Presiding Bishop Michael Curry on immigration: ‘Who is my neighbor?’

"Deeply embedded in the Christian faith, indeed deeply embedded in the Jewish tradition, which is the mother of the Christian faith, and deeply embedded in the faith and traditions and values of many of the world’s great religions, is a profound conviction in a sure and certain value and virtue that care for the stranger, the alien, the visitor, is a sacred duty, a sacred vow.

In the Hebrew scriptures in the book of Deuteronomy, the book writes and says you shall love the stranger, for remember you were once strangers in the land of Egypt.

In the 25th chapter of Matthew in the New Testament, Jesus in the parable of the last judgment says that when you welcomed the stranger, when you did it to these who are members of my family, you have done it to me."



transcript via https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/pressreleases/presiding-bishop-issues-video-message-on-immigration-who-is-my-neighbor/

still on my mind... Can anything good come out of Nazareth?

Back in January - though it feels much more recent to me - a question was asked and a few remarks made that sparked international discussion. 

Here is one high-profile response:

In the midst of this, I read the lessons for the upcoming Sunday morning, on which I was scheduled to do supply (that is, preach and celebrate the Eucharist as a substitute for the regular priest) at a parish in the area. Apparently I am not the only one who wondered whether the president had read the lectionary in advance just to be sure he was speaking to the gospel reading at hand. 

It's still on my mind, now in Holy Week, during which we see that the Romans had a similar attitude towards the countries they were occupying and the citizens thereof. One need only consider that crucifixion was not a permitted form of death penalty for Roman citizens.  

Although I generally hesitate to share my sermons, I will share this one, as old as the topic may now be by general standards.  It's been pushed to the back burner because of more death in the news - too much death - but it seems to me that any form of attitude that makes someone "less than" is ultimately death dealing. Something to consider as Lent draws to a close, especially this week.

------

Epiphany 2B: What good can come out of Nazareth?

sermon for 1-14-18 

1 Samuel 3:1-10  (11-20) – call of Samuel

1 Corinthians 6:12-20 – glorify God with/in your body

John 1:43-51 – call of Philip, Nathanael under the fig tree

Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

It’s good to be back - to begin to get to know you and to feel comfortable here. I appreciate your welcome, and I look forward to talking with you at coffee hour following the service.

Meeting and getting to know each other can be both a delight and a challenge. Imagine for a moment that you’re being introduced to someone. In the United States, one of the first things people ask is “what do you do?” That has its issues – but that’s for another day. Another question we hear is “Where are you from?” Now, the question “Where are you from” has the potential to capture so much meaning, depending on how it is answered and explored. A resulting conversation could show so much of who we are in so very many directions. Such a question and response provides a window into the other person. Where we’re from is very personal. Think of the related expression, “She knows where I’m coming from.”. It’s a feeling of being understood.

But we don’t always go there. “Where are you from?” and other such introductory questions can give us the sense that we know all about someone when in fact we have very little idea. Hearing that someone is from Fort Wayne, Indiana, or from Manhattan could lead you to very different ideas – which could be far from accurate. But you know those New Yorkers… Yankees fans, the lot of them.

Too often we think we know where someone is from, box them in, and fit them into our schema of The Way Things Are, and that’s that. Even putting people in what we think are GOOD boxes can be problematic because then we aren’t seeing or hearing the actual person, but only what we expect.

Jesus had this problem. He might have been born in Bethlehem and been a toddler in Egypt, but he grew up in Nazareth in Galilee, a poor town in a poor region. On the night he was arrested, Peter was identified as one of his disciples by his accent alone.

Jesus got it from home, too. When he preached in his hometown synagogue, people got offended. As they put it,

“Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all this?’ (Matthew 13:55-56)

Which is to say, “Who do you think you are?” We know where you’re from, so we know who you are, and we’ll judge you accordingly.

Now, really, generalizations are one of the ways the brain makes sense of vast quantities of information. It is when we regard them as hard and fast definitions that we run into trouble.  It’s when we decide we know enough about people to determine who they are – and we stop listening.

