Still Night: Reflections on a New US Government Website
A Meditation by Rev. Cameron Trimble
“You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the heart of the stranger, because you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” — Exodus 23:9
The Trump administration has launched a new government website called “Aliens.gov.” The site is…awful. Truly beyond words. It features an interactive map of immigration arrests across the United States and asks people to report information about undocumented immigrants. The language on the site describes people as threats among us. Honestly, when I saw it, I thought it had to be fake. It isn’t.
As I thought about this, a rabbinic story came to mind.
A student once asked his Rabbi, “How do we know when night has ended and day has begun?”
One student answered, “When you can look into the distance and tell the difference between a sheep and a dog.”
Another answered, “When you can distinguish a fig tree from an olive tree.”
The Rabbi shook his head.
“No,” he said. “Day begins when you can look into the face of another human being and recognize your sister or your brother. Until then, it is still night.”
Most of us believe we know what darkness means. We often see it as ignorance, danger, or simply the lack of light. But the rabbi teaches darkness starts when we can no longer see ourselves in each other.
The immigration debate in the United States (and around the world) is real. Nations have responsibilities. Borders matter. Laws matter. Reasonable people can disagree about policy. But racism has never depended on policy arguments alone.
Racism begins when people stop being people. It starts when people are seen as categories. Those categories turn into threats. Threats become statistics. Statistics then become problems to fix.
We have lived this so many times before. The words may change over time, and so do the targets. First, people are made to feel distant from each other. Then fear grows. Finally, some are convinced that certain lives deserve less care, dignity, protection, and belonging than others. Eventually people stop seeing neighbors and begin seeing enemies. This gives rise, in our case today, to concentration camps, separated families, destroyed lives.
The Trump administration did not create a website called Neighbors.gov. It did not create a website called Families.gov. It did not create a website called HumanBeings.gov. It chose the word alien.
Legally, that word has been part of immigration law for generations. But in our culture, it dehumanizes a category of people and makes it easier to see someone as outside the circle of belonging.
This is where I think about the Good Samaritan. Today, most of us miss the real meaning of that story because “Good Samaritan” is now a compliment. In Jesus’ time, the phrase would have sounded almost impossible. Samaritans and Jews had a long history of hostility, suspicion, and division.
When Jesus tells the story, the Samaritan is not just helping someone in need. He is crossing a line that society expected everyone to keep.
A wounded man lies beside the road. Religious leaders pass by. They see him. They keep moving. The Samaritan sees the same man and stops. The priest and Levite see only a category. The Samaritan sees a person. At the end of the story, Jesus does not ask, “Who followed the rules correctly?” He asks, “Who proved to be a neighbor?”
How can we not feel that question weighing on us today? Who do we recognize as our neighbor? Who remains inside our circle of concern? Who receives our compassion before they receive our judgment?
Every society eventually answers these questions. The answers say much more about the society itself than about the people being judged.
Ibram X. Kendi recently pointed out that this new website follows the same logic as what scholars call the Great Replacement Theory.1 This is the idea that powerful groups are secretly replacing one population with another. That conspiracy theory has fueled white nationalist movements worldwide for years. Its power comes from fear. Fear limits our imagination, shrinks our sense of belonging, and convinces people that compassion is weakness while exclusion is strength.
The Gospel points in the opposite direction. Jesus always moved toward the people others were told to fear: Samaritans, tax collectors, foreigners, lepers, and outsiders. His whole ministry challenged the human habit of dividing people into worthy and unworthy.
The rabbi was right. Day begins when we can look into the face of another person and recognize our sister or brother. Until then, it is still night.
We are in this together,
Cameron
Reflection Questions
Who has been moved outside your circle of concern without you fully realizing it?
Where do you see fear shaping the way people talk about immigrants, refugees, political opponents, or other groups perceived as different?
What would change in your life if you intentionally practiced seeing every person first as a neighbor rather than a category?
A Prayer for the Day
A Prayer For the Faces We Have Forgotten
Loving Spirit, We confess how easily fear narrows our vision. We sort people into groups. We reduce lives to labels. We accept stories that make some people seem less worthy of dignity, protection, or belonging. Forgive us. When power teaches us to fear one another, teach us to see more clearly. When political leaders profit from division, strengthen our commitment to compassion. When we are tempted to look away from the suffering of others, keep our hearts open. Help us recognize your image in every face we encounter. Help us remember that no human being is an alien to you. And help us build a world where fewer people must live in fear of being treated as strangers in the communities they call home. Amen.
Spiritual Practice
Expanding the Circle
Today, pay attention to the language you hear and use. Notice how often people are described as categories rather than human beings.
Immigrant.
Liberal.
Conservative.
Foreigner.
Refugee.
Homeless.
Elite.
Criminal.
