海角大神

Family separation: Evangelicals add their voices to opposition

When Julie Frady planned to make a poster to protest the Trump administration鈥檚 new 鈥渮ero tolerance鈥� immigration policy last week, she wanted to find the perfect Bible verse to stand against it, she says, one nobody else would expect.

She鈥檚 voted Republican most all of her life, but Ms. Frady, an evangelical 海角大神 who lives in Wichita, Kan., says she鈥檚 been 鈥渁ppalled鈥� by the Trump administration鈥檚 practice of separating immigrant children from their parents. And she鈥檚 been especially appalled, she says, at the administration鈥檚 stated purpose to use the practice as a deterrent to other immigrant families thinking of crossing the border illegally.

Since she joined about 60 protesters who marched in front of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Delano, Kan., Thursday, more and more people across the United States, and from across its often-polarized political spectrum, have begun to express deep moral reservations at the logistical realities of the practice.

Former first lady Laura Bush called the zero-tolerance policy on Sunday, and first lady Melania Trump in favor of a resolution that would reunite families as well. Conservatives in Congress, and other Trump loyalists, have also voiced their opposition.聽聽

But in many ways, it was evangelical 海角大神s, including some of President Trump鈥檚 most vocal supporters, who first began to change the course of the national conversation about immigration.

As federal agencies began to put into place the actual protocols of separating, detaining, and then finding suitable care for more than聽 鈥� including about 2,000 taken from their parents since the Trump administration began its 鈥渮ero tolerance鈥� policy in April 鈥� many Evangelicals began to speak out against it.

Before opposition to the policy began to dominate the national conversation, Frady decided to use a verse from the small Book of Obadiah for her poster. The Hebrew prophet condemns the nation of Edom for closing its borders to Israelite refugees fleeing the Babylonians.

In multiple colors, she drew: 鈥淭he LORD declares: You should NOT stand at the crossroads to cut down fleeing REFUGEES 鈥� in the day of their DISTRESS.鈥�

It鈥檚 in many ways a defining feature of American Evangelical identity: the centrality of Scripture for both personal piety and political action.

鈥淚 place an extremely high value on the authority of Scripture, and the place it should hold in our lives,鈥� says Frady, a lay leader who often leads Bible studies at Northwest Free Methodist Church, a small congregation in Wichita, where she also plays tenor sax for morning worship. 鈥淚 would not knowingly go against something I thought the Bible commanded, no matter how I felt about it.鈥�

Indeed, the Bible, and the voices of Evangelicals around the country, have become a focus of the debate.

• The Rev. Franklin Graham, one of the president鈥檚 most outspoken evangelical supporters, called the policy 鈥渄isgraceful鈥� . 鈥淚t's terrible to see families ripped apart, and I don鈥檛 support that one bit,鈥� he said.
• The Evangelical Immigration Table, which includes pastors from the president鈥檚 group of faith advisers, earlier this month, calling for the end to the policy. 鈥淎s evangelical 海角大神s guided by the Bible, one of our core convictions is that God has established the family as the fundamental building block of society,鈥� members of the coalition wrote. 鈥淭he traumatic effects of this separation on these young children, which could be devastating and long-lasting, are of utmost concern.鈥�
• The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the nation and one of the most politically and theologically conservative, overwhelmingly passed an at its annual meeting last week. The resolution called for immigration reforms that would include a path to legal status for those here illegally 鈥� which has long been anathema to most Evangelicals. Such reforms should maintain 鈥渢he priority of family unity,鈥� the convention proclaimed, and should 鈥淸honor] the value and dignity of those seeking a better life for themselves and their families.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 been a really interesting week or so,鈥� says David Gushee, an professor of 海角大神 ethics at Mercer University in Atlanta, and an Evangelical.

鈥淚 don't think we should be using Scripture to defend any of these laws. My question is: How does love demand us to act?鈥� said Sister Phyllis Peters, a Roman Catholic nun, speaking at a roundtable in Brownsville, Texas, Monday afternoon after elected officials visited the Casa Padre and Casa Presidents children's shelters in the city. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, (D) of Texas, called on Evangelicals, Mr. Graham, and other religious leaders to act, saying, 鈥淚t will take that kind of spirit that is nonpartisan, religious, social, and humanitarian, and I think that group is much stronger than the federal government at this time. We must stand up to the federal government when it is necessary, and it is necessary now.鈥�

Still, white Evangelicals have been Trump鈥檚 most ardent supporters from the start, and as a group they remain the most supportive of his administration鈥檚 immigration policies, .

And Evangelicals within the Trump administration, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions and press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, invoked the Bible to defend the policy of separating children.