And that’s one of the issues we run into in today’s Gospel.

Listen again:

Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”

Can anything good come out of Nazareth?

Does that sound… eerily familiar to anyone this morning?

Apparently derogatory remarks about poverty-stricken areas and the people who come from them are nothing new. Hearing it from the White House, now, that’s something else again. Worse than the profanity, to me, was the press secretary’s follow-up, which reminds me of Nathanael’s initial attitude. He spoke of (and I quote) “permanent solutions that make our country stronger by welcoming those who can contribute to our society, grow our economy and assimilate into our great nation.” Which, as the New Yorker pointed out, suggested “that immigrants from places like El Salvador, Haiti, Liberia, and Sierra Leone couldn’t become productive and assimilated American citizens,” which is more than a little racist.[i]

Can anything good come from Nazareth?

In the Jesuit America Magazine, Fr James Martin explains, “Nazareth was a minuscule town of 200 to 400 people, where people lived in small stone houses, and, archaeologists say, where garbage, and excrement, was dumped in the alleyways…in other words, came from a …….. place [such as that][ii]  Elsewhere in the magazine I read, “Crumbling infrastructure, inadequate health care and crippling poverty do not make a life any less valuable.”[iii] True in Jesus’ time. True now. Pragmatically speaking, these things also do not make people less likely to work hard and contribute.

All this turmoil, mind you, was happening on the day before the anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti. Furthermore, Martin Luther King Day is tomorrow. And if nothing else, the events of this past year show you that racism is still one of the biggest problems we have in this country, and we don’t seem to want to deal with it.

But we don’t need to be racist to consider this issue. Can anything good come out of Nazareth/Haiti/Africa/the Midwest/the South/California//the Middle East …. the other political party? It’s not always demonization. It can even feel perfectly affable. We just KNOW who that person is. So we don’t listen. We can’t see. We don’t try because our minds are made up.

But sometimes we know we have limited vision, and we’re more like Nathanael. “Come and see,” said Philip. And Nathanael did. With a mind sufficiently open to change. What he thought he knew was wrong and he, being without guile/deceit, didn’t hesitate to say so. And thoroughly! “Rabbi, you are the Son of God!” he exclaimed. “You are the King of Israel!”

I want you to notice something here.  What made him change his mind is that HE had been seen and known and understood when he hadn’t even noticed Jesus nearby.

“When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.”

Being seen and known and understood can be life-changing.

Jesus may even have heard his remark about Nazareth – but it didn’t matter. He didn’t dismiss Nathanael as an ignorant so-and-so. He didn’t even wait to be introduced. And this is wonderful.

God doesn’t wait to be noticed. YHWH comes to Samuel before Samuel knows him. In Psalm 139, the poet sings, “You have searched me out and known me… when I was still in my mother’s womb…”

 God knows us already – understands us – calls us by name.

The good news is that we, too, are capable of responding to the invitation to come and see. We can also extend the invitation like Philip. We can work to see, hear, and understand others without waiting for them to do the same, refusing to dismiss people as incorrigible. God did it for us, being born among seemingly incorrigible humanity and in a poor, hick town to boot. We can work for those who are constantly facing this kind of dismissal – or worse – on a day to day basis.

And we, like Samuel, can learn to pray, over and over, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”

“Where are you from?” we ask.

It’s still a good question. Just depends on what we do with it.

---

[i] John Cassidy, “A Racist in the Oval Office,” The New Yorker, January 12, 2018   https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/trump-shithole-comment-racist-in-the-oval-office

[ii] James Martin SJ, “Father James Martin: Why we should welcome people from countries Trump just insulted,” America Magazine, https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2018/01/12/father-james-martin-why-we-should-welcome-people-countries-trump-just

[iii]  Wyatt Massey, https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2018/01/12/why-president-trumps-comments-dont-reflect-haiti-i-have-come-know  via @americamag 

fuming

Steam coming out of my ears. In whose universe are things going well enough in Haiti that temporary protected status needs to be rescinded?

