The Value of Family Values in the Borderlands

By Randy J. Mayer

We hear a lot of talk about family values these days. Some talk about the decline of the family, the lack of respect for mother and father, the prevalence of single parent families, the foregoing of marriage vows, and the list goes on and on. Well if you are one of those people who are in despair about family values---you should come down to the Borderlands and you will experience family values like you have never seen before.

Folks from the Good Shepherd UCC in Sahuarita, Arizona have long witnessed the family values of the migrants that cross through the borderlands. People who care so much about their sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers that they are willing to struggle and suffer, even die a grisly death so that their families might live and prosper.

One such family was the Ovando Vasquez Family. They had crossed the US/Mexico Border years ago and had been living in Phoenix where they had been working and raising their three children. But when one of their parents had gotten sick they were summoned to come home. Both Mom and Dad raced back to Chiapas to be of assistance, leaving their three children with an Aunt for a few weeks. After the situation simmered down and their assistance was no longer needed they made the long trek back to the border and twice tried to cross back into the U.S. Their only thought was to be back with their children in their own home once again. This desire was so strong that both Mom and Dad almost died in the brutal Sonoran Desert. After the second attempt they were told that if they tried to cross again they would spend six months to a year in prison.

“But what about our family, will we ever see our children again?” That was the question they asked in Spanish as they sat in a Soup Kitchen in Nogales, Mexico. Their faces were hollow, their bodies were beaten and bruised, and their spirits were defeated. It was about that time two Samaritan volunteers from the Good Shepherd showed up to give medical care and were introduced to the Ovando Vasquez couple. The next thing you know the Samaritans are sent on a wild, grace-filled journey to reunite the family. It took a couple of days to work through the logistics but before long the three young children were safely buckled into the vehicle and headed for a tearful reunion in Mexico with their parents.

It’s a touching story that breaks everyone’s heart, for we want families to be together. These stories of family values are multiplied a hundredfold in the Borderlands and people begin to understand the complexities of life. Because people that believe in family values realize that parents make great sacrifices for their children, but no parent should ever be left in the situation where life and death are the choices. People that believe in family values understand that family reunification is a principle that is so strong and sacred that any law that denies it is against God’s law. People that believe in family values are people who know the bonds and love of their own family and want everyone to experience the same.

Family values are everywhere you look in the Borderlands. However, I am not so sure you can say the same when you venture to Phoenix where the state laws are ruthlessly hammered out, or if you travel east to Washington D.C. where it seems like no one has seen a real family for a long time. Nonetheless the invitation is open, come to the Borderlands and you just might have your heart and mind opened as you see with your own eyes---the value of family values.

Other Peoples' Mothers

The beginning of May is always a poignant time of year.

I feel the weight of May Day (as in the struggle for worker rights globally rather than dancing and flowers), Cinco de Mayo (as in commemoration of a beleaguered Mexican army's victory over a powerful French army rather than bottles of tequila), Mothers's Day (as in the struggle to "bewail and commemorate" the war dead rather than a brunch reservation at your favorite restaurant), and the end of May brings Memorial Day (as in solemn remembrance of our fallen service members rather than steaks on the grill).  It's spring, flowers are blooming, days are warming (well, ok, in the Arizona desert, the only flowers we're seeing now are those on the ironwood trees and saguaro cactus, always a sign of triple digit temperatures just around the corner), and hope should be palpable.

This year brings an added layer of introspection as the Arizona Legislature has adjourned leaving some heavy bills on the Governor's desk.  Last year at this time, we were burdened by the impending implementation of the "attrition through enforcement" law that Governor Brewer had just signed.  This year, she signed bills that will see Arizona taxpayers footing the bill for a border fence as well as for a "state militia".

