Worship

“Un Paso Más: Radical Hospitality Revisited”

A Sermon for February Focus Month: Peace and Justice
by Reverend Charles Blustein Ortman
February 10, 2008

READINGS: ANCIENT & MODERN

Our first reading is from the Old Testament Book of Leviticus:

When strangers sojourn with you in your land, you shall not do them wrong. The strangers who sojourn with you shall be to you as the natives among you, and you shall love them as yourself; for you [too] were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Our second reading is taken from a Statement made by Unitarian Universalist Association President, Rev. William G. Sinkford, on May 8, 2007:

Grounded in the Unitarian Universalist affirmation of the inherent worth and dignity of every person, the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations endorses the New Sanctuary Movement, a movement of prophetic hospitality and public witness to bring about real change in the immigration policy of the United States. The UUA joins other people of faith and conscience in calling for the passage of just and comprehensive immigration reform and an immediate stop to federal raids that separate parents from their children and create a climate of fear and repression.

SERMON:

Poco a poco se va lejos. Por lo tanto, siempre es necesario tomar el próximo paso. Siempre es necesario que tomemos un paso más. Little by little, one goes far. So then, always, it is necessary to take the next step. Always it is necessary for us to take one more step.

The other night, after a very satisfying evening spent with our New UU Class, I drove home while listening to National Public Radio. Warren Olney of the call-in talk show, “To the Point,” was on, though I don’t know why because it wasn’t his usual time slot. Anyway, the topic was election campaign issues, and at the time they were talking about John McCain’s positions on undocumented immigration.

A woman called in from California in order to set the record straight. She spoke about the blight caused by, what she referred to as, “the illegal aliens.” Her ethnic bigotry spoke much louder than did any of her misinformed and inaccurate claims of the negative economic and social impact of undocumented immigrants on the country.

The in-house guest on the show, a Republican pundit whom I did not recognize, as well as the host Warren Olney, whom I’ve never before heard admonish a caller for their position on anything, both listened for a couple of minutes and then hung up on the woman. Both of them criticized her for her own inadequacy of perception. But then the guest went on to say that such a pernicious impression as this was widespread in the country and that it must be confronted and corrected if there is to be any resolution to the immigration issues that are a part of today’s national dialogue. My kind of Republican, I say.

We are here this morning to take a look at what the next step might look like for us, as a congregation, as we go about doing our part in confronting such prejudice. And more, we are here to find our part in correcting the injustices that have been inflicted upon millions of undocumented immigrants, mindful that they have been drawn to this country by compelling economic and market persuasions, and then have been relegated to a citizenship, not of the USA, but of Limbo – the land of waiting.

This is the third time this topic has been addressed from this pulpit in the past three months. The first time was the Sunday before Thanksgiving, when we raised this issue in the context of a religious concern and a moral calling. These words spoken on a much related topic by Bobby Kennedy to the City Club of Cleveland on April 5, 1968 summarize the core of that concern and calling:

“But we can perhaps remember, if only for a time, that those who live with us are our brothers [and our sisters], that they share with us the same short moment of life; that they seek, as do we, nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and in happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can.

“Surely, this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal, can begin to teach us something. Surely, we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow [human beings], and surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our own hearts brothers, [sisters] and [fellow citizens] once again.”

The second time the topic was addressed was just a few weeks ago, on Martin Luther King Sunday. At that time I said that the more than 12 million undocumented immigrants in this country are here, simply to live. And to a very great extent they are working, paying taxes and following the laws (except for immigration laws). At the same time, they have no voice in the government and they are not receiving the bulk of benefits that are guaranteed to the rest of the American people.

In effect, they are underwriting the benefits that the rest of us enjoy. In effect, to a very large extent, they are victims of a kind of neo-slavery or at least an indentured sevitude that extracts their services while extorting their silence and excluding them from the bounty which is this country's richness… The point is – we must name as wrong those things that are wrong. And then we must find ways, whatever ways we can to dismantle the wrongness in order to reweave the fabric of our culture to include all the strands, all the people who are here working in and for this country.

I invite you to revisit the texts of those earlier sermons, especially if there’s any doubt as to the moral implications of our being called to being our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers in this matter.