Cholera (which didn't exist in Haiti before the earthquake brought UN troops carrying it). Hurricanes. The Dominican Republic rescinding full citizenship for people who couldn't prove their grandparents had papers - so many people with possible Haitian ancestry who had never lived in Haiti and sometimes didn't even speak Creole got dumped over the border into Haiti. And so on.

Want specific stories? Here are some I just read: ‘How would I survive going back there?’

This has approximately the same odor as the toilet I plunged earlier this evening. That, however, in contrast, was much more temporary even than this temporary protected status.

I'm sure things are pretty bad in Central America; I can't speak to that, so I'll stick to fuming about Haiti tonight and do more research later.

Here's the article I've come across tonight:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/central-americans-and-haitians-no-longer-need-protected-status-state-dept-says/2017/11/03/647cbd5c-c0ba-11e7-959c-fe2b598d8c00_story.html?utm_term=.dad2a065cfee

I would love to write more, but the Great Silence approaches, and I want to post tonight and call attention to this as soon as possible. That and prayer are all I can do for the moment.  More tomorrow, perhaps.  I'm off to speak to the Lord about this in no uncertain terms. 'Night, all.

#IrmaHaiti

I'm waiting for word from Haiti, which will take a while, given that Irma is there right now.  I have just found articles, however, as well as a few Twitter threads. Thought I'd share with those of you who may also be waiting for news.

Hurricane Irma: Panic sets in as Haiti braces for storm | Miami Herald

Haiti has already been devastated by natural disasters. Now it’s bracing for Irma. - The Washington Post

Meanwhile, I'm praying for my friends there, especially my godson and his family who are up north. Praying, too, for all those who are reeling from the storm or in its path. Please pray with me.

-----
MORE:
Haïti confronté à l’ouragan Irma, moins d’un an après le drame de Matthew

countering the insanity + contact info links for politicians

This has been an incredible week. The post I started earlier in the week to express my outrage has gotten left in the dust as one event succeeds the next.

This ban preventing people - permanent residents of the US, refugees, and everyone in between - from entering the US - even people in transit - is one of the most appalling things I've heard of. And the stories... Holding a woman and children for 20 hours at Dulles, cuffed and without food, is the least of the stories I've seen. I can't watch a video; it's too much. Yes, we have a right to protect our borders. This, however, is insanity on a number of levels.

Here's a good summary from yesterday - good information in it, even if it's a bit behind the news now.

Washington Post on Twitter: "Annotated: The Trump administration’s executive order on refugees and immigrants https://t.co/tncUtUy7Yp" or https://mobile.twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/825353247011569665

I just read an update saying that green card holders would no longer be affected by this, but the backtracking isn't more than a start. I almost wonder if they did an overkill declaration at first in order to make us more willing to accept the lesser version thereof.

backpedaling a bit? but most still in place...

It is time to act in whatever way we can.
Call. Write. Email. 
It makes a difference.

Here is contact information for the US Senate and House of Representatives.

https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

https://www.senate.gov/general/resources/pdf/senators_phone_list.pdf

http://www.house.gov/representatives/

Here is what those from the Northeast have had to say so far:
Here’s what all 33 N.E. members of Congress think about Trump’s immigration order (Boston Globe)


To write or sign petitions addressed directly to the White House:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/

By (top)Cezary p(bottom)UpstateNYer - here and here, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37794073 

And pray. 

I haven't been much for praying for our government till this year. I never imagined it would become a focus of intercession in this way. But I find myself asking just how much more we can take of this - and it's been just over a week.

Fr James Martin, SJ, has a good reflection on praying with this anger.

Prayer and other forms of action will be essential in the days to come, one flowing from the other and back again.

Ora et labora.

I'm off to an interfaith rally in Boston on Tuesday. It's through a group with which I'm not familiar - MCAN - but I learned of it from an Episcopal priest of this diocese, as it's being held at the Episcopal cathedral.
"MCAN (Massachusetts Communities Action Network) is a a federation of community improvement organizations across Massachusetts working for social and economic justice by putting our religious faith values and our democratic values into action."

