaganda network that calls people “illegal” and uses other dehumanizing names and false stereotypes in an effort to numb the public’s empathy,
– putting pressure on other countries to take action to prevent their endangered residents from seeking asylum in the US,
– seeking to build physical walls similar to the Berlin Wall to prevent people from traveling here to find freedom, safety and economic security, and
– otherwise encouraging and supporting cruel efforts to discourage migration to the US,
not only tend to parallel the treatment of jews by Nazi Germany and the treatment of non-communists by East Germany and totalitarian communist regimes, these actions also parallel the very conduct that led to the American revolution.
Really, Stace, is that what you fought for as a US Marine? Is that what gives you pride in being an American? Is that the basis of your particular religion? Maybe, just maybe, the ELCA is following a path more consistent with values that better reflect what America, our military, and religion in general actually stand for.
Wonderful comment, BCB, just perfect.
“In an era of debate over migration and borders, the science shows that Europe is a continent of immigrants and always has been. ‘The people who live in a place today are not the descendants of people who lived there long ago,’ says Harvard University paleogeneticist David Reich. ‘There are no indigenous people—anyone who hearkens back to racial purity is confronted with the meaninglessness of the concept.’ ”
From a National Geographic article that uses multiple DNA tests make more accurate determinations.
“Now scientists are delivering new answers to the question of who Europeans really are and where they came from. Their findings suggest that the continent has been a melting pot since the Ice Age. Europeans living today, in whatever country, are a varying mix of ancient bloodlines hailing from Africa, the Middle East, and the Russian steppe.”
https://on.natgeo.com/2YUAwr3
So. The “white race” has Arab and African blood. 😆😆😆😆😆
The ELCA synod of the Lutheran Church in america , stands head and shoulders above the other 2 major synods when it comes to expressing real christian ideals.
Where is the Catholic kiddie diddler church, aren’t They’re doing something like this also? Oh that’s right, they’re too busy defending themselves and all their creepy pedophile cases. Those evil priests should not be near those poor immigrant children, they are easy targets for rape.
Cory, 90% of Republicans support Trump In the latest Gallup Poll.
90% yet the Republicans don’t like it when the Democrats pull out the race card. Don’t be fake Christians, then.
I don’t call them Yesterdays racist democrats for nothing. No Republicans in Congress have called out Trumps racist tweets yet, bad mistake. He is rallying his supporters, yet making it easier for Hispanics, blacks, Somalis to look forward to Election Day – expect big numbers of them voting
History will not look back kindly on the Racist Party.
Jenny. That poll is outstanding. Those 10% want a candidate who’s moderate, centrist, and calm. They’re there for our vote, if we don’t do something extreme to scare them away.
PS … Dusty Johnson called out Trump’s tweets and the other blog is snatching wigs to know what to do about it. Even the Neal came out from his basement to denounce Dusty.
So why doees Dusty say Trump’s “inappropriate comments were the wrong way to communicate that disagreement” with the policy positions of these women? His comment can be read to mean Trump’s tweet is a bad strategy only because it could lose thoughtful Republican votes. This seems as plausable as some other meaning like the comment is wrong because it is racist and un-American. And Dusty’s failure to articulate the latter problem suggests only a concern about the former, which if true, earns Dusty no moral accolades.
Back to the anti-immigrant topic – Reading about Trump’s ability to “brand” others with negative names brings to light his anti-immigrant propaganda weapon – “branding” immigrants as “illegal.” This “branding” seems a pretty effective propaganda technique and is one of Trump’s few acknowledged skills.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/gilpress/2016/11/11/6-trump-marketing-lessons/#11bf59b568e1
Trump’s branding sucks all sorts of people into thoughtlessly repeating the language, even new RC Journal editor Kent Bush, who in a recent editorial deploring dehumanization of immigrants repeatedly and thoughtlessly labeled them “illegal,” with no apparent reflection about the dehumanizing intent and effect of using this Trump branding term.
https://rapidcityjournal.com/opinion/columnists/bush-we-can-do-better-for-children-at-the-border/article_6f73ec7c-a464-5011-9dd5-968504bab6e6.html
How easily good people can be vulnerable to unwittingly spreading such an harmful branding!