Discussing the 鈥渃oncerns raised by our church friends about separating families,鈥� Mr. Sessions , last week, 鈥淚 would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13, to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained them for the purpose of order.鈥�

Later, Ms. Sanders 聽that 鈥渋t is very biblical to enforce the law. That is actually repeated a number of times throughout the Bible.鈥�

On the one hand, it speaks to the power and influence that Evangelicals wield in US politics, notes Professor Gushee, given that a political debate over immigration policy became a debate over biblical interpretation. 鈥淥nly in America, really, and only in America in the 21st century and with a conservative Republican government, would we be having these public biblical arguments about immigration policy.鈥�

The fraught history of Romans 13

Yet after Sessions invoked Romans 13, 鈥淟et everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established,鈥� 海角大神s, including many white Evangelicals, pointed out the long history of this passage, a passage that Gushee says 鈥渉as been used and abused by tyrants and governments doing injustice for centuries.鈥�

鈥淭here are two dominant places in American history when Romans 13 is invoked,鈥� said John Fea, a professor of American history at Messiah College in Pennsylvania, . 鈥淥ne is during the American Revolution [when] it was invoked by loyalists, those who opposed the American Revolution.鈥�

The other was in the middle of the 19th century, to support defense of the Fugitive Slave Act, Professor Fea continued. 鈥淚 mean, this is the same argument that Southern slaveholders and the advocates of a Southern way of life made.鈥�

Steven Colbert, a devout Roman Catholic and the host of 鈥淭he Late Show,鈥� that the attorney general continue reading the passage on submitting to civil authorities through Romans 13:8-10. 鈥淟ove thy neighbor as thyself. Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.鈥�

Trump has been backtracking from his policy of zero tolerance, that his hands are tied, and that Democrats are the ones responsible for legal requirements that his administration is only enforcing.

But as the Monitor reported in March 2017, the Trump White House has been mulling separating children from their families as a deterrent policy from the first months of the administration. After an outcry from religious leaders, however, the plan was postponed.

鈥楶rosecutorial discretion鈥� vs. 鈥榸ero tolerance鈥�

The Obama administration, too, separated immigrant children from their parents, advocates note. And it also greatly expanded a policy of detaining mothers with children in expanded facilities. If a father crossed the border illegally with a child, they would typically be separated.

鈥淭he separation of families at the border is not new,鈥� says Christina Fialho, co-executive director of Freedom for Immigrants,聽who advocates for immigrants being held at places like the private, for-profit Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego. 鈥淯nder the Obama administration, we worked with hundreds of parents who were separated from their family in home raids, including mothers who were still nursing young children.鈥�

The difference, however, was that the Obama administration maintained a policy of 鈥減rosecutorial discretion鈥�: the focus of resources on known, dangerous individuals, rather than 鈥渮ero tolerance,鈥� an adherence to the letter of the law in all instances.

鈥淲e realized that we had limited resources in what we could do,鈥� says Kevin Fandl, who worked as a senior counsel for the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from 2007 to 2013. 鈥淲e believed we should target those resources toward the most serious threats to the country, those threats being convicted felons or those with a criminal history, terrorists, threats for national security, and recent border crossers, those people with no ties whatsoever to the United States.鈥�

鈥淓verybody else was considered a really low level for enforcement, which encouraged agents to say, 鈥極K, if we spot a family with children, we鈥檙e probably not going to spend much time with them,鈥� 鈥� Mr. Fandl continues. Sometimes, if they were picked up, the policy of 鈥渃atch and release鈥� allowed families with children to enter the country after being given a Notice to Appear order 鈥� which, he admits, no one expected them to do.

For critics, however, this created a perverse incentive. 鈥淣o nation can have the policy that whole classes of people are immune from immigration law or enforcement,鈥� said Stephen Miller, the president鈥檚 senior policy adviser, . 鈥淚t was a simple decision by the administration to have a zero tolerance policy for illegal entry, period. The message is that no one is exempt from immigration law.鈥�

And as Sessions : 鈥淚f people don鈥檛 want to be separated from their children, they should not bring them with them. We鈥檝e got to get this message out.鈥�

As a result, however, the system has been severely strained. Sessions said last week that taking care of unaccompanied minors was costing taxpayers more than $1 billion a year, most now under the care of the US Department of Health and Human Services and its .

Logistically speaking, the system is not prepared to handle the care of thousands of children, says Lisa Koop, associate director of legal services for the National Immigrant Justice Center, who represents a number of immigrant woman whose children were taken from them by the US government.

鈥淭hey did not know what was going on with their kids, and when we finally managed to figure that one of the kids was being detained in New York, the child鈥檚 mother [being held at the Otay Mesa Detention Center] said to me, Where is New York? Is New York far away from here?鈥� 鈥� says Ms. Koop, who recounts stories of mothers having their children literally torn from their arms. 鈥淭hey just have no concept of where their children are, and what conditions they鈥檙e in.鈥�

Gushee says he has been heartened by the biblical responses to Sessions鈥� use of Romans 13, from those on Twitter to the discussions in the media. biblical passages that have to do with compassion and care for those suffering, and especially for 鈥渢he least of these鈥� and the most vulnerable in society, he says, 鈥渢hey surfaced when they were needed.鈥�

鈥淏ut the story is not just the Bible verses,鈥� Gushee continues. 鈥淭he tears and suffering of human beings whose rights are being violated speaks. That is a language that should be taken seriously. In fact, one might even say this language is revelatory.鈥�

鈥淭o see children weeping, to see bereft parents not knowing where their children are, to learn about a man who killed himself in a detention center because he was torn apart over the destruction of his family 鈥� these stories speak, too.鈥�

And they have spurred devout evangelical 海角大神s like Frady to action.

鈥淚 love America,鈥� says Frady, who wore a purple T-shirt with 鈥淛esus was a Refugee鈥� to the protest near her home in Wichita. 鈥淚t is my homeland, and I am certainly blessed to be an American.鈥�

鈥淏ut I am also not naive to its warts,鈥� she continues.聽鈥淎nd this is more than a wart.鈥�

Staff writer Henry Gass contributed to this report from Brownsville, Texas.