Description: People of all faiths and shared values are welcome to join a press conference this Tuesday condemning the hate filled Presidential Orders of the past week. The faith community of Massachusetts is standing together calling for the state to be a place of sanctuary and solidarity. We applaud our Mayors who have come out in support of all of our neighbors and will be calling on the Governor to stand with us as well.

It's a small thing, but small things add up.

yes, indeed
Boston Common Women's March 1-21-17

morning meditation with sharpies

why I marched: baptism, compassion, and justice

Women's March, Boston Common 1-21-17

From our baptismal service:

Celebrant	Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
People	I will, with God's help.
Celebrant	Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
People	I will, with God's help.

-- Book of Common Prayer p. 305 (or http://www.bcponline.org/)

This looks different over time - indeed, day by day. This year brings me a new way of living it out.

I made a few hats, too. (None of these, though.)

When was I last in a march, I wonder?

I recall a candlelight vigil with the sisters in 2003 in hopes of staving off another invasion of Iraq.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1

I recall a demonstration against apartheid when I was in college. I skipped psych class (and I wasn't a class skipper) to stand with others near the shanty town built next to the Beinecke Library. We were so excited when Archbishop Desmond Tutu sent us a word! I found some old pictures online, as a matter of fact, and am grateful to the alum who shared them:

https://yalealumnimagazine.com/blog_posts/1649

I recall a Take Back the Night march in Ann Arbor, MI a year or two earlier. Looked online and found that the organization still exists (http://tbtnannarbor.org/). As a signboard I read this weekend phrased it, "I can't believe I'm still protesting this ----." OK, I can believe it. I just wish I couldn't.

Mostly, however, I've written and called my representatives, signed petitions, and learned - too slowly - to speak up instead of smoothing things over that really needed not to be smoothed over at all.

Sometimes you need to make noise.
Boston Public Garden 1-21-17

I wonder if that is changing.

Yes. Yes, it is.
Let's make it better.
Boston Common 1-21-17

What will this year bring?

more of this? more than this, certainly

Yes, we can. Together. All of us.

Snowflakes, unite!

If I am going to live the promises I made in my baptism alongside my community's historical concern for women and children, it seems to me that more may be required in the days ahead.

I might note that there were quite a few concerns expressed Saturday, climate change among them. I am beginning to learn more about that, too.

Talk about something that will affect us all, or at least anyone who is going to live a while longer. I plan to.

Marching. Praying. Writing. Calling. Networking. Listening. More listening. Reading. More praying. Work I can't yet envision. Prayer that is listening and listening that is prayer moving into action.

Jesus may be calling me out of my sycamore tree.
(A sycamore tree would have been very handy on the Common on Saturday. Some of us are too short to see over 175,000 people. However, all the good trees were taken, as you can see.)

I will, with God's help.

Join me?

Dear President-Elect Trump: a letter from the Episcopal bishops in MA about the environment

Dec. 12, 2016

Donald J. Trump

President-Elect of the United States of America

Trump Tower

735 5th Avenue

New York, NY 10022

Dear President-Elect Trump,

We, the bishops of the Episcopal Church in Massachusetts, are glad to let you know that all of our 235 churches pray for you regularly in our liturgies with these or similar words: “For those in positions of public trust, especially Barack our President and Donald our President-Elect, that they may serve justice, and promote the dignity and freedom of every person.”

We also pray: “Give us reverence for the earth as your own creation, that we may use its resources rightly in the service of others and to your honor and glory.”

The Episcopal Church stands strongly for the protection of the environment. We respect the facts of science.  We support laws and policies that address the reality of climate change. We are in the process of divesting our financial interest in fossil fuels. Most recently our Presiding Bishop, the Most Rev. Michael Curry, joined Native Americans at Standing Rock in their effort to protect their water and their sacred land. Numerous other Episcopal Church leaders have likewise traveled to Standing Rock.

