Yearly Archives: 2018

Christian Voices on the Separation of Immigrant Families

When it comes to moral and family issues, I want to hear from people of faith. I don’t take my moral cues from pundits, government officials, or celebrities. Rachel Maddow, Sean Hannity, and all the rest have agendas apart from Scripture. They couldn’t care less about “What would Jesus do?” Unfortunately, my observation is that way too many Christians form their views from these secular sources, and don’t seek out views from the people they SHOULD be paying attention to–Christian leaders.

Although you may listen to Laura Ingraham or Chris Matthews five nights a week, I encourage you to not shape your views from their opinions. Rather, give extra weight to people who speak from a foundation of knowing and loving Jesus. THOSE are the people whose values align with my own, and I hope that matters to you, as well.

Here are Christian voices (mostly evangelical) addressing the issue of separating immigrant children from their parents.

Leith Anderson, President, National Association of Evangelicals: “The Bible says that families came first and government later. Let’s not buck the Bible by separating families.”

Franklin Graham: “It’s disgraceful, and it’s terrible to see families ripped apart, and I don’t support that one bit.”

Scott Arbeiter, President, World Relief: “I’m deeply troubled that as families fleeing persecution reach our border, children are being separated from their parents. I know that President Trump doesn’t want to separate families, either, and I pray he’ll do all he can to reverse these policies.”

Russell Moore, President, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention: “As Christians who care deeply about protecting families and children, we reject the idea that separating children from parents is a sensible component of any immigration policy. As Christians, we affirm both the rule of law and compassion for the vulnerable. Splitting up families is not in the best interests of the United States.”

Rich Stearns, President, World Vision USA: “The single most important relationship for all children, especially those at risk of violence or in high stress situations, is that of a parent. Separating children from their parents can have a devastating long-term effect on children’s mental, physical, and emotional development.”

Tony Suarez, president of the world’s largest Hispanic evangelical association: “God have mercy on those who seem so nonchalant to the plight of children being separated from their parents.”

Cardinal Timothy Dolan: “If they want to take a baby from the arms of his mother and separate the two, that’s wrong. I don’t care where you’re at, what time and what condition….That goes against human decency.”

Statement from the Evangelical Immigration Table, which includes groups with which the United Brethren Church is associated–the National Associatipn of Evangelicals, World Relief, and the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities: “As evangelical Christians guided by the Bible, one of our core convictions is that God has established the family as the fundamental building block of society. The state should separate families only in the rarest of instances.”

Jo Anne Lyon, former general superintendent of The Wesleyan Church: “Americans are divided politically, but this issue is beyond politics. Any of us can imagine the terror that strikes a child separated from her mother or father, and the despair of a mother whose child has been taken from her. It’s vital that we respect our country’s longstanding asylum laws, that we do all we can to keep families together, and that we resume our history of welcoming refugees.”

Ed Stetzer, Wheaton College and LifeWay Research: “As Americans, but even more as followers of Jesus, we should hold the family unit in high regard. God created the family long before there were borders….Separating children from their families is not a humane way to approach immigration policy, and it does not honor the dignity and respect afforded every human as made in the image of God. Yes, there are times when children must be separated from parents, but an immigration ‘deterrent’ does not make this list by a wide margin….We don’t want to live in a nation where children are unnecessarily and casually separated from their parents as a matter of policy….This is not a hard one, sisters and brothers. Yes, immigration is a tricky issue and debatable issue, but using the separation of families as a threat and a tool is not. We can (and must) do better.”

Bishop Daniel Flores (Texas): “Separating immigrant parents and children as a supposed deterrent to immigration is a cruel and reprehensible policy. Children are not instruments of deterrence, they are children.”

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishop: “Families are the foundational element of our society and they must be able to stay together. While protecting our borders is important, we can and must do better as a government, and as a society, to find other ways to ensure that safety. Separating babies from their mothers is not the answer and is immoral.”

Cardinal Sean O’Malley (Boston): “The United States is now openly before the world using children as pawns to enforce a hostile immigration policy….I have always taught respect for the civil law and will continue to do so. But I cannot be silent when our country’s immigration policy destroys families, traumatizes parents, and terrorizes children. The harmful and unjust policy of separating children from their parents must be ended.”

Statement from 26 Jewish organizations: “Taking children away from their families is unconscionable. Such practices inflict unnecessary trauma on parents and children, many of whom have already suffered traumatic experiences. We urge you to immediately rescind the ‘zero tolerance’ policy and uphold the values of family unity and justice on which our nation was built.”

