I know… it’s a political cartoon. I’m sure you have all the feels about it. I hate politics, so I do my best to frame things through the lens of Scripture, but I am a fallible human. So here goes the whole ruining Mothers Day thing. Notice I posted this later in the day, cuz really I don’t wanna ruin your Mother’s Day, but because of what this holiday signifies, I want to say something.
As a pastor, I got called out the other day. Not specifically, but generically. Take a look:
Pastors, how about a Mother’s Day sermon addressing the absolute sin of THIS? https://t.co/NJq0O7K8na
— Rachel Held Evans (@rachelheldevans) May 11, 2018
I kinda took it personally, and maybe not in the way you would think. So I responded and said I would consider doing just that, addressing this sin. I told this author of this tweet that I would seriously consider speaking to this in my Mother’s Day sermon. Full disclosure, I didn’t. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?), my sermon ran way overtime because it was a “family focus” service which means we have all the kids in with us. On this particular Sunday, my sermon was highly interactive, meaning I had the kids help me preach. It was highly entertaining, but it also meant that I had to wrap the sermon up abruptly.
Since I couldn’t address it in my sermon, I felt I had to speak up somewhere… So here we go…
The Bible Is Clear
We are called to take care of orphans and widows (James 1:27), to welcome strangers and be hospitable (Hebrews 13:2 & 3 John 1:5), to be accommodating to foreigners and immigrants (If we really want to split hairs, Jews were called to do this in Leviticus 19:33-34), and to show love to the least of these in general in Matthew 25:31-46.
Let’s add some contrast for a moment.
John Kelly, President Trump’s Chief of Staff, said that “The children will be taken care of — put into foster care or whatever. But the big point is they elected to come illegally into the United States and this is a technique that no one hopes will be used extensively or for very long” when asked if he thought the current immigration laws were cruel for taking mothers away from children (read more here).
I know… getting political is the worst…
You know what’s worse? This:
This is worse. I don’t care your political leanings, but taking a mother from her children is unconscionable. The fact is, this is John Kelly’s politics in action. That is a mother being ripped from her children because she is an illegal immigrant. You know why he is able to do that? Because an overwhelming amount of evangelicals voted leaders like him into office, and they are now putting into practice their politics.
Ask yourself, is disobeying God a sin? Even if that sin is for the supposed benefit of say, a country and its borders? Is it a sin to do exactly the opposite of God calls his people to do?
I think the answer is clear…
Is this video something we should gloss over on Mother’s Day and simply go about our business? Is this issue one we need to continue to politicize until we are blue in the face? Should our politics trump our faith? I am bothered because it looks like for many, they are letting politics do just that…
Perhaps, instead of pointing fingers and playing the political blame game, we could all practice doing what our creator told us to do. Just maybe we could we live out our faith, and remove any political label from how we live our lives…
See, it’s kind of political, but it shouldn’t be…
The simple truth is that this world is broken, but God has a fix…
It’s You
… When you do the things He called you to do… When you love your neighbor as yourself… When you welcome a stranger… When you care for orphans and widows… and even when you treat the immigrant lovingly, like you would treat anyone else. Basically, you can do more than just vote for a person, you can live out God’s calling for all of His people.
Happy Mothers Day… Sorry if I ruined it for you…
Until next time…
Peace Out!
This offers a different biblical perspective:
https://cis.org/Use-and-Abuse-Bible-Immigration-Debate
You ignored my question on facebook, so I will ask it here… as a person of faith, what do you think Jesus would say were He at the border watching as our countries border patrol officers separated child from parents. Would he say “God bless america?” Or, would he weep over the lack of love and empathy his followers show others in His name?
In the end, we may never agree from a political perspective, but this for me is not a matter of politics, again, I see no benefit to continuing a debate that may never end, so I will respectfully agree to disagree.
I believe he would be trying to tell the parents to not choose to sin by breaking a law of crossing a nation’s border which will cause them to be separated from their children. But then, neither of us are Jesus so neither of us are infallible in our understanding of Jesus’ mind or Scriptures. So I will also respectfully agree to disagree.