Our respect for our government leaders and our reverence for the earth as God’s creation impel us to write you to express our dismay about your selection of Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency. We wonder why a person who has consistently and adamantly opposed all laws and policies that provide even minimal “protection” to the environment should be entrusted with leading such an agency.

President-elect Trump, you have promised economic development. Like you, we value a stable and prosperous economy.  However, a thriving economy depends on a healthy environment. The more we weaken and dismantle the E.P.A.’s vital protections of our natural world, the more we threaten the common good.

You have also promised to strengthen our national defense. Like you, we value national security.  However, our country’s top military intelligence have concluded that climate change is a “threat multiplier” that is already creating instability around the world and will likely create significant security challenges in the years ahead.  If someone who casts doubt on the reality of climate change becomes the head of the E.P.A., our national security will be compromised.

As citizens of this beloved country, we intend to write our members of Congress, urging them to block the nomination of Scott Pruitt to lead the E.P.A. We will pray for a better choice.

And we will continue to pray for you as you assume this office of tremendous responsibility for the good of all.

Respectfully,

The Rt. Rev. Douglas J. Fisher, Bishop Diocesan of Western Massachusetts

The Rt. Rev. Alan M. Gates, Bishop Diocesan of Massachusetts

The Rt. Rev. Gayle E. Harris, Bishop Suffragan of Massachusetts

The Rt. Rev. Barbara C. Harris, Bishop Suffragan of Massachusetts (retired)

The Rt. Rev. Roy F. Cederholm, Bishop Suffragan of Massachusetts (retired)

http://www.diomass.org/diocesan-news/ma-bishops-oppose-trump-pick-epa

Duxbury Interfaith Council Holiday Basket Project

Helping locally...

Once again, we are collecting donations of food and gifts as part of the DIC's community work. There is information on various ways to participate in the flier pictured below. Furthermore, we are also planning to collect donations of food outside Foodies Market in Halls Corner on Saturday, December 10, from 8AM-12PM. If you prefer, you may help by sending a check to the Duxbury Interfaith Council, PO Box 1161, Duxbury, MA 02331.

www.duxinterfaith.com 

#DIC

wary and generous

Wise as serpents, innocent as doves? Something like that...

I have read a number of things about giving to help with the devastation in Haiti. I have a feeling we don't yet know the half of what Haiti is experiencing. Yes, Florida. But for all we complain about FEMA, at least we have one. 

Haiti doesn't.

What Haiti does have is people - Haitian and foreign - who are already there and working to improve lives. No need to fly people down and pay for housing and such when there are already trained personnel in the field. They aren't hard to find. They just don't get anyone up here any brownie points in the press. 

Anyway, I've just read on Facebook a commentary to which I'd like to add an emphatic AMEN, the last paragraph of an update someone in Haiti has written. I now have permission to share it. I'll include the previous paragraph for context.

We're still hearing reports from our people upcountry. Those in the western part of the peninsula have nothing and we have yet to hear from most of ours. The road is apparently passable to Petit Goave again (by driving through the river since the bridge is gone) so that's a start. People are gathering up what meager personal belongings that they can find and organizations such as Agape Flights Inc are organizing airlifts of locally purchased relief supplies.

During this crisis many have been advising people to use small local ministries to reach into the provinces rather than channeling millions into the big money hungry international aid groups who spend more of their staff support than actually seems to get to the people in need. Those who actually minister here don't need to be flown into the country, rent expensive homes and vehicles or pay translators and guides to get them around, and also don't need to attend endless meetings at expensive hotels or go out to fancy restaurants at night and drink just to unwind. (Sorry, I've finally come out and said it. Please don't hate me.)

AMEN.

Naturally, I have suggestions!

