Holding pictures of migrant children who have died in U.S. custody and forming a cross with their bodies on the floor of the Russell Senate Office Building, 70 Catholics were arrested am Juli fir verstoppend a public place, which is considered a misdemeanor.
The protesters hoped that images of 90-year-old nuns an Paschtéier in clerical collars being led away in handcuffs would draw attention to their moral horror at the United States’ treatment of undocumented immigrant families.
American Catholics, like any religious group, do not fit neatly into left-right political categories.
But ever more they are visibly joining the growing ranks of progressive Christians who oppose President Donald Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Rhetorik and federal agencies’ negligent, occasionally deadly treatment of immigrants on his orders.
Religious activism
American Christianity is more often verbonne sinn with right-wing politics.
Conservative Christian groups advocating for public policies that reflect their religious beliefs have conducted extremely visible campaigns to outlaw abortion, keep gay marriage illegal an encouragéieren Etude vun der Bibel in schools. Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis, an Apostolic Christian, was agespaart for refusing to issue marriage licenses after the U.S. legalized same-sex marriage in 2015.
But there’s always been progressive Christian activism in the United States.
ech hun studéiert religious thought and action around migrants and refugees for some time – including analyséieren the New Sanctuary Movement, a network of churches that offers refuge to undocumented immigrants and advocates for immigration reform.
Black churches were central in the civil rights movement in the 1960s, and black Christians have continued to engage in advocacy and zivil Ongehooregkeet ronderëm Aarmut, inequality and Police Gewalt. Latinos an Native Americans, too, have for centuries fought for “progressive” causes like Aarbechtsrecht, Ëmweltschutz an Mënscherechter.
So it’s not quite right to Herald den "klammen” of a religious left, as several denken Stécker have done since Christians began openly resisting Trump’s immigration enforcement and other policies. That erases the historic resistance of religious communities of color.
Why immigration
Still, Trump’s hardline immigration policies seem to have spurred a broader population of Christians into action. And their civil disobedience crosses racial, ethnic and even party lines in new ways.
One reason for this is simple: Migration has become increasingly visible in recent years, especially under Trump.
d' number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. peaked at 12.2 million in 2007. Presidents George W. Bush an Barack Obama approached this issue by using relatively pro-immigrant language while deportéieren honnertdausend all Joer.
Though immigration at the United States’ southern border has actually been eropgeet since 2000, the number of Central American Asylbewerber huet ugebaut. In 2014, an unprecedented gewaltsam in Central American children seeking asylum protections got significant media attention.
Donald Trump began his presidential campaign the next year with a speech maligning migrants. During his administration, his Rhetorik has slowly become Politik.
But the primary reason Christian groups are now focusing on immigration, I’d argue, is simply that the notion of welcoming strangers and caring for the vulnerable are embedded in the Christian Traditioun.
In the Biblical text Matthew 25, the “Son of Man” – a figure understood to be Jesus – blesses people who gave food to the hungry, cared for the sick and welcomed strangers. And in Levite 19: 34, God commands: “The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you.”
dës Texter help explain why support for immigrants crosses traditional left-right religious boundaries.
Denominations that are generally considered left-leaning, like the Vereenegt Kierch vu Christus an der Evangelesch lutheresch Kierch an Amerika publicly oppose Trump’s harsh treatment of immigrants. So do the Catholic bishops an Southern Baptists, which are typically more socially and politically conservative.
Welcoming the stranger
Beyond directly Hëllef Migranten at the U.S. border duerch ubidden food, shelter, translation and legal Servicer, vill of these Christian groups och gleewen that in democratic societies they should pursue laws founded on Christian moral teachings.
After all, they point out, God’s command in Leviticus was to the nation of Israel – not just individual Israelites. And Jesus often told religious and political officials wéi handelen an kritiséiert the oppression of foreigners, widows and orphans by those in authority.
Glawen-baséiert support for immigrants is not limited to Christian groups.
jiddesche an Muslim organizations have both provided humanitarian aid to Central American asylum seekers and protestéiert a Féderalen Verbuet on travel from Muslim countries.
An 40 jiddesche leaders were arrested in New York City on Aug. 12 for protesting the Trump administration’s detention policies.
Connecting to politicians and interfaith cooperation
The 2020 election season has brought Christian faith-based activism into the political fore. Several Democratic presidential candidates have spoken openly about the faith-based roots of their progressivism.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren has referenzéiert sinn the biblical text of Matthew 25 as a touchstone for her critique of wealth inequality and insistence on universal health care.
In pushing for criminal justice reform, Sen. Cory Booker schwätzt iwwer the Christian tradition of “grace.” He’s also been known to quote the Prophet Muhammad, Buddha and the Hindu god Shiva.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg is a devout churchgoer who is also gay. He seet that his sexual orientation is God-given and that his marriage, in the Episcopal church, to another man, has brought him closer to God.
Talk of an emerging “religious left” is ahistoric. American Christianity has always had its liberal strains, with pastors and parishioners protesting state-sponsored injustices like Sklaverei, Segregatioun, déi Vietnam Krich an Mass Deportatioun.
But the high profile, religiously based moral outrage at Trump’s immigration policies does seem to be spurring some long-overdue rethinking of what it means to be Christian in America.
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