Hugh, I only live with the ELCA, not the other synods, so I won’t delve into determining which synod does a better job of expressing Christian values. But the ELCA’s reading of Scripture seems pretty straightforward and uncluttered with the dangerous mingling of church and partisan politics. Love the stranger, regardless of nationality or party affiliation or what Caesar or Pilate may say about the stranger’s basic humanity.
Amerika under Drumpf is being run like that under dumbass dubya…. clear path to victory with never a thought for the peace afterwards. You might think Rumsfeld and neo-cons were running ICE.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/456864-ice-official-on-children-left-behind-after-mississippi-raids-were-not
ICE is not a social services agency. The kids can fend for themselves. We got what we wanted. Freaking insanity!
Lutheran are continuing to raise heaven at their triennial assembly in Milwaukee. About 600 of them, 3/4 of those attending, marched to the ICE office to protest. They’ve sent a resolution to the DC offices and relevant MOCs that urges an end to the concentration camps and child kidnappings.
I LOVE THE ELCA! They will not be complicit in this horror like some were complicit with the WW II Nazis.
The following is from an article in Sojourners by Nancy Hightower. (I don’t think she’s related to Jim because she speaks of being raised in an extremely fundamentalist, survivalist family and her father is dead.) She uses her experience to help the reader understand how some “Christians” can support Bastardizing Believer.
“We need to discuss the various rhetorics that work in conjunction to keep gun violence in motion — white supremacy, Christianity, and a toxic masculinity that is the inheritance of a mythologized America. Fighting a spiritual war allows a certain amount of collateral damage for many white evangelicals. When people ask how Christians can support Trump given the mass murders, they forget the invisible math being done. There might be hundreds of deaths due to guns, but there will be millions of unborn babies saved. To take away the right to bear arms is second only to getting the mark of the Beast. Healthcare for everyone veers too closely to socialism, which to a conservative Christian represents atheism. Lost lives are nothing compared to lost souls. Franklin Graham often reminds his followers on Twitter and Facebook that Christians are persecuted and therefore need extra prayer and legal protection.
It is this siege philosophy that will keep conservative Christians tied to Trump, no matter how many more shootings happen. We need to recognize that Trump uses religious rhetoric very persuasively when he needs to. He will continue to make mental illness and ‘cowardice’ the culprit. He will protect them from a government system that might one day track them. He will throw around phrases about God and country and fake news while Christians cluck their tongues and say the shooter needed salvation. They will pray more fervently. They will polish their guns because war is still coming.”
http://bit.ly/2KFXUmc
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/08/09/brooke-baldwin-emotional-call-for-change-gun-violence-nr-vpx.cnn
Masterfully emotional post from CNN’s Brooke Baldwin. Her final piece is almost too much.
And the GOP, led by Moscow Mitch and Rancid Racist, are on vacation. They say this can wait till they get back. We should never inconvenience them…….while there are more domestic white terrorist attacks. 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
Feel the earth shake around 6 PM last eve, Ms Debbo?
MFI … The earth might shake a little here, tonight. Two concerts, two miles apart. The Zac Brown Band and The Rolling Stones. :) Not a limo left in the whole city.
I am developing a habit of tripping and falling, Porter, because of back surgeries and nerve/muscle deterioration in both legs. I fell in the wash room a couple weeks ago and dented the wash machine with my noggin. I wear a brace up to my knee on the right leg and need one for the drop foot on the other side.. Plus, I am not a svelte person by any stretch of the imagination. Landed on cement in front of door last two falls.
Damn. You crashed again? At least you haven’t burned too. Have you? 😳😳😳