Dear Friends,
There is a great deal of emotional turmoil and anger going on about what is happening at the border. I’m wondering if I can tell you a bit about my political and spiritual journey and how it relates to what is happening today.
In 2008, I voted for John McCain, against Obama, because I could not stomach Obama’s stance on late-term abortions. Or just abortions in general. I was pregnant with Jack and was very aware that his little body inside of mine was not my body that I could do anything with I chose. Voting against Obama was a one-issue vote for me.
And we know that Obama won. I actually rejoiced even though I voted against him. I was moved that our country put a black man in the White House. I celebrated that this step was taken towards racial reconciliation and hoped that we as a country could stand behind him, our president.
I was very optimistic.
A little over a year after Jack was born, we as a family were in a situation where we needed to buy independent health insurance. Tim was in school and working part time. I was working part time. Neither of us had employer provided care. So I filled out the application, honestly sharing our health history. My ongoing treatment for depression. Jack’s experience with RSV and the need for a nebulizer.
Jack and I were both rejected for health insurance.
I couldn’t believe a 15 month old baby was rejected because of a virus he had when he was 5 months old. A virus that 1 in 4 babies have and need similar treatments for.
We were able to get insurance through a state insurance agency that existed for this very purpose – for people like us who had been rejected for pre-existing conditions. We were on this insurance when I was pregnant with Ben and when he was born. Our out of pocket costs for that pregnancy and birth were ten times the amount that we had paid when Jack was born. To say that we struggled financially was an understatement. I followed the Dave Ramsey snowball program for paying off debt and it took us over 2 years to pay it off.
During this time I began to notice and see the words conservatives used to describe people who were poor.
Lazy.
Not working.
Taking advantage of state aid.
Meanwhile we were working harder than we ever had in our life, were dependent on state aid, and were still not making ends meet.
To say this changed something in me is an understatement.
I know Obamacare isn’t perfect, but when it came along it made a huge difference in our lives financially.
***
I was studying the biblical prophets in my personal time. During seminary I had taken a course about the prophets and the history of Israel. I learned that one of the reasons the Israelites were exiled was because the took advantage of the poor while they grew rich. They mistreated the foreigner, the aliens among them. Though they offered sacrifices to God, they did not stand up for the oppressed. They did not take care of the widows and orphans. They did not treat foreigners in the land as if they were citizens of the land, as the law required. People in authority took bribes in courts and on the streets. In other words, they looked out for their own interests over the interests of the innocent who were being tried for crimes they had not committed. They neglected to provide justice for the innocent and oppressed. (Amos 5:10-13)
It is because of this, God said to them:
your assemblies are a stench to me.
Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them.
Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,
I will have no regard for them.
Away with the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.
But let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream!(Amos 5:21-24; emphasis mine)
Amos stunned me the first time I read it. I could not believe that God would reject our worship. I could not believe that he would hate the religious festivals he had told his people to honor. That he would despise prayers, sacrifices, worship.
I read in James:
Are we not the wealthiest country in the world?
Are we hoarding our wealth?
Over and over again throughout the prophets and in Jesus’ teachings I saw a call to watch out for the poor and marginalized. The widows and orphans. Those who are most likely to be taken advantage of. And, yes, the foreigners and aliens – those we would call immigrants today.
The Bible changed my worldview. It changed my understanding of who God is. He is not merely concerned that we are saying our prayers. God looks out for the poor, the marginalized, the oppressed in our society. He stands beside those who have less. He stands with those who are suffering. This is a hard teaching to swallow for those of us who have much. But I believe it is true.
Politically, I am no longer Republican. I am not Democrat. I instead am looking for the ones who are going to stand up for the poor. The refugees and immigrants. The people of color. The children.
source: pixabay
The truth is that immigrant workers take jobs we white middle class Americans would never take. They work back-breaking jobs farming our food, taking care of our elderly (bathing, cleaning their bed pans, providing daily needs), and working our fast food chains. They make minimum wage and if any immigration reform needs to happen it is being sure that people are not being paid less than that minimum wage, that they are being paid fairly. For God hears the cries of the wages for the poor which speak out against the wealthy.
It is a chilling thought.
If God hears the cries of unpaid wages, does he not hear the cries of the children in cages?
[Tweet “If God hears the cries of unpaid wages, does he not hear the cries of the children in cages?”]This morning I read in my Bible Luke 9:46-48:
We have a desire to be a great nation, but at what cost? Jesus calls us to go low, to welcome the children, to serve them. He intentionally greeted a Samaritan woman, an alien who lived in Israel. She was considered mixed race to the Jewish people, unclean in their eyes. But Jesus told her who He was, inviting her to trust Him. Jesus taught and showed over and over again that to be the first, we must be the last. We need to love our enemies. Forgive sins eternally. Turn the other cheek. Looking out for others’ interests before our own.
Yet I fear that when it comes to politics, we Christians have made a huge compromise in this area. We argue for truth and forget the mercy that Jesus shows us.
***
Right now people are angry.
I am actually furious, gutted, disheartened.
But I am trying to keep my cool and be calm and ask you, do you not hear the children crying?
Do you believe that God is truly on our side in the case of these families who are being separated?
Yes our sins are covered by the blood of Jesus, but that does not mean we can keep sinning and inflicting cruelty on others (Rom 6:1).
I plead with you to take a stand against the current establishment’s decision to have a zero tolerance policy for families seeking asylum in the United States. These are families who are trying to escape the violence that is at home, hoping for the good will of a rich nation. They have left everything. I just keep thinking it must be really bad at home if they are willing to lose everything they had in the hopes that they can find a new place here.
We live so sheltered. We have struggles, yes. But we also have opportunity. These people have none. They see their only opportunity as one to risk their lives and the lives of their children.
And they have been met with trauma.
Here are some facts as I have gathered them:
- First time illegal entry into the US is a misdemeanor offense, which does not require prosecution, but adults are now being prosecuted with “zero tolerance” source
- Because of this prosecution, children are being separated from their parents source
- In the past 6 weeks, more than 2,000 chilrdren have been separated from their parents source
- Adults caring for the held children are not allowed to comfort crying children source
- The trauma of separation from parents can have lasting effects, causing health concerns into adulthood, not to mention social/emotional disorders. source and source
- Parents are being deported while their children remain in the United States. source
- Children as young as two years old are expected to represent themselves in immigration court. source and source
- For more facts, I highly recommend this article. And pay attention, they keep coming in.
There are many ways we can help them.
First, call your state senators and representatives. There’s a brief script here. Tell them you believe families belong together. Tell them you believe in the importance of family and that no child should ever be separated from his father or mother.
Second, if you can, give. EDIT: 6/21/18 2:48pm I am updating this section to reflect a better list of ways to give as emailed to me by Welcome. The following is a copy and paste of their excellent suggestions:
World Relief- One of the organizations behind Welcome. They are currently raising money to help resettle refugees and are sending some of their staff immigration attorneys to the border to help families there.
KIND (Kids in Need of Defense)– Provides legal services to children going through immigrant proceedings.
Bethany Christian Services– Provides foster care services for unaccompanied minors and children separated from their parents.
ENLACE and the Association for a More Just Society are local Christian organizations in El Salvador and Honduras, that address the root causes of violence in Central America that is compelling many people to flee.
Finally, and as you do all of the other things, pray. Our God is a God who suffered. He knows what it is to suffer as He bore all of our sins on the cross. And He comforts those who mourn, those who are suffering. I believe in prayer we can relieve a bit of their pain.
Please don’t do nothing. Even if all you do is pray, I ask that you allow yourself to see this issue from a different light. To put yourself in the shoes of the mothers and fathers at the border. To consider that maybe being great isn’t worth the cost after all.
Bless you,
Leah
Well done, Leah. Denver Seminary ought to be proud they produced a graduate like you.
Thank you, friend.
WOW! Just WOW! This is incredibly thoughtful, biblically-based and downright prophetic. I weep that so many in the evangelical world (most?) have gone so far astray from the core of the gospel. the Bible also says we will be judged as a nation, so it is critical that voices like yours call out for Christians to repent and get to the business of loving our neighbors and welcoming the strangers. Keep preaching the Word, Leah. You are gifted and blessed beyond measure. I’m proud to know you.
Thank you, David. I am encouraged.
Well said Leah…well said. We are a sorry nation if we don’t get this right.
Thank you. And yes, I agree. There is much to be done.
Your voice needs to be heard and this post is poweful!
Please keep preaching care for orphans, of the world, the nation and the community.
We adopted through and did foster care through Bethany and cannot recommend it enough.
However, your world will be wrecked in a real way, but Blair and I have learned that our Lord is enough.
Always enough.
Be brave! What are we scared of anyways?
Thank you Leah!
Oh Stacie, Thank you and Blair for fostering and adopting!! What are we scared of? Good question. Thanks for your encouragement!
Wonderful post, Leah. I strongly agree with in every way and feel this is s message we all must speak.
Thank you, Linda. There is still much to be done.
Hello Leah, You seem like a lovely Christian wife & mother doing the best you can to help improve the world with the love of Jesus. So, from a fellow follower of Jesus from Texas, I would like to share my perspective.
A well meaning, well written article, generated out of emotion with little to no understanding of what is going on the border, or what has been going on for decades. Four years ago, Glenn Beck & his charity, Mercury One, went down to McAllen, TX to help the refugee children. NO other media bother to cover the crisis then. Is it a crisis? Yes, but, why now & not then? Because the media have an agenda. (I volunteered this past weekend to help at the M1 fundraiser to help refugees in the US & the Middle East.)
https://www.facebook.com/theblaze/videos/1891516720885659/UzpfSTUyMjIyMDM4NzoxMDE1NTIxNDg4MjI3MDM4OA/
We desperately need a revival in the US, as does Mexico, which is grossly corrupt & run by the drug cartels. One might watch the series ‘El Chapo’ on Netflix to begin to understand why so many Mexicans are fleeing their country. But, they are also coming from throughout Central America. It is complicated, rooted deeply in sin & our fallen world. No easy solutions.
Your sources are mostly the Washington Post, whose liberal slanted bias is well-documented. And, you recommend the blatantly anti-God, anti-Christ ACLU to support this issue? Really?
Yes, America is the most prosperous nation in the world. However, we are also the largest debtor nation in the history of the world. Our national official debt is $20 Trillion and our public obligations are close to $100T. Talk about a debt snowball! We are headed toward a Venezuela-like collapse.
Having said that….
The major media in the US are ‘Statists’, meaning, they worship an all powerful State. They are using their power to manipulate public opinion to divide us into ever more hostile groups, hoping to create chaos. It is easy to create a totalitarian State in the midst of riots & chaos. Sadly, much of the American public are as dumb as sheep, willing to lap up any of the faux crisis they foment on the public. We are guided by mis-information & misguided emotion.
This current ‘old issue’ of ‘families being separated at the border’, completely ignored under the Obama Admin, accomplishes two things:
1) Distract from the IG report released last week exposing rampant corruption in the FBI under Obama; while…
2) Driving the wedge ever deeper between Americans, pitting us against each other.
Lack of discernment, uncritically feeding our individual biases coupled with hate & disrespect for our fellow Americans will destroy us. “A house divided cannot stand.”
Jamie, there is so much I agree with you here. I stated this on social media so I’m just going to say it again here. Simply because there wasn’t an uproar in the media over what happened in 2014 doesn’t mean that what happened then was right or should continue today. I lived in CO during that time and saw ICE deport many parents over the course of Obama’s administration. There were protests in Denver and I didn’t agree with the policies then. Do I believe all people should be allowed in without being screened? No. But I ask for justice and mercy to be done for all. Wherever they are from.
It seems you are overlooking the fact that asylum seekers are not being granted justice in their quest for asylum from those countries you site. If we paint all individuals coming from central America with the same brush we fall into prejudice. I pray for God to sweep into those countries and am actively involved with Trades of Hope which is bringing jobs to Guatemala and other countries around the world where women and children are mistreated. I rejoice that the gospel is spreading in Central and South America as well as Africa and the East. It truly is incredible to watch.
