Episcopal Church is ending its refugee resettlement agreement with the United States federal government.
The Episcopal Church in the US has ended its immigrant resettlement program after the US ordered resettlement for Afrikaners from South Africa seeking asylum while all other refugees have been declined since this administrations started.
The Federal Governments crackdown on immigration has expanded to asylum seekers, ending legal status for many of these types of immigrants. These people are having to return to countries that may be hostile towards them. This has never been illegal immigration and is meant to help people at risk of persecution.
In Bishop Rowe’s letter he notes that much of their work in recent years has been the resettlement of Afghan refugees. These are often people who had assisted the US and have been in danger since our withdrawal from Afghanistan.
When faith organizations stop supporting federal programs we need to pause and ask our selves if we are living up to the ideals of our founding fathers.
We are a nation of immigrants. We are forgetting what made us great, why God blesses us. We serve the least and give them hope. They come looking for the American dream, guided by lady liberty’s torch. At her feet you can read this inscription, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
“The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus. The poem’s famous lines, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free
This is also biblical. We are called to treat the Alien as we treat ourselves, reminding Gods people that they were once Aliens and slaves in a foreign land.
“You shall treat the alien who resides with you no differently than the natives born among you; you shall love the alien as yourself; for you too were once aliens in the land of Egypt. I, the Lord, am your God.”
Leviticus 19:34
If we want to be great again, we need to be compassionate again. These people are no different then our families before us that brought us here. We need to respect their memory and return to welcoming those who need us.