Today, I raised the topic because three weeks from now, you will be voting as a congregation on whether or not to become a supporting congregation in the New Sanctuary Movement. A couple of weeks ago in our town meeting on this topic, I promised that I would lay out a vision today of what it might look like and what it might mean for our congregation to join in solidarity with other religious congregations and organizations to do our part in response to this moral quandary of our times.

We must name what is wrong. We must do whatever we can to dismantle the wrongness.

Most often, I do not take a public stand on issues that come before you for a vote. There have been exceptions to that practice though. This time around, I want you to know that I strongly encourage you to take this next step, to claim a position and act for justice, on behalf of those whose voices have been rendered mute. I’m not suggesting that this is the only way to address these injustices wrought upon our undocumented brothers and sisters. I am saying it is the only way that I know.

Taking such a step as this is a big one. We should consider seriously what we are getting into. What would it look like to be a supporting congregation? The following information is made available from the newsanctuarymovement.org website. The website also has a link to the full statement of support made by Bill Sinkford, president of the Unitarian Universalist Association.

Prophetic Hospitality: Strategy for a New Movement

Overview

As an act of public witness, the New Sanctuary Movement will enable congregations to publicly provide hospitality and protection to a limited number of immigrant families whose legal cases clearly reveal the contradictions and moral injustice of our current immigration system while working to support legislation that would change their situation.

These families, which will be in the deportation process, include citizen children, have adults with good work records and have a potential case under current law. The Center for Constitutional Rights is working with a broad network of lawyers across the country to provide expert legal counsel and support to each family. Participating congregations will offer a sponsored family hospitality for a limited period; the family will rotate from one congregation to another as needed, until their case is resolved. Because the family's identity will be public, the congregations will not be violating federal law.

Host congregations will sign onto a Sanctuary Pledge. Other allied religious leaders and congregations will also sign onto the Pledge. They will also accompany the host congregations, providing spiritual and material support as needed.

Role and Expectations for Host Congregations

What does a place of worship have to do to participate and become a sanctuary for immigrant families?

Agree to host an immigrant family that meets the following criteria:
     Be in the legal process and under an order of deportation
     Have American citizen children
     Have a good work record
     Have a viable case under current law

Host the family for an initial commitment. The family will use the congregation’s as their mailing address and will be able to spend time as needed at the site. They may need actual hospitality (a place to live) in the congregation, in real estate owned by the congregation or in the home of a family that belongs to the congregation.

Help with material and spiritual support for the family. There will be a larger network of individuals and congregations who will not be hosting families but will be providing material and spiritual support for families. Expert immigration lawyers will be handling their case.

Participate in a public press conference with congregations all over the country who are hosting families. All of the host and allied congregations are joining in an interfaith statement of accompaniment/solidarity lifting up the human rights of immigrant families as children of God.

Be available for press interviews.

If we choose to become a supporting congregation we are asked to commit ourselves to the, “Allied Faith Communities Statement of Support and Involvement.”

Moved by our faith to participate in the New Sanctuary Movement, this faith community commits to the following:

Education

We will educate ourselves about issues facing immigrants in our society, and about the current status of immigration-related legislation.

We will avail ourselves of resources from the New Sanctuary Movement, and will welcome the first-hand stories of immigrants themselves who have experienced injustice.

We will renew our study of the sacred stories of migration and hospitality, injustice and hope, which already exist in our own faith tradition.

Seeking also to educate our greater community, we will offer public forums on immigration.

Advocacy

We understand that education alone brings no change if it does not lead to action. Therefore,

We will actively and publicly work for comprehensive immigration reform in the United States.

We will call for an immediate moratorium on all raids and unjust deportations that cause the separation of families, until such time as the broken system of immigration laws is fixed.

We agree to include our names, our voices and our selves (or representative members) in public events, various forms of media, and other appropriate venues.

We will be a compassionate and persistent voice for justice for our immigrant brothers and sisters.

In addition, we commit to one or more of the following:

Legal Triage

The need for competent and free or low-cost legal advice to the immigrant community far outstrips the capacity of the movements “prophetic hospitality.” Therefore, faith communities are called upon to host legal clinics, provide legal referrals and to identify families in need of such assistance.

Prophetic Hospitality

Faith communities will "host" a family seeking sanctuary for a period of three months, and serve as a tangible support system for them during that period. Based on the needs of the family in question, such support might include

(a) meals for the family,

(b) transportation to and from work, school or other events,

(c) housing at the faith community itself, should such emergency housing be required, and

(d) financial support and/or job referral (particularly in the case of job loss due to publicity of the case). Although this form of very public hospitality is entirely legal, faith communities involved in this aspect will have access to first-rate pro-bono legal services.