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Messy Justice is Still Justice

I’m not a fan of celebrity pardons. I want to see justice done in the prison system, but not restrict it to people who either know the President, know somebody who can get the President’s ear, or get on Fox & Friends to state their case during the President’s morning “executive time.” I’d prefer a more thoughtful, objective approach to pardons and commutations.

However, I care more than justice happen, regardless of the process. And in the case of Alice Johnson, whose sentence was commuted today by President Trump, justice was done. That gladdens me.

Johnson was convicted of a nonviolent, first-time drug offense, and given a ridiculous life sentence. And she has served 22 years. Such a sentence should never have happened.

So thank you, President Trump, for freeing this woman from prison. Justice was done. And thank you, Kim Kardashian, for using your influence to make it happen.

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40 Years in the Same Place

My college senior picture, taken in 1978 or early 1979.

On this day 40 years ago–June 6, 1978–I started working at the United Brethren denominational headquarters. That’s a long time to come, every day, to the exact same building (though I’ve occupied four different offices). As I tell people, it’s hard to get rid of us entrenched bureaucrats. You’ve heard of “deep state.” I’m “deep church.”

It’s been a joy to spend my career serving the United Brethren Church. I was born into the United Brethren Church, and by the time I began working here, had ordered practically every item on the UB menu–camps, Bible quizzing, youth conventions, college, preacher’s kid, attending UB churches in four different states. It may sound boring to work at the same place for 40 years, but my field, communications, has continually brought new challenges, with changing technologies and accompanying learning curves.

I’ve worked with 11 different bishops, six different Missions directors, and four different Huntington University presidents. Missionaries have always been my heroes, and I’ve had the chance to get to know, and often interview, scores of missionaries. I’ve rubbed shoulders with hundreds of ministers. They come in incredible variety.

In 1978, I had just completed my junior year at Huntington College. Elsa Houtz, my favorite professor in what was then (but not now) a very weak major, Communications, had heard that the assistant editor position was coming open. She had held that position 1975-1977, then turned it over to Denny Miller when she began teaching at HC. She told me I should apply, which I did. I worked part-time during my senior year of college, then went fulltime.

I edited a Sunday school take-home paper, and worked on the monthly United Brethren magazine and our Sunday school quarterlies. In 1982 I became the editor and, for the next 12 years, focused on the monthly magazine. We transitioned to a newsletter strategy in 1993, and in 1997, the internet crashed into my world and we launched a website. Always something new to keep it interesting. Now we have a mobile app.

I used to develop film in our own darkroom. Now I use digital cameras. I went from an IBM Selectric typewriter, to an AT&T DOS computer with two 5.25” floppy disk drives (no hard drive) and a dot-matrix printer. Then, praise God for Steve Jobs. In 1987, my life changed when we got a Mac II, with a monster 40MB drive and 2MB of RAM, attached to a green-screen 12-inch monitor.

It’s been a fun ride, a perfect use of my gifts. And it’s been a pleasure.

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Jesus Reigns. Beyond That, Let’s Not Fuss About It.

United Brethren Bishop Jonathan Weaver, though quite a theologian, apparently didn’t like to fuss over End Times scenarios. I like what he wrote in 1870:

“I know little about what people call a millennium. Whether Christ will reign with his saints a thousand years, I cannot tell. This much I do know: that Christ is reigning, and will reign until all enemies are put under his feet.”

The United Brethren Church has never stated, “This is how the End Times will happen.” Some denominations have it all figured out, and require ministers to be pre-trib, amillennial, or something else. All we say is what the Bible makes clear: that Jesus will come again at the last day–whenever that is, and whatever it looks like–to judge the living and the dead. Some ministers who have joined us from other denominations have said it’s refreshing and liberating not to be forced into an eschatological box.

HOWEVER. We don’t live in a vacuum. “Pre-Trib” is the dominant view among evangelicals. If you ask United Brethren what they believe about the End Times, I’m sure the majority would say, “The Left Behind books–that’s basically how it will happen.”

I, like Jonathan Weaver, don’t like to fuss over the End Times. Every generation thinks Christ will come during their lifetime, and for 2000 years, every generation has been wrong. For a brief time as a teen, reading Hal Lindsey, Salem Kirban, and other authors, I was consumed with the notion that Christ’s return was imminent. I subsequently swung clear the other way, and have seen no reason to swing back.

Here’s my view of End Times scenarios, like the Left Behind books. People take Scripture passages scattered throughout the Bible (Daniel, Ezekiel, Isaiah, the Gospels, Revelation, etc.), put them in a blender, pour in a cup of whole-grain imagination, add a squirt of low-fat theology, season with current events, and serve with fear of eternal damnation and missing the rapture.