St. Vincent's School - now expanded to a Center - was started by our Sr. Joan in 1945 as the first school in Haiti for disabled children. Another of our sisters is an alum. We don't run it anymore, though we currently have a sister on the board. They do essential work. There are boarding as well as day students whose needs must be met; just keeping up with basic supplies is a challenge, especially since the earthquake. And now this. They do have a new website and clearer American connections, which makes it easier to donate directly. 

http://stvincentshaiti.org/  
You can also donate to St. Vincent's through these two respected groups:
West Tennessee Haiti Partnership (I met these people when I lived in Haiti. They do good work, and volunteers pay for their own travel expenses. There is one fund for the school, including food and medicine for the children, and another separate fund to support travel for a surgeon or medical team members if that is of interest.)
The Children’s Medical Mission of Haiti

Next, Partners in Health/Zanmi Lasante, begun by Paul Farmer, does amazing work. They have two hospitals, the original in Cange and a new one in Mirebalais, and they train medical personnel. I was delighted last year to see a young nurse of my acquaintance in one of their media posts. I knew her back in her early student days! They have a Haitian-run organization on the ground, though they also have the Harvard Medical School connection and the American PIH group as well. There has been a donate button in the right column of this blog for years, but here's the link to their website's article on Matthew in Haiti: http://www.pih.org/blog/hurricane-matthew-aims-for-haiti

Finally, you can't lose with Episcopal Relief and Development. I'd be willing to bet they have been there for decades, possibly soon after their foundation in 1940, but Anglicanism has been there for longer than that, thanks to James Theodore Holly, a man not easily discouraged.

It's also best for the Haitian economy if money is sent down there so that the supplies needed might be bought from local businesses.  Haitian business owners need to eat and send their children to school, too - and for all we know, they might themselves have lost homes or have taken in family and friends who have. So don't, say, send peanut butter from the US when there is a thriving market for it in Haiti (along with plain, there's a version with hot peppers!). Coals to Newcastle and all.

[I just searched for a picture of mamba (peanut butter) and found this article which says basically the same thing I'm saying while promoting spicy mamba by Rebo. At the convent in Haiti, we bought cheaper mamba and normally the plain version with no peppers, but I do know this company's coffee, which is good, so I bet their mamba is, too.]
[Word to the wise: if you buy spicy peanut butter by accident, it's actually not too bad on bananas for breakfast! With Haitian coffee, of course. I miss Haitian coffee. With condensed milk. 

Mmmmmm...
Wouldn't it also be good to let Haitian people buy the food they like?]

-  -  -  -  -
One more possibility to offer: There is a school of nursing in Leogane I've visited, the Faculté des Sciences Infirmières de l'Université Episcopale d'Haïti or, as it is usually known , the Faculté des Sciences Infirmières de Léogane. FSIL is near Darbonne, the town where I did the original internship that led to this blog. The nurse I previously mentioned is a graduate, as a matter of fact.  They are located near the epicenter of the 2010 earthquake and are on the southwestern peninsula that was slammed by Matthew. In both cases, nursing students have been challenged to see what they could do to help in the aftermath of disaster. The dean, Hilda Alcindor, is a very determined woman, and I'm sure these students as well as the faculty members will be making a difference. (Read the reports here: http://www.haitinursing.org/hurricane-matthew.) They are worth your support. The easiest way to get them money is to send it through the small foundation in Ann Arbor, MI, set up for their support and for the development of nursing in Haiti.
 http://www.haitinursing.org/

Finally, please be generous with your prayer. It makes a difference. 

pitié pour Haïti…

Horror in rural Haiti as Hurricane Matthew death toll surges to 842 - Reuters

What will it be by tomorrow? Next week? Why Haiti?

Oh, Seigneur, pitié pour Haïti…
(taptap on the road to Darbonne 2012)

names of Orlando shooting victims for your prayer list

Then there is Isaiah, who saw his mother killed.

The others who were there and saw it.

Those who are grieving.

Those in the hospital or recovering at home.

The first responders. God bless them.

So many people who must have massive PTSD now.

And then there are those who are afraid they will be next.

Please pray for them, for those who love them, for those trying to help them, and for those few who are full of hatred and gladness at this action, especially given its targets. Pray for those resisting changes that would be beneficial to society but bad for business or reelection. This is not the way God created us to be.

Let's live as though we really understood what it means to be made in the image of God.

Seriously.

