Pres.
Obama: Stop the raids on Central American families.
As people of
faith and moral conscience, we are outraged by the Obama administration's
violation of human rights by raiding and deporting immigrants and refugees
seeking asylum. We pledge to resist these acts of violence and persecution by
offering up our voices, actions and bodies to stand with our immigrant and
refugee brothers and sisters.
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Yesterday, I called the White House and Senate and asked that our government stop the raids on Central American families. As an immigrant from Ireland who came to the U.S. in 1956, I feel compassion and solidarity with the families being torn apart by imprisonment and deportation.
I asked myself, what would Jesus do? In Matthew 25 the answer is clear:"Whatsoever you do for the least of my brothers and sisters that you do unto me."
Join me in advocating for these desperate families who live in fear of persecution and imprisonment in the United States because they are seeking asylum in response to violence in their homeland in Latin America. Together we can create a more just and compassionate world. Reach out in love. Make the call today.
Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP, www.arcwp.org
Right now - young mothers and children are being
rounded up by immigration officials in cities across the country.
ICE officers show
up at their doors unannounced, deceiving them to gain entry, waking up sleeping
children, and taking away their families to detention centers where mothers and
their children are jailed until they are deported back to the rape, murder,
and domestic violence they are fleeing.
Tell
President Obama this is a violation of human rights.
At Southside
Presbyterian Church here in Tucson, Arizona - we feel as if we are once again
living through a nightmare that is all too familiar to us.
Back in the 1980s
when Central Americans were fleeing the horrific violence of civil war, they
came to our country seeking asylum but were met with deportation orders and were
sent back to the death squads they sought to escape.
And so
communities of faith did the only thing we could: We formed an underground
railroad and declared sanctuary for Central American refugees.
When human life
was on the line, we knew that the only ethical act was resistance.
Will
you join our powerful act of resistance and solidarity by adding your voice to
our moral call?
Our faith
traditions are very clear that our very salvation is dependent on what we do in
this moment. And in this moment - as people are running for their lives from
horrific violence - the gift that we as religious leaders and faith
communities have to offer is the gift of sanctuary.
Since May of
2014, Southside has become immersed once again in the work of sanctuary when we
welcomed a local undocumented father facing deportation into sanctuary - after
about a month we were able to get him a stay of deportation and he was able to
safely leave sanctuary.
But another
amazing thing happened when he entered sanctuary - other communities of faith
started to discern whether they could do the same, and the movement began to
grow.
With
your voice and your actions, you can keep this movement growing and show the
Obama administration you will not stand by while they terrorize thousands of
immigrant and refugee families.
Every day we are
talking to a new congregation and every day we are hearing of a new family
devastated - but we have been here before and as we keep mobilizing and
organizing churches and start moving people into sanctuary, it is our prayer and
our hope that the Obama Administration will soon realize that they have been
through this with us before.
Even though they
tried to do everything they could to stop the Sanctuary Movement over the past
30 years, they could not stop people of faith and conscience who knew that
their faith compelled them to resist through the work of sanctuary - and
thousands of lives were saved.
Your
support in this moment is critical - sign the pledge to stand with our immigrant
and refugee brothers and sisters.
As politicians
and presidential hopefuls play games with people's lives, as the Obama
administration uses raids as a tactic of fear - preachers in pulpits across the
nation are preaching a very difficult gospel: A gospel of hospitality, of
welcome, of love for our neighbor - an ethic of resistance.
And pew by pew,
congregation by congregation, the movement is growing and we are getting ready
to open our doors to prevent deportations. The movement won't stop until
there is not one more family living in fear of deportation.
When they ask you
what you did in this moment, what will you say? Join
the movement of resistance.
In
solidarity,
Rev. Alison
Harrington
Groundswell |
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