In this Follow Jesus-inspired Epiphany blog, Rachel Ringenberg Miller shares about an anti-immigration flier that was left around her neighborhood and how it reminded her that Jesus, and many of our ancestors, was an immigrant, who fled danger and persecution.
Rachel Ringenberg Miller serves as denominational minister for ministerial leadership for Mennonite Church USA. She focuses on engaging conferences and congregations, providing resources and services to meet the diverse demands facing congregations today. She graduated from Goshen (Indiana) College and Eastern Mennonite Seminary, in Harrisonburg, Virginia, with an MDiv. She served as associate pastor for Portland (Oregon) Mennonite Church and as pastor of Shalom Mennonite Church in Newton, Kansas. Rachel attends Eighth Street Mennonite Church in Goshen, Indiana, a Central District Conference congregation.
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Trigger warning: This blog contains mention of a racially threatening flier created by the KKK.
In mid-November, flyers were dropped in my neighborhood, in Goshen, Indiana. The image on the flyers was of Uncle Sam kicking a family. The top of the flyer read, “Leave Now,” and below the family, it read, “Avoid Deportation.” The flyer included contact information from “Trinity White Knights from the Ku Klux Klan,” with an address in Kentucky.
Several things struck me all at once about this flyer and its contents. One of the things that struck me was the family pictured in the flyer. The family consisted of a mother, father and young son. When I looked at this family and read the threating words, the image that came to mind was Mary, Joseph and Jesus fleeing their home country. In Matthew 2:13, Joseph, had a dream in which the angel of the Lord told him, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him” (NRSV).
Jesus’ parents fled their home country to live in another, so that their child would be safe.
The second thing I kept thinking about was how we are about to celebrate 500 years of Anabaptism. In thinking about this milestone, I’ve been reflecting on my Anabaptist ancestors from Europe, who fled to the United States, because of the persecution and death they were facing in their country of origin. They, too, like the family getting kicked by Uncle Sam, were immigrants, searching for safety and peace.
Immigrants who come to the United States, more often than not, come seeking peace and a better life for their family.
The third converging thought was about the persistence of racism and white Christian nationalism in the U.S. The family in the flyer was dressed in such a way that signified that they were not white and there were not Christians. In this case, two authors’ words sprang to mind. The first came from Howard Thurman and his book, “Jesus and the Disinherited”:
“The basic fact is that Christianity as it was born in the mind of this Jewish thinker and teacher appears as a technique of survival for the oppressed. That it became, through the intervening years, a religion of the powerful and the dominant, used sometimes as an instrument of oppression, must not tempt us into believing that it was thus in the mind and life of Jesus.”[1]
The second was from Angela N. Parker’s book, “If God Still Breathes, Why Can’t I”? Parker wrote:
“[I]gnoring the cultural issues within both the biblical text and our contemporary society will be detrimental to any type of survival on the planet earth.”[2]
What I hear when I read Thurman is a reminder that Jesus, in his life and death, expressed his concern, love and action for those “whose backs are against the wall,” no matter how they identified religiously and no matter the color of their skin. The quote from Parker, brings this phrase to mind: “on earth as it is in heaven” (see Matthew 6:10). What happens on earth matters.
A few weeks after this incident, I became aware of a local congregation that was hosting a meeting for those concerned about the possible changes to immigration policies that are expected to be made by the Trump administration and how these changes may affect their congregation and community. Upon hearing this, I was taken back to the last congregation I served and the work we did to become a sanctuary church for people who were at risk of deportation, due to their immigration status. While we never hosted anyone in sanctuary, the congregation was a resource and safe place for recent immigrants and those who loved them to discuss options. The commitment Shalom Mennonite Church, in Newton, Kansas, made resulted in various offshoot ministries and collaborations that focused on building relationships with recent immigrant community in Harvey County.
Was this flyer a one-time thing? Maybe. But I don’t think it matters if it happened one time. The fact is, it happened. Hate was dropped in my neighborhood. As followers of Jesus, we know that hate and fear have no place in our congregations and communities.
God is love, and Jesus, who was whisked off in the night by his parents, is an embodiment of God’s love.
To put God’s love into action, here are some things that those who are not immigrants can do to build relationships and show love with and for immigrants in our contexts:
- Educate yourself. For example, attend a Know Your Rights meeting, research your local immigration policies or check out Radical Hospitality Curriculum from MC USA.
- Learn your family’s immigration history.
- Read and review the Churchwide Statement on Immigration. It was written in 2003 and revised in 2014.
- Build relationships with people who don’t look, think or believe like you do.
- Make connections with local immigrant justice groups to learn how you can join in their work.
[1] Howard Thurman. “Jesus and the Disinherited.” (Boston: Beacon Press, 1976).
[2] Angela N. Parker. “If God Still Breathes, Why Can’t I? Black Lives Matter and Biblical Authority.” (Grand Rapids: Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2021).
The views and opinions expressed in this blog belong to the author and are not intended to represent the views of the MC USA Executive Board or staff.
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