Premier Rachel Notley's Sunday afternoon update on Fort McMurray wildfire

#ymmfire

CBC News Edmonton: Fort McMurray wildfire specials, May 4 & 5, 2016

This is from a few days ago - and we all know it's spread since then - but it's a 25 minute show in depth from Canadian television. Informative. I'd like to find more things to post, but that will have to wait. As one Canadian friend tweeted to me, pray for rain.



#ymmfire

Here is the one from the next day:

If you would like to donate, here is a link to the Red Cross in Canada's page for it. What's more, the government is matching these donations, too. There's something we haven't thought of yet in the US.
https://donate.redcross.ca/ea-action/action?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=NO-DM&ea.client.id=1951&ea.campaign.id=50639

Haiti-Dominican Republic tensions still high

I've just been reading The Dominican Time Bomb, an article in the New York Times Magazine by Jonathan Katz. He's written a book about Haiti I've been meaning to read, and he's reported from the DR over the years, so when he writes about the crisis there, he's not coming from an uninformed background. 

We've been hearing lately about the threat of mass deportations. Under pressure, the Dominican government put it off. Certainly Haiti isn't ready to receive an influx. The thing is, all this isn't just about people sneaking over a border in hopes of finding work, though it includes them as well. This is about families of Haitian origin who have been in the country for a long, long time. Some of them have no recent ties whatsoever to Haiti. Basically, anyone born there who might have had an irregular situation in the family back to 1929 - yes, 1929 - has to prove their citizenship or be deported. If you look as though you might be Haitian, that's you. It might not be as complicated here because it isn't as hard to get a copy of a birth certificate. There, if you were born in a rural area, you might never have gotten one. In, say, the 1930's. Meanwhile, your grandchildren are thoroughly Dominican, but if you can't find yours or never were issued one, the whole family is just gone. 

New York Times article excerpt (Jonathan Katz)

This I had heard before. However, this article gives a lot of history, and I hadn't heard all of it. I knew tensions had been high for years, decades. I had no idea of the extent of it.  Look at this:

But the intensity of the hatred and violence long directed against Haitian immigrants and Dominicans of Haitian descent in Medina’s country — and against anyone black enough to be confused for either — is staggering, like something out of Mississippi in the 1890s, or Europe before World War II. In February, a Haitian shoe­shiner was lynched and hanged from a tree in a public park in the nation’s second­largest city, Santiago, while a crowd across town burned Haitian flags and chanted: “Haitians out! If it’s war they want, it’s war they’ll get!” Other victims identified as haitianos have been lynched in the past year for alleged infractions such as robbing a convenience store and burning a Dominican flag. Dominican newspapers are filled with cartoons depicting people of Haitian descent as bug­eyed, big­lipped golliwogs babbling Spanish in heavy dialect. When I lived in Santo Domingo, there were bars that openly denied entry to blacks, a practice that apparently persists.

I hadn't pictured that. I knew there was no respect, no love lost there, but this? This is deeper and longer standing than I had imagined.  

As I type this, I am aware of our own current situation in the US. I don't just mean immigration, legal or illegal.  I'm talking about burning churches - over a half dozen in this past week or so since Charleston, and very little attention has been paid (versus, say, a week's coverage of a burned CVS in MD).  I did find a useful PBS article on several arsons among them. Some have definitely been arson, some not, some we don't know. But that's like a church a day, starting from the time of the Charleston massacre. We can't point fingers at the DR without also taking a hard look at our own culture and policies.

All of which doesn't change the fact that this is bad. We've stopped having demonstrations about that - Charleston interrupted those, as I recall, in great part, and certainly derailed my attention - but the problem hasn't gone away. It's gone into a short-term hiatus in terms of the mass deportation planning, but I gather it's still in the works. 

But although attention elsewhere has moved on, the threat to hundreds of thousands of people in the Dominican Republic has not gone away. Dominican officials are clear that mass deportations are still planned. Fearing violence, at least 17,000 people with ties to Haiti have chosen to flee the country on their own, provoking fears of yet another humanitarian crisis in Haiti. In a gleefully Orwellian turn, Dominican authorities responded by offering a “free bus service to take migrants to the border.” They say at least 1,000 people have been transported so far.