Interior Enforcement is often a silently destructive practice that has many mothers mourning the shredding of their families.  Some states are pushing back out of the realization that engaging local law enforcement in enforcing immigration law might well serve the agendas of ICE and CBP but does nothing to build strong communities or support families in their struggles to make a living.  Our law enforcement officers are intended to serve their community as Peace Officers, not as tools to implement a severely flawed strategy.  The Department of Homeland Security declares that Secure Communities only seeks to deport "serious criminals" yet according to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, their research shows that 79 percent of those deported under Secure Communities not only did not commit any serious crime, they either did not commit any crime at all, or committed very low-level or administrative offenses.

Further, we continue to abuse the intellect and passion of our students by allowing the DREAM Act to fail once again.  "These are not people who 'broke the law', they were brought here as infants and children.  Punishing them [by deporting all of them] is like punishing a 1-year old for not wearing a seat belt...What future can we have without the economic prowess and social stability that come from an educated population?" (Roxie Bacon, former CIS Office of Chief Counsel attorney)  Indeed, what future can we have as a nation when we systematically expend precious public resources on rounding up educated people for crimes they didn't commit and thereby destroying their families and the dreams of individuals who built this country to its greatness?

People actually get angry with me when I say this stuff from a pulpit.  Yet, I cannot see how so many members of Christian congregations can even sit still much less stay silent about what is happening to the families, our neighbors in our communities.  As of October 2010, seven of Arizona's fifteen counties are embroiled in Secure Communities agreements with ICE and to date, all Arizona Law Enforcement agencies are sharing arrest data with ICE.  In Maricopa County we have seen the devastation wrought by a rogue sheriff implementing his 287(g) agreement (flawed predecessor to Secure Communities) radically enough to have DHS revoke his street agreement (his jails agreement remains in place).

So, for me, at this time of year in 2011, hope is really not all that palpable.  I don't think we'll begin to feel any kind of hope for the kinds of strong communities that support families and thrive economically until people engage the teachings of a guy named Jesus.  Peter said to the eleven, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." The corruption of this generation will go largely unnoticed without the voice of the Church calling us together.

What Can We Do?

We never catch a glimpse of the terrain. But when Jesus Christ appears after his resurrection we catch a feel of the climate towards which we are all migrating.

Frequently church members and faith leaders ask about immigration, our broken systems, our confusion and conflict, the collision of our core Christian values with legislation, and the undeserved pain inflicted on so many immigrants and their families: “What can we do?”

We can focus on the crosses: those punctuating the desert landscape and those which arise in each act of hatred directed against children of God.

We can resolve to stand against the slow, persistent legislative agenda of racism and worker oppression and relocation promoted by groups like the Center for Immigration Studies, the Immigration Reform Law Institute, and FAIR with prayer and united action.

We can decry a law like SB 1070 which states “the intent of this act is to make attrition through enforcement the public policy of all state and local government agencies in Arizona.” “Attrition through enforcement” - making life so intolerable that people migrate again for safety.

We can ask ourselves with considerable hindsight that might teach us something about our time “What could churches in the southeast US in 1831 have done as five nations of indigenous peoples were marched west in the trail of tears?” Or “What could churches in Nazi Germany in 1941 have done?”

We know this terrain. But this is not our final home. We’re all passing through, together. And we’ve received a feel of life beyond the crosses.

Evil and brutality will be overwhelmed by the fragrance of the power of Love. Solid structures which seem impenetrable will be permeable and filled by the gentle breath of Peace. Fear will be overcome by the brightness of Joy. Anxious, uncertain journeyers will be met by warm Companionship that feeds their souls.

If we stake our lives on that climate: hope, promise, life - what we can do.

I join two very dedicated, learned, and experienced UCC colleagues whose work with immigration issues and migrants’ lives is humbling. I hope to help us all recall, as Christian sojourners, that which will be.

Golden Calves

Beginning where God begins with us in the moment where two holy cells join together in God's infinite genius creating a human being.  Well, that process actually creates a lot of creatures, and there are many creaturely ways in which humans are in the world.  Not how we aspire to be, not how we organize ourselves into a thought, or a goal, or an aim, but just how we are.

If we are honest with ourselves about our inherent creature-ness, