Piloting Faith: If you are going to call yourself Christian...

A Word for the Day...

Imagine a conversation with your children that goes like this:

“Mommy or Daddy may be taken away by the police soon. We don’t want you to be scared. Tell the police you want to go to your friend’s house. Let’s memorize her address and her phone number so you can tell them where to take you. We will come find you.”

Brown-skinned parents are having these conversations with their children right now. As we watch, our government is ramping up immigration arrests styled after Hunger Games reality television where many white people watch in horror (and bated breath) as brown-skinned families are arrested, separated and thrown into detention centers. President Obama had one of the toughest immigration policies of any president before him, deporting families in significant numbers. Deportation of immigrant families has been a challenge for our country for years. The difference now is that our current president loves the emotional trauma and the drama, with no concern for the experiences or conditions these vulnerable people endure. He gains energy and power from turning us against one another, numbing our empathy and compassion just as his apparently died years ago.

We should call him what he is – our racist leader. The problem for the rest of us is that if we turn a blind eye, if we fail to speak up and show up at the ICE offices in protest, if we sit silently by wringing our hands but doing nothing, we are complicit in the racism. We are complicit in the crime.

So, show up. Have the tough conversations with your families. Talk to the people in your congregations. Ask your neighbors if they are safe…if there is anything you can do.

We are all in this together. White people can pretend to hide behind the “if they would just follow the laws…” narrative, but that will not absolve you of your complicity. Just as the brown children of brown parents are fearing for their future, the white children of white parents are watching our complicity. We would be wise to remember that Jesus was a brown-skinned Jewish immigrant from unwed parents who worked as a carpenter.

- Rev. Cameron Trimble, author of Piloting Church: Helping Your Congregation Take Flight

Blessing for the Week

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields
and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of God's hand.

- Traditional Irish Blessing