Presime told me he hasn’t gone to work since the deadline passed for fear of being separated from his daughter. “Immigration could come looking in the middle of the night and surprise us,” he told me by phone. “It is insanity.” For people like him, who have no family or support on the other side of the border, the Dominican Republic is the only home they can imagine. If the bomb does go off, there will be nowhere for them to go.

Please pray for the Dominicans who don't even know Haiti and will be sent there, and also for the Haitians who started a new life once and are coming back to a country in even more dire straits, in many cases. Pray for the Haitian government as they try to handle this and for the Dominican Government, that they not deport their own people. And pray for all of us, that our hearts may be changed through the mercy and grace of God into what they were intended to be.

PBS video on Haiti and The Dominican Republic

As we wait to find out what happens with this border crisis, I'm hunting around online. I'm looking for prayer resources, but I keep getting sidetracked. Sigh. But I have found good things. Now, this is an hour long PBS special, so needless to say I haven't watched it. It's PBS, though, so I feel safe posting it in case it should prove helpful to anything else - and also so when I have enough time, I can sit down and watch it all myself. 

The blurb below is from the PBS site, to which I have provided a link below. The video itself is a YouTube upload of it since I wanted to share it directly, and I don't know how to embed the code. You may, however, wish to see the set of programs of which it is a part. (You can also buy the DVD set if you like.) 

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/black-in-latin-america/featured/haiti-the-dominican-republic-an-island-divided-watch-full-episode/165/

Keep praying.  None of this is simple.

prayers, please, for the DR/Haiti situation

The situation going on in the Dominican Republic is not good, not good at all. Looks as though deportation of Dominicans of Haitian origin will begin tomorrow. Being born in the DR is no longer enough for a person to be a citizen. This ruling was originally made in 2013, with time being given for people who look Haitian, more or less, to prove they and their grandparents and so on are/were there legally; tomorrow that time expires. Those born after 1929 who can't prove their parents were there legally/were citizens will be deported. Never mind that it is and was a bit difficult sometimes to get paperwork in order... and back to 1929... really??? There are many people whose grandparents may not, in fact, have been there legally; who knows. That was a long time ago. These are people who have in many (most?) cases never been to Haiti and don't speak Creole.

The bloody origins of the Dominican Republic’s ethnic ‘cleansing’ of Haitians

Of course, none of this is new. And the history between the two halves of the island goes back centuries. What is now Haiti used to rule the entire island at one point. The US ran the whole island at one point early this century. Lots of things happened in between. 

Here's the Washington Post article that tells what's going on and the history of the past hundred years or so:
The bloody origins of the Dominican Republic’s ethnic ‘cleansing’ of Haitians

Some news outlets claim that everyone who is in the process of registering as a foreigner will escape deportation. Others claim that only 300 people have actually received their completed paperwork and that just being in process is not a protection. And then there are those who refuse to register as foreigners because they are Dominicans, period. A deadline being reached might not, in fact, mean mass deportations will happen tomorrow. Pretty sure it wouldn't up here. But buses being arranged and military personnel ready doesn't bode well.

Also, I saw a forwarded tweet with a picture of the front page of a paper, the headline reading something like "Haitian woman stabs boyfriend to death supposedly in self-defense." The journalist points out that headlines like these are often the precursor to anti-Haitian actions. No doubt... And think about it - a major newspaper's headline is a case of domestic violence leading to murder among people who would usually be ignored? Because that never happens (wish it didn't...)?

https://twitter.com/KatzOnEarth

https://twitter.com/KatzOnEarth

Here's a video I found called "Edwidge Danticat on Mass Deportation of Haitian Families." I don't know this media outlet, so I can't vouch for it, but Edwige Danticat is a well-known Haitian American author, not some random fringe figure.  

Please pray. And share. Whatever it is... I don't know what will happen, but it's not going to be good. May the Lord have mercy on all involved.