This is amazing and vitally important work. Thank you so much for what you are doing and for sharing your story. Prayers for you and for all those yearning to be free.
“Liberty and justice for all” is a beautiful sentence. The problem begins when somebody quietly adds an asterisk.
For all, unless we are frightened of you, disagree with you, don’t understand you, don’t like where you came from, or have already decided who you are before hearing your story.
Thank you for writing this and, more importantly, for actually going into that courtroom and witnessing the human beings behind the headlines.
It is remarkably easy to have very strong opinions about “those people” when those people remain statistics on a television screen. It becomes considerably harder when “those people” become a nursing mother, a terrified child, a father trying to protect his family, or someone begging for safety.
And your question about Jesus is one worth sitting with. I have a difficult time imagining Him checking someone’s paperwork before deciding whether they deserved compassion.
We can argue about immigration policy. We SHOULD argue about laws, borders, procedures, enforcement, and how a country manages all of it responsibly. But somewhere in that argument, human beings cannot become disposable.
Otherwise maybe we need to stop reciting “liberty and justice for all” with our hands over our hearts and start saying what we actually mean:
“Liberty and justice for everyone who passes our personal approval process.”
Doesn’t have quite the same patriotic ring to it, does it?
Powerful piece, Brianna. Thank you for making people look beyond the headlines and into the faces of the people standing underneath them.
Donna, thank you so much for this. I think this is exactly the tension I keep coming back to—the work of allowing our hearts to be formed by proximity rather than fear. We can wrestle honestly with policy and law while refusing to lose sight of the image of God in the person standing in front of us. For me, that feels like such an important part of both following Jesus and doing the work of immigrant advocacy well.
This is amazing and vitally important work. Thank you so much for what you are doing and for sharing your story. Prayers for you and for all those yearning to be free.
Thank you for your kindness and care, Craig.
“Liberty and justice for all” is a beautiful sentence. The problem begins when somebody quietly adds an asterisk.
For all, unless we are frightened of you, disagree with you, don’t understand you, don’t like where you came from, or have already decided who you are before hearing your story.
Thank you for writing this and, more importantly, for actually going into that courtroom and witnessing the human beings behind the headlines.
It is remarkably easy to have very strong opinions about “those people” when those people remain statistics on a television screen. It becomes considerably harder when “those people” become a nursing mother, a terrified child, a father trying to protect his family, or someone begging for safety.
And your question about Jesus is one worth sitting with. I have a difficult time imagining Him checking someone’s paperwork before deciding whether they deserved compassion.
We can argue about immigration policy. We SHOULD argue about laws, borders, procedures, enforcement, and how a country manages all of it responsibly. But somewhere in that argument, human beings cannot become disposable.
Otherwise maybe we need to stop reciting “liberty and justice for all” with our hands over our hearts and start saying what we actually mean:
“Liberty and justice for everyone who passes our personal approval process.”
Doesn’t have quite the same patriotic ring to it, does it?
Powerful piece, Brianna. Thank you for making people look beyond the headlines and into the faces of the people standing underneath them.
Donna, thank you so much for this. I think this is exactly the tension I keep coming back to—the work of allowing our hearts to be formed by proximity rather than fear. We can wrestle honestly with policy and law while refusing to lose sight of the image of God in the person standing in front of us. For me, that feels like such an important part of both following Jesus and doing the work of immigrant advocacy well.