“When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the stranger. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the stranger as yourself, for you too were once strangers in a foreign land…” (Leviticus 19:33-34)
This Saturday, February 28, from 12:30-1:30pm, First United Methodist Church in Osage is hosting an Immigration Prayer Vigil. We invite you to join us in praying for immigrant families, for just immigration reform, for our nation’s leaders as they discern how to combine security and hospitality, and for our own moral courage to reach out in compassion rather than recoil in fear.
As a pastor and person of faith, I am deeply concerned about the direction this country is moving on immigration. Immigrant families and workers are living in a state of constant fear due to increased raids, deportations and detainments, and anti-immigrant sentiments. Adopting just and humane comprehensive immigration policy is not an issue of the Democrats or Republicans. It is not an issue of the conservative right or the liberal left. It is a faith issue. It is a justice issue. It is a gospel issue. It is a Jesus issue. In the Christian faith, the scriptures show us and Jesus teaches us that our salvation is directly tied to our welcoming the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and the imprisoned. (Matthew 25)
Immigration reform isn’t a faceless problem—it affects our neighbors, members of our congregations, parents working to provide for their families, and innocent children. Raids instill fear and destroy families, and anti-immigrant rhetoric tears apart communities.
All faith traditions share a common mandate to welcome and care for all members of our community, and love our neighbors as we do ourselves. This principle must serve as the foundation as we seek to address the complex issue of immigration.
Please join us this Saturday at 819 Main Street, and please remember immigrant families in your daily prayers.
Peace,
Rev. Anna Blaedel
Pastor, First United Methodist Church, Osage
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1 comment:
here, here, pastor.
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