So, while I appreciate your comment, I respectfully disagree and have spent much time in this topic. I am not as uneducated or uninformed as you think I am. This is one article which I struggled to put into words. My faith and God and obedience to him comes before my allegiance to my country. It is what drove this article. Thank you for taking the time to respond.
A free press is essential to democracy, and has played a crucial role in United States history. As a person living in Minnesota, j wouldn’t even know about the family separation policy if it weren’t for the press. Not every journalist is perfect or unbiased, but broadly demonizing “the press” is extremely dangerous. Additionally, I fail to understand how the media can possibly lead us to totalitarianism while an executive branch and justice department that unlawfully cages children and lies to the public is no problem.
Hey K! The reason I commented on Leah’s post is that her sincerity was clear, and we are on the ‘same team’, as followers of Jesus. It is very difficult to converse via text alone, as inflection, tone of voice & body language are ‘missing’ and it is easy to misinterpret and people don’t learn from each other, but, talk past each other. However, I feel compelled to try & wake people up to what is going on in our country. I was ‘woken up’ starting in 1985. I had my head yanked out of the sand and began to seek trustworthy sources of information. I learned to have a Biblical Worldview and to understand the world view of others to be able to discern their point of view and agenda.
Yes, we all have a bias, a worldview; or, filter through which we view & judge events of the day. The general ‘liberal’ bias of the media elite has been well-documented, although, not widely reported, at least by them. See the Rothman-Lichter’ survey of the media elite in 1982 & replicated in 1995. The major media are, by their own admission, very secular, not religious, at all, much less ‘Christian’, as a group. As such, they do not believe in absolutes or Truth; and, they accept ‘the ends justify the means’ as a tactic. Liberal leaders in politics & the press have now ‘morphed’ into over Statists. They don’t see this as a ‘bad’ thing, as they do not understand the fallen state of human nature. Using their ‘power’ to affect public opinion is not ‘evil’, but the proper thing for them to do – it is their default position.
As to ‘demonizing’ the press… I strongly believe in a Free Press & believe our Constitution is a gift from God. The Bible does demonize them & all who are not followers of Jesus. “We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” I John 5:19
I would contend that without understanding of the agenda of the Press, that people who watch the major media, ‘know less’ about the border situation today, than they did two weeks ago. It is rather easy to discover the blatant false, mis & half-truth reporting of the press on this subject, if one knows to look. People are coming from Mexico & Central America to escape the destitution, corruption & danger in their own countries. When anyone (US citizens, too) crosses the border they break the law if they do not come through a ‘Port of Entry’. When people are caught with children, it must be determined: Are these their children; or, ‘mules’? ‘Mules’ are children used to gain entry. Or, are they planning to use the children in the sex slave business? Is the parent(s) a criminal? Border agents catch people doing all of the above on a daily basis. Many good people are mixed in with the bad and it takes time to be able to process and determine which are which. The problem will likely get worse before it gets better and the better we make it for illegals to cross, the more we are going to get. They are not being ‘kept in cages’ or being treated inhumanely.
Understand, the Media Elite detest our President, and they are using this ‘crisis’ to make him look bad, since the contrived ‘crisis’ of Russian collusion has evaporated. I was not a Trump supporter. I held my nose & voted for him because I knew how utterly corrupt HRC was. I did not expect much out of him and feared he would destroy the Constitution. I was wrong. Way wrong. He has surrounded himself with Christians and seems to have substantially changed. He is appointing great, Constitutional judges to federal positions, repealing burdensome regulations, defeating ISIS, and more, despite the constant badgering of him & his family by the press, Democrats and the Statist Republican Establishment.
BTW, we are a ‘republic’, not a democracy. The Founders recognized that democracies are one of the most unstable forms of government. Sorry for the length…guess I should start my own blog. :-/
Kelsey, I would first like to say thank you for your defense of the press. I too feel that demonizing the press as producing merely false news and leftist agenda is irresponsible and dangerous.
Jamie, since you responded in this manner, I feel the need to also say that your assumption that Kelsey is not also a sister in the body of Christ is false. I have watched my fellow believers fall deep into a hole of fear about the world which I find unbelievable considering Christ’s statement that we will have trouble in the world, but he has overcome it. The Bible says that we are also to test the spirits and I believe that means all spirits. Those in the human heart, the media, the government, and yes, demons and angels.
