Amid the turmoil around us, I look for an awakening. While I look, I listen to other spiritual leaders for inspiration. One of those leaders is Rev. David Alexander, D.D.
In his article “What About the Road?,” he explores the biblical story of the Good Samaritan. If you are not familiar with the story, you can find it in the Gospel of Luke 10:25-37. In a nutshell, a Jewish man is beaten and left by the side of the road. Three people pass him on the road: A Jewish priest, a Levite (a temple assistant) — but they pass by without stopping. Then a Samaritan (who is despised by the Jews of the time) stops and helps him.
Per Rev. David, these religious folks all “embody something all too familiar in our society: rationalization. He moves with the quiet logic that says, If they would just follow the rules… if they wouldn’t put themselves in danger… if they stayed in their place…What is he doing here anyway?”
How many times have we heard this concerning the violence going on, concerning ICE? Too many people have defended the illegal actions of ICE based on an obscure biblical passage in Romans 13:1-2, which states that everyone must submit to governing authorities because all authority comes from God; those who resist these authorities resist what God has instituted and will face judgment.
I don’t believe I have all the answers (does anyone?), but I refuse to accept that brutal, destructive authority comes from God!
I’ve spent most of my life as a pacifist! Although I lived through the horrors of the Vietnam War, I never joined a protest march (Although I did tell my boyfriend at the time that I would go to Canada with him). But this time it is different, as we have never before seen a government turn on its own people. And I am also referring to the people who have been called “illegal!” (Please explain to me how a person or group of people can be illegal? Maybe their actions are not legal, but their identity can never be illegal)
So now, I am angry. Not just at the ICE agents, nor at the government, but at the ‘privileged white people’ who are justifying the violent treatment of our friends, families, and neighbors!
Back to Rev. David’s article: Here is his perspective on what insights we can take away from this:
… whenever a people forget that truth, compassion narrows, fear hardens, and cruelty begins to sound like norms we cannot control.
So perhaps the real question is not whether immigrants deserve mercy.
It is whether we are finally willing to tell the truth about ourselves. Perhaps this is all coming to the surface so that White America can come face to face with its own history. …
Until we face that truth, we will keep mistaking self-protection for righteousness—and call it patriotism.
But there is an awakening underway, and to stay awake we must be more than outraged. We must remember.