Sunday, April 01, 2018

Pueblo Sin Fronteras is what we should be able to call Christians



About 30 people shouted, “No SB 4, no SB 4,” as they gathered Friday morning in front of Bowie High School to launch the TogetherJuntos Caravan, which will travel across Texas to educate immigrants about their constitutional rights in the United States.

The caravan, led by the Border Network for Human Rights in El Paso and other pro-immigrant groups, is an effort to resist the enactment of Senate Bill 4, the so-called “show me your papers” or sanctuary cities law, that was upheld by a federal appeals court in March.


For five days now hundreds of Central Americans — children, women, and men, most of them from Honduras — have boldly crossed immigration checkpoints, military bases, and police in a desperate, sometimes chaotic march toward the United States. Despite their being in Mexico without authorization, no one has made any effort to stop them.

Organized by a group of volunteers called Pueblos Sin Fronteras, or People Without Borders, the caravan is intended to help migrants safely reach the United States, bypassing not only authorities who would seek to deport them, but gangs and cartels who are known to assault vulnerable migrants.

Organizers like Rodrigo Abeja hope that the sheer size of the crowd will give immigration authorities and criminals pause before trying to stop them.

“If we all protect each other we'll get through this together,” Abeja yelled through a loudspeaker on the morning they left Tapachula, on Mexico's border with Guatemala, for the nearly monthlong trek.

When they get to the US, they hope American authorities will grant them asylum or, for some, be absent when they attempt to cross the border illegally. More likely is that it will set up an enormous challenge to the Trump administration's immigration policies and its ability to deal with an organized group of migrants numbering in the hundreds.

The guy in Florida who is in charge of the Border Patrol is letting his xenophobic freak flag fly:

 
Apparently sensible immigration laws are too much to ask for?
 
No, he doesn't understand what DACA is.  He just understands fear of a brown planet.

It is Easter:

 
The day we remember the man who said this:

Matthew 25:31-46
25:31 "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.

25:32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats,

25:33 and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.

25:34 Then the king will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;

25:35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,

25:36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.'

25:37 Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink?

25:38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing?

25:39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?'

25:40 And the king will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.'

25:41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, 'You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels;

25:42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,

25:43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.'

25:44 Then they also will answer, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?'

25:45 Then he will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.'

25:46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

Of course, the man in the White House thinks the glory is all his. The rest of us don't have to follow him.

5 comments:

  1. During the Lenten and Easter season, I've had nothing to do with the church and little to do with prayer. God has been missing, or so it seems to me. When I began to read the words you quoted from Matthew, I felt a quickening, something coming to life.

    It all started with the Emmaus story in your previous post and the mention of Caravaggio's painting of the disciples at table with Jesus, one of my favorites.

    Thanks, Robert.

    "Lord Jesus, stay with us, for evening is at hand and the day is
    past; be our companion in the way, kindle our hearts, and
    awaken hope, that we may know you as you are revealed in
    Scripture and the breaking of bread. Grant this for the sake
    of your love." Amen. (Book of Common Prayer)

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  2. Sorry, I have to do this. The colors on your Caravaggio are all wrong. I've seen the painting at the National Portrait Gallery in London, and the colors are more like this.

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    1. Thanks for the correction. I've been dragging around a bad copy....

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  3. If Caravaggio wasn't one of my favorites, and if the dramatic contrast between light and shade (I believe it's called chiaroscuro) in his paintings wasn't so striking, I'd have let it go. As it was...

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    1. It's not a small thing;certainly not in a Caravaggio.

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