I can hold that view and still be a good United Brethren–as long as I believe that Jesus will, eventually, return. Which I do.

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God of Holiness, God of War

I was looking for an article in some old United Brethren magazines when a teaser on the cover of the May 1988 issue grabbed my attention: “Can Evangelicals Regain Integrity?” The article was by Dr. Paul Fetters. I vaguely remembered publishing that article 30 years ago, when I was the editor. I reread it, and found it uncomfortably relevant to today.

At the time, Christians were reeling from affairs by high-profile televangelists Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart. Fetters wrote, “During the past year, the Christian church has suffered an enormous loss of integrity. But we didn’t lose integrity overnight. I see three elements which have contributed to it.”

All three points were excellent, as were his three points for regaining integrity. But it’s the first point I’ll cite here: replacing a God of Holiness for a God of Love. He wrote:

“A Holy God is more demanding than a God of Love. In fact, my understanding is that God COMMANDS us to love, but he DEMANDS that we be holy. The problem is, we don’t want anyone to demand anything of us. We love ourselves and others, our objects and objectives, more than we love a God who says, ‘I am holy and jealous, and I will not share the supreme devotion in your life with any other.

“In the past 25-30 years, we have smothered the earth with ‘God is love.’ What would happen if, in the next 25 years, we blitzed the world with, ‘God is holy’?”

Well, it’s more than 25 years. I would say we’ve drifted much further away from a God of Holiness, and have become increasingly infatuated with a God of Love, who will accept and forgive just about anything.

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Using the Presidential Pardon Responsibly

In the 2016 election, prison and sentencing reform were among my top issues. The number of people America incarcerates is a national disgrace. The Bible is clear about seeking justice for prisoners. Jesus himself, in stating in Luke what he had been anointed to do, included “proclaim liberty to the captives” and “set at liberty those who are oppressed.” He spoke of remembering those in prison, and said, “Whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me.”

For that reason, I appreciate that President Obama pardoned or commuted the sentences of 1,927 persons. Most were convicted of low-level, non-violent drug crimes, though 500 were nevertheless serving life sentences. Many were victims of mandatory sentencing and over-zealous Three Strikes laws, which mandated life sentences even for minor crimes.

Among those he pardoned, there is only one name you might recognize: Chelsea Manning. The rest were anonymous, forgotten men and women with only this one last recourse. I honor President Obama for focusing on people like this–people society normally casts aside and prefers to forget about. Most likely, all of these were persons Obama didn’t know personally, people he’d never heard of. But a recommendation came to him from the Justice department, and he conscientiously and responsibly used his presidential power to “set the captive free.”

I’m delighted that President Trump is showing the same deep concern for the powerless, the voiceless, the forgotten, the oppressed, the victims of systemic injustice. He has now pardoned six people, and is looking to pardon two more.

  • Republican sheriff, fellow birther, and now Senate candidate Joe Arpaio.
  • Republican Scooter Libby, former chief of staff to VP Dick Cheney.
  • Kristian Mark Saucier, a former sailor who made his case on Fox & Friends, the President’s favorite news show.
  • Businessman Sholom Rubashkin.
  • Deceased (in 1946) black boxer Jack Johnson, whose case was championed to Trump by Republican actor Sylvester Stallone.
  • Republican activist and filmaker Dinesh D’Souza.

Today, President Trump said he is considering pardons for two more persons from his Apprentice TV show:

  • Democratic governor and former Apprentice contestant Rod Blagojevich.
  • Cooking mogul Martha Stewart, who led a spin-off of the Apprentice.

For all of these people, a Presidential pardon or commutation might be their last hope of clearing the hurdles needed to make something of their lives.

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A Truly Christian Voice in the Pundit World

Michael Gerson is one of the few evangelical Christian voices in the Punditsphere. He carries solid credentials as a political conservative–Heritage Foundation policy advisor, speechwriter for Bob Dole and George Bush, among other things–but places the Bible above ideology, whereas most conservative pundits cite the Bible only when it affirms their ideology. I look forward to Gerson’s weekly columns. They can be prophetic, and they remind us evangelicals that we are citizens first of the Kingdom of God, and only secondly of a man-made country.

From this past week’s columns:

“According to a recent Pew Research Center poll, white evangelical Protestants are the least likely group in America to affirm an American responsibility to accept refugees. Evangelicals insist on the centrality and inerrancy of scripture and condemn society for refusing to follow biblical norms — and yet, when it comes to verse after verse requiring care for the stranger, they don’t merely ignore this mandate; they oppose it….It indicates the failure of the Christian church in the moral formation of its members, who remain largely untutored in the most important teachings of their own faith.”

