Recently the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, our denominational partner, and several other plaintiffs filed asking the Department of Homeland Security to restore sensitive locationstatus for houses of worship when it comes to matters of immigration law enforcement. You may remember that a recent executive order reversed protections historically given to“sensitive locations,” including schools and places of worship. This week, CBF shared that they (we) received a positive ruling regarding the motion. This means that CBF congregations, including ours, are once again protected as sensitive locations. CBF leaders wrote that they chose to join this lawsuit because of what they have heard from a wide range of CBF congregations regarding the impact of the new policies on their ministries. They appealed both to our Fellowship’s longstanding commitment to religious liberty, church state separation and congregational autonomy and the depth of our ministries among immigrants and refugees, both at the denominational and congregational level.
CBF has recommended that congregations place signage at church entrances to indicate the church’s protective status under this ruling, and we have placed these signs at our main entrances. This is a privilege that other congregations are not afforded at the present moment – only those listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit – so we can be thankful for CBF’s public witness to protect the marginalized and to take action for church and religious freedom on our behalf.
Pastorally, I’ve wrestled with how our church can respond to all of this in a meaningful way, how we can embody the scriptural call to welcome the stranger. Shortly after the protections were lifted on January 21, I checked in with the director of our church’s Language Ministry, Paula Strozier, to see how these changes are affecting our Language Ministry students. She told me that because most of our current students are documented and from countries such as Brazil and Japan, they felt safe and were continuing to attend. She reminded me that our large group of Hispanic students stopped coming several years ago amid previous threats to immigration policies, scared to come out and engage in the wider community. I’ve also reached out to Fr. Steve Patti of St. Peter Claver, a church in town with a vast Latino population, to ask if there are tangible ways that our congregation can be supportive of the immigrant community. He tells me that their congregants are presently “doing OK” and going about their lives, though more nervous these past weeks with rumors of ICE appearances.
In a sermon early in my tenure as pastor, I expressed my hope that we be a congregation known for our actions as much as for our statements. If you are aware of practical ways our congregation can engage in care for our neighbors in a time of fear and uncertainty, please help us get connected. Our place as a congregation is not to enter partisan politics, but to speak and act out the gospel – which at times is inherently political without being partisan– in a way that faithfully follows the way of Jesus, always a champion of the oppressed.