Material Support

Faith communities will provide financial support towards either

(a) the New Sanctuary Movement itself, or

(b) a pool of money to be used to assist specific families in the local community seeking sanctuary and in need of the support.
Depending upon storage and distribution capacity, other forms of donations could also be given, including food, bedding, clothing, and other material goods. Cultural, musical and other educational events are encouraged to raise both money for and awareness of the movement.

Worker Justice

Despite society’s ongoing desire for the services of day laborers and immigrant domestics, the climate of racism and harassment has reached a fever pitch. Faith communities are called to offer support through:

1) being publicly present at existing day labor pick-up sites as a peaceful presence in the face of racist and hateful demonstrators;

2) serving as an alternative labor/employer match site; and/or

3) being advocates for worker issues.

And finally, if we choose to sign on, we are asked to make the following New Sanctuary Movement Pledge:

The New Sanctuary Movement is a coalition of interfaith religious leaders and participating congregations, called by our faith to respond actively and publicly to the suffering of our immigrant brothers and sisters residing in the United States.

We acknowledge that the large-scale immigration of workers and their families to the United States is a complex historical, global and economic phenomenon that has many causes and does not lend itself to simplistic or purely reactive public policy solutions.

We stand together in our faith that everyone, regardless of national origin, has basic common rights, including but not limited to: 1) livelihood; 2) family unity; and 3) physical and emotional safety. We witness the violation of these rights under current immigration policy, particularly in the separation of children from their parents due to unjust deportations, and in the exploitation of immigrant workers. We are deeply grieved by the violence done to families through immigration raids. We cannot in good conscience ignore such suffering and injustice.

Therefore, We Covenant To:

• Take a public, moral stand for immigrants’ rights

• Reveal, through education and advocacy, the actual suffering of immigrant workers and families under current and proposed legislation

• Protect immigrants against hate, workplace discrimination, and unjust deportation

What are some of the ways we might go about trying to accomplish some of these commitments? Here are some suggestions from Mary Moriarity of our own Ad Hoc New Sanctuary Movement Committee: Together we can advocate for our congressional delegation to co-sponsor, and to advocate for the passage of HR 1176, the Child Citizen Protection Act, which does not require, but gives discretion to an immigration judge to consider the best interests of a citizen child when the child’s parent is “deportable” under immigration laws.

We can develop a committee from the congregation that would gather and share news coverage, articles, other stories about fair or unfair treatment of immigrants, and respond with letters to the editor, letters to news organizations, and such.

We can develop avenues for inviting other area congregations to join us in the New Sanctuary Movement. And in fact we have already begun this solicitation.

And the one I love best is that we could have one family from our congregation each week volunteer to host our New Sanctuary Movement family for dinner. Every Friday night, for example. And we could then publicize the location of the dinner for each week, with others in community invited to come on a pot-luck basis.

Those are some of the particulars of how things might look. What might all of this mean for our congregation?

Legally, it means that we would put ourselves at very little, if any risk of liability.
Theologically, it means that we would recognize that humanity is all a unified part of creation and that none of us is saved unless all of us are saved.
Economically, it means that we would put some – but not even very much – of our money where our hearts are.
Practically, it would mean that we will have extended ourselves – with our expertise, our time, our resources and our hospitality.
Spiritually, it would mean that we are aware of the truth of our lives and that of the lives of our brothers and sisters, and that that truth will not let us rest until we have done what we can to make the world more whole.
I suspect that embarking on such a path would mean a host of things that at this point are quite unanticipated, but which I trust could help us to grow more faithfully as we go about finding and making meaning in our lives.

Again, I’m not suggesting that this is the only way to address the injustices wrought upon our undocumented brothers and sisters, who are indeed ex officio members of this society. I am saying it is the only way I know, working in faith and in collaboration with others, in this community and with other communities.

In life, it is always about who we are – which is more than the sum of all we have been – and it is about who we are becoming. Together we are working so that we can take the next step, one more step in building the world that now hangs in the balance of our aspirations.

Poco a poco se va lejos. Por lo tanto, siempre es necesario tomar el próximo paso. Siempre es necesario que tomemos un paso más.