Many of the problems in our nation and in our world worsened and persist because people have created a gap between “us” and “them.”
“Real” Americans vs. immigrants, Christians vs. others, rich vs. poor, straights vs. LGBTQ persons, and so forth — all of these divisions are ways for privileged people to put themselves above people of lower status.
In 2018 some Church leaders who were appalled by the Religious Right’s cruelties and abuses wrote a statement they called “Reclaiming Jesus: A Confession of Faith in a Time of Crisis.” The document identifies six serious theological errors that the Religious Right has made that have hurt social justice in addition to unwittingly distorting Christianity into the opposite of what Jesus and the Early Church intended. I encourage people to read this short (3-page) article at www.ReclaimingJesus.org
The “Reclaiming Jesus” document explicitly deals with how we treat immigrants, poor people, and other marginalized people. The document says 2,000 verses in the Bible assert that our religion requires us to protect the poor. Indeed, many parts of the Bible urge people of faith to welcome strangers – including foreigners.
The great American rabbi, author and political activist Arthur Waskow wrote a short article about “Seeing God in Every Person.” Rabbi Waskow’s article is relevant to this situation. I encourage you to read it at this link:
Seeing God in every person — Arthur Waskow’s article
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