Categories are sometimes necessary. But they can also become shortcuts that prevent us from seeing the complexity of a person’s life.
Choose one group of people you instinctively place at a distance from yourself. Spend a few minutes learning a real story from someone in that group. Read an interview. Listen to a podcast. Watch a conversation. Learn their name.
The goal is not agreement. The goal is recognition.
The rabbi in the story taught that day begins when we recognize our sister or brother in another human being. Practice bringing a little more daylight into the world today.
Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…
My team and I launched a new experiment we are calling “The Commons.” It’s an online space centered around communities of practice: groups of people who share a common concern, set of problems, or passion for a topic, and deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. Join the community here.
June 2, 2026, 12:30-1:30pmET - Book Club in The Commons - FREE - We are starting our next book, The Glorians by Terry Tempest Williams. We will meet each Tuesday for 6 weeks. It’s such great fun. I hope you will be a part. All are welcome! RSVP HERE.
June 11, 18, 24, 2026, 12:30pm ET - I will be joining Jackie Sussman on The Commons for a three-part series on practicing eidetics as a part of our “Reclaiming the Power of Imagination” series. Jackie, a psychotherapist, author, and leading expert in Eidetic Image Psychology, has spent over forty years helping leaders and individuals unlock creativity, uncover hidden strengths, and move through limiting patterns. During these sessions, she will lead a live Eidetic process shaped by mythic imagery, offering a direct experience of the work. REGISTER HERE.
September 8, 2026, 7-9pm ET, ONLINE EVENT - I’ll be hosting a powerful online gathering on The Black Madonna: Sacred Wisdom for a World in Crisis with Matthew Fox, Alessandra Belloni, and Christena Cleveland. We will explore the Black Madonna as a symbol of resilience, liberation, sacred feminine wisdom, and healing in a fractured world through conversation, story, music, and spiritual reflection. If you feel drawn toward a deeper encounter with the Divine Feminine and the ancient traditions that continue to nourish movements for justice and wholeness, I hope you’ll join us. Learn more and REGISTER HERE.
October 18-21, 2026 - PREACH! 2026 Conference- I’ll be co-hosting PREACH in Minneapolis with Church Anew, a new gathering for preachers, storytellers, worship leaders, and spiritual communicators navigating what it means to speak with clarity, compassion, and courage in a changing world. If you’ve sensed that the preaching moment has changed and are longing for thoughtful community and renewed imagination for this work, I hope you’ll join us.
I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.
Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…
I get to work with such amazing, creative people. This section is my way of celebrating them—no paid promotions, just joy in what they’re creating.
TODAY! June 1, 2026, 12pm ET - ONLINE WRITING GROUP - My dear friend, Meryl Marshall-Daniels, is leading a writing group open to all. This is a simple and spacious writing circle for people who want time to listen inwardly and put words on the page without overthinking, performing, or polishing. Meryl offers a prompt designed to invite reflection, imagination, and attunement to what is already alive within you. The practice honors writing as a way of listening, of letting images, memories, questions, and insights surface in their own time. Learn more here.
June 20, 2026 – ONLINE EVENT – Margaret Wheatley and Mary Daniels will lead a special three-hour online gathering titled Fierce Compassion: The Power of the Sacred Feminine. In a time marked by fragmentation, fear, and exhaustion, this program explores compassion not as passive kindness, but as a courageous force that protects life, tells the truth, and remains deeply rooted in love. Drawing from spiritual traditions, contemplative practice, and the imagery of fierce feminine wisdom figures such as Kali and Durga, they will reflect on what it means to stay human and spiritually grounded in difficult times. LEARN MORE + REGISTER.
JULY 12, 2026, 8AM–8PM ET in NYC - My friend Monika Son is helping lead a powerful Buddhist-led, interfaith pilgrimage across New York City titled “Day of Remembering Our Interdependence.” Inspired by the Buddhist monks’ 2,300-mile Walk for Peace and grounded in the wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh, participants will gather for walking meditation, prayer, chanting, ceremony, and collective reflection across all five boroughs, including stops at the African Burial Ground and the Metropolitan Detention Center where ICE detainees are being held. The day will culminate in a joyful community gathering in Queens with music, poetry, movement, and food. Participants are welcome to join for the full pilgrimage or any portion of the day. LEARN MORE HERE.
If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.
We live in very scary times and the 30s are replaying all over again. It’s the same playbook and the people especially the American People generally are si ignorant to its dangers. Even if the Democrats win in November, what will actually change???
"For the night cometh when no man can work"; for the night cometh when we do not see the face of our brother or sister; for the night cometh when and justice is denied; for the night cometh and we feel as if day has disappeared; but the sun will rise, the day will come, and on that day we will not walk around the victim, we will walk toward the victim and see the face of God.