I have been deeply troubled by the spirit of fear that is taking over the right. I see it as blinding the right to what is happening in this country and the world. If we are not to trust the media, for example, do we then only read our own sided media? In seminary, I was taught to investigate multiple sources with countering opinions and to discern for myself through critical thinking which is the best or most plausible source. I use this today when I read the news. Daily. I use a variety of sources and while I see the Washington Post as left leaning, I also see them as being willing to uncover the truth when other sources refuse to enter the ring. And as Christians, isn’t the truth the most important thing?
A Christian friend of mine stated that the media and others have in fact known what is going on at the border. I have friends who are devout believers who have been advocating at the border for years who alongside the media raised their fists against the recent policies, not because the media was speaking out, but because the policies were new and worse than they were before.
I am grateful Trump made the executive order last week and am waiting to see what he does to reunite these families who remain separated. Because the fact is, little is being done for them and they are not sure how to even go about uniting these families they tore apart.
It seems clear to me we will not agree on this. I doubt I can change your mind. I merely state these things because I cannot remain silent on my website about my views on this matter. I rarely jump into political waters here. I did so because I do not see this as a matter of politics, but of moral justice. I believe this is one of the events where I cannot in good conscious do nothing and in fact, I felt compelled by Jesus to say something. I took two days to do this and it wore me out for the remainder of the week.
I believe we are in a spiritual battle and it is tearing Christianity apart. This grieves me. But I also believe that God is sovereign and far more powerful than any political pundit. We Americans need to be careful to not put our faith in the government or a political party. We must be willing to break laws and speak against laws that go against God’s Kingdom Life. That is what I have done here.
This could also be a blog post. I will wrap this up and say I wish the best for you in your faith and in light of Christ.
“I do not see this as a matter of politics, but of moral justice.” Amen to that.
Leah, I assumed that Kelsey was also a fellow sister in Christ. I apologize that that my assumption did not show thru in my response. Chalk one up to poor communication. But, I also did a poor job of convincing you that the establishment media is not a friend of ours (Christians). So, I defer & sign off with one of my favorite quotes from Thomas Jefferson. At least I am in good company!
“He who never opens a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them, inasmuch as, he who knows nothing is nearer to the Truth than he whose mind has been filled with falsehood and errors.”
In the ‘good’ company of a slave owner and adulterer… okay! Sounds like the justification of caging small children is something that fits nicely with your world view. We will definitely need to agree to disagree.
Kelsey, I am sorry that I evoked hostility from you. That certainly was not my intent. As stated before, I want to wake up believers to the evil that is mis-leading us & destroying our country. As Leah said in her comment above, Truth is the most important thing. And, Truth doesn’t change with the times. Perhaps the largest problem we have, as Americans, is that we do not know who we are as a People. There has been a systemic & intentional deconstruction of our history by ‘secular’ historians. Initially, God, references to God’s Providence in delivering America from her enemies, through storms, droughts, etc., and Biblical quotes were eliminated. Overtime, they began promoting lies; such as, ‘the Founders were mostly Deists’, that Jefferson ridiculed the miracles of Christ & re-wrote the Bible to eliminate those ‘offensive’ texts, that he fathered a child from one of his slaves, etc., were introduced. These lies have become so entrenched, that even our Christian colleges & seminaries teach them as ‘facts’.
How & why did this happen? Christians were asleep & absent from the battle, while God hating progressive secularist took over. John Dewey, Father of Modern Progressive Education, said, “Ultimately, we could not care less if children learn to read, write and do arithmetic. Our goal is to separate them from the beliefs of their parents.” Unfortunately, humans are all afflicted with ‘bias confirmation’. We Christians, will still believe a lie, even if that doesn’t support our Christian values. I guess we don’t want to believe that we’ve been ‘snookered’. So, I don’t expect people to believe me, idiot that I clearly am. I do expect believers to desire to learn the truth and crave the truth. Facts matter.