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Can’t Believe I Did This

I’ve been proofing our denominational website, which I manage. I came across this sentence which I, a highly trained editor and writer, most definitely wrote.

“We ask church’s to review the National Conference Covenant every two years….”

Somebody should be fired–not only for gross incompetence, but for embarrassing his mother.

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The Evil of Separating Families as Government Policy

A couple weeks ago, my stomach turned when Jeff Sessions made it official: traumatizing immigrant children is now official American policy. When a family comes here illegally, rather than put them in a family detention center as previously done, the children are now ripped from their parents and placed in government care. The idea is to punish the parents by hurting their children.

Currently, an estimated 700 children are separated indefinitely from their parents. An estimated 100 of these children are under the age of 4. The government knows best regarding children? Right now, RIGHT NOW, there are children crying because they want to be with Mom and Dad and don’t know why any of this is happening. And it’s not necessary. The Obama Administration made accommodations to keep families together. Trump could, too. But the President, by all accounts, is the prime advocate for this policy.

THIS is now America?

I’ve been so disgusted, so revolted, that I’ve not even wanted to write about it. The Gospels clearly show how much Jesus loved and valued children, and he had harsh words for those who would harm children. Surely, Jesus is not pleased when he sees America–this country he has richly blessed–cause such distress for the young, innocent, and vulnerable.

Michael Gerson, an evangelical Christian opinion writer–a REAL evangelical, theologically, rather than one of those persons polls describe as “evangelical”–was similarly disgusted, but had no such qualms about putting it in writing.

Gerson wrote: “The debate over a border wall is a policy matter. The separation of children from their parents as a deterrent is a human rights abuse. And the Trump administration, at its highest levels, cannot tell the difference….Our country’s most basic commitment — and its limiting principle — is universal human rights and dignity. This does not prevent the government from enforcing reasonable immigration laws. It does forbid the government from inhumanity in the ENFORCEMENT of immigration laws.”

World Relief, the NAE relief organization with which the United Brethren Church is affiliated, issued a statement saying, “The way we treat asylum-seekers is proof that we can be a nation of laws and a nation of grace. The US government should do everything in its power to keep arriving families together, not separate them.”

For those of you who are inclined to support the President’s policies no matter what, I encourage you to think about this. What does the Bible say? And apart from the rationale you hear from conservative pundits, how do YOU, in your heart as a Christ-follower, really feel about forcing children away from their parents?

The prophet Nathan loved his king, but there came a time when he had to confront him and say, “David, on this, you are wrong.” And there were consequences.

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Thank You, Cyrus: Prophecy, Finally, is Fulfilled

Jeanine Pirro has apparently taken on the title of Theologian in Residence at FoxNews. She declared that by moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, Donald Trump has fulfilled Bible prophecy.

It relates to Cyrus, king of Persia, who said Jerusalem should be inhabited, and formed a caravan of Jewish captives to go rebuild Jerusalem. Cyrus, according to God, had not acknowledged God (whereas Donald Trump, according to James Dobson, is a born-again Christian), and he commanded Cyrus to assemble “fugitives from the nations,” to open doors, and not shut gates (which is not in tune with Trump immigration policy). However, Theologian Pirro looks past those trivialities and sees Trump as a 21st Century version of the pagan king Cyrus.

Jerusalem actually became the capital of Israel in 1948. But THAT apparently didn’t fulfill Scripture. As American Exceptionalists know, nothing counts until the United States says it counts. Now that the US has endorsed Jerusalem as the capital, Scripture is fulfilled. Finally.

Growing up in the 1970s, I read “The Late Great Planet Earth” and other prophecy books. They all mentioned the Fig Tree prophecy from Matthew 24. As interpreted by Hal Lindsey and friends, Jesus was saying that when the nation of Israel is re-established, “this generation shall not pass” until Jesus returns. Lindsey said a biblical generation was 40 years. Therefore, Christ would return within 40 years of 1948, when Israel was re-established.

It obviously didn’t happen by 1988. Why? Well, thanks to Jeanine Pirro, we now know. Although Jerusalem became the capital in 1948, the United States hadn’t acknowledged it. Scripture is clear that the approval of the United States is needed, a fact Hal Lindsey, who lacks Jeanine Pirro’s theological credentials, conveniently chose to ignore.

So now, thanks to Donald Trump, we can finally start the clock. Within 40 years of May 2018, Christ will return. You can count on it.

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