Posted on 12/30/2016 12:01:48 PM PST by nwrep
Sermon delivered by Rev. Bill Sinkford on Dec 5, 2016:
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In the Christian liturgical calendar, this is the second Sunday of Advent, the four weeks leading up to Christmas, when the spiritual task is to prepare for the birth of hope…prepare to welcome hope into our hearts.
I have, needless to say, translated the Christian language some of you will remember into more broadly accessible terms.
Preparing to welcome hope.
Although our liberal religious tradition, from its earliest days, rejected the literal truth of the miracle stories that came to be told about Jesus and his birth, the need for hope is still very much with us.
When I selected this sermon, I expected to be preaching in a very different environment, a different world. I expected to be preaching in a world where zenophobia had been rejected, overwhelmingly I hoped. A world in which we would be talking about taking the next steps on our journey toward wholeness rather than preparing to defend the modest progress we have thus far made.
How wrong I was. Though some may be trying to normalize our current reality, find some comfort and even some hope in our current direction, …still, it feels like the world has shifted.
And much of that shifting has to do with immigration, and refugees…with who is in and who is out…how tall the wall will be and how soon the deportations will accelerate…and with who can be a member of our tribe.
You know the myth about immigration. The story that we love to tell. We all do. We learned it in every history class and civics lesson. It reinforces that myth of American exceptionalism.
We are a nation of immigrants…(except the indigenous peoples from whom we stole the land). And the “we” of course refers to European Americans.
It seems reasonable, at least to me, that where we are responsible for the disruption, we have some special responsibility to harbor refugees.
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Let’s see how that idea of responsibility might apply today.
What about undocumented immigration from Mexico and Central America? Are we somehow complicit in creating the conditions that force so many to flee to the north?
Well, there is NAFTA, the trade agreement that got so much press during the election.
Here is one description of how it has worked: “What happened when the market became “free” was that US corn flooded Mexico. The price of Mexican corn dropped by 70%. Mexican subsistence farmers could not compete with US government subsidized, factory farmed corn. These indigenous farmers were supposed to transition to growing strawberries and vegetables for US consumption but “foreign investment” to fund that transition never materialized.”
Millions of farmers were driven off their land and toward either the maquiladoras, the factories owned by US corporations to take advantage of low Mexican labor costs, or further north to our corporate farms on this side of the border.
Do we not have some responsibility for those undocumented laborers who are now our neighbors?
Immigration policy and even our wars have always been structured to preserve a white, Christian America.
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Liberal religious folks may not be in complete agreement about immigration policy. I don’t suggest that we are. But we know that that closed society is not the America our faith calls us to celebrate.
I could go on about the history. But this is a sermon not a lecture. And human lives are at stake.
Noreen Shah, of Amnesty International, who is a Muslim-American, writes:
“My family is scared. And the conversations I’m having with them are breaking my heart. … since the election, this country that we love … suddenly feels unsafe.
Every year, I go home to Texas for Thanksgiving. This year, instead of arguing over what size turkey to buy, my family seriously discussed whether it’s safe to keep living in Texas – our home for over four decades, the place where I was born and raised.
My parents keep asking, “Could President-elect … really force Muslims to register? Or put us in internment camps? What will happen to us?”
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The land of the free is, for too many of us, becoming the land of the fearful.
So what do we need to do?
We are not powerless. People from diverse faith traditions are beginning to come together in solidarity and resistance.
Two weeks ago I spoke about registering as a Muslim, if a Muslim-registry is put into place. Many of you raised your hands that you would join me. A few of you have asked when we will go down to sign up.
Thankfully, that registry is not yet in place.
And it is not only Muslims who are threatened. The Mexican and Central American communities also need our support. The president-elect is no longer promising a Deportation Force to eject all 11 million undocumented folks …at least not right away…
Only 2-3 million to start with…and all of those are criminals…
2-3 million? Do you really believe that there are 3 million felons among our undocumented neighbors? And what of their families…their children?
There is a Sanctuary Movement gathering energy and a Sanctuary Assembly will be convened on January 8th, right at First Christian Church…Information is available downstairs.
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If you are moved to help … go to the immigrant justice table in coffee hour. I know that those good folks can use some additional hands and hearts.
Even today, you can take this pledge:
“We pledge to accompany undocumented people in our community and actively resist any policies from the newly-elected government and congress that promote the detention and deportation of millions of people.”
Mental disorder.
Where are you suppose to register?
Unitarians, the lefts unorganized Scientologists.
Great - a “Christian” minister who don’t believe in Christ’s miracles. Sounds like a Muzzie plant who wants to overrun us with Latino invaders because he also don’t believe that the people they kill are really killed by them....
Unitarian Muslims. They’re the worst kind.
Yes, and he can’t even spell xenophobia.
In the photo, why isn’t he wearing his colander?
Where are you suppose to register?
Maybe here:
http://www.intertek.com/government/product-conformity/exports/saudi-arabia/
Do Unitarians claim to be Christians?
Probably thinks it means fear of Xenia Ohioans...
All 3 of his followers agree.
Who cares who that charlatan thinks?
LOL! I can see that - he’s obviously not male enough to handle that much woman.
He could move to Iran.
Sorry, Zenophobia will continue to grow as long as people plant zen gardens.
Are you scared yet?
Xenia is the Shawnee word for "Wigwam blew away again".
Unitarian, means they worship all gods but one.
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