Fortunately, we have original texts, historical documents that verify the Truth. The fundraiser I attended 10 days ago, had a copy of Jefferson’s original draft of the Declaration of Independence. I did not know this story until 10 days ago….
In the original draft, completely authored by Jefferson, he lists numerous offenses against King George. Most of these were in one or two sentences per offense . However, he used a whole paragraph to rail against the promotion of slavery by King George, supposedly a “Christian” king, for the evils of grotesquely inhumane treatment of our fellow man. Unfortunately, this paragraph was removed as the declaration committee did not want to offend Georgia & South Carolina, since slavery was entrenched in their economy. Jefferson also spent much of his latter years railing against slavery. Yes, he owned slaves, inheriting them from his family. However, he could not simply free them as the laws would not allow them to be released if the estate had any debt. And, there was not a place for slaves to get jobs. To simply release them, would make them destitute without a supporting family or system. Many would dismiss this as a ‘cop out’, ala ‘Trump following the law’. But, don’t take my word for it. Read, “Sounding the Trumpet” – Peter Marshall & David Manuel. How to eliminate the institution of slavery was a huge dilemma. This book shows the Spiritual roots behind the Civil War, telling the good & bad from a Christian perspective. BTW – the parallels of the 1850’s & today are sadly similar, as society was becoming more & more polarized.
We should all be angry, livid at the lies our education ‘taught’ us.
I also recommend “The Jefferson Lies”, David Barton & “The Re-Writing of American History”, Catherine Millard
I am trusting that you will not publish my name or email..
In the beginning of your article you talked about the sanctity of life and then stated that you felt it was an important issue while pregnant. Did you maintain that same attutude all these years later?
What is your stance now?
Yes, I am still pro-life. I stand by my stance 10 years ago. I believe there are cases when abortion is permissible and even necessary (such as rape or when a mother’s life is in danger), but I held that position then, too.
Jamie Jordan, I don’t have time to comment on all the wrong-headed things you have written here, but I will home in on your alleged quote from John Dewey – ““Ultimately, we could not care less if children learn to read, write and do arithmetic. Our goal is to separate them from the beliefs of their parents.” I happen to know a bit about John Dewey and that immediately smelled like last week’s sardines. I did take a little time to google search it from many different angles and came up with not a single reference to such a quote. Would you please provide us with a reputable source or else retract the statement? Thank you.
David,
I must retract the quote, but, not the sentiment. I learned this quote years ago, prior to internet days, and, like you, it does not ‘show up’ on Google searches. If you know a bit about Dewey, you know that he was a Humanist, Socialist and was chosen to help install education in the USSR. He believed that schools should focus on the group and not the individual. He also believed that individuals should be trained so as to be useful. As such, his view on the individual was utilitarian and facts were not of value to that purpose.
“The mere absorption of facts and truths is so exclusively an individual affair that it tends very naturally to pass into selfishness. There is no obvious social motive for the acquirement of mere learning, there is no clear social gain in success thereat.” (The School and Society, 1899) (bet u can find this one)
As for another elitist educational view of the purpose of education….
“Every child in America entering school at the age of five is mentally ill because he comes to school with certain allegiances to our founding fathers, toward our elected officials, toward his parents, toward a belief in a supernatural being, and toward the sovereignty of this nation as a separate entity. It’s up to you as teachers to make all these sick children well by creating the international child of the future.” Chester M. Pierce, Harvard psychiatrist, speaking as an expert in public education at the 1973 International Education Seminar.
Back to Dewey – Clearly, he was a smart guy, but, not a wise person. He was adamantly anti-Christian and his ultimate impact on education & America have been devastating. http://www.improve-education.org/id42.html
I find it sad & confusing that so many young professing Christian Americans have been so indoctrinated with lies about our history, that they often have disgust towards our Founders and reject the Truth when exposed to it. Not saying this about you, btw. I have no idea what you believe, other than I am “wrong-headed”. For a view of how God worked in America’s discovery & founding, sins, warts and all read “The Light and the Glory” https://www.amazon.com/Light-Glory-Peter-Marshall/dp/0800750543/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1530206924&sr=8-2&keywords=the+light+and+the+glory&dpID=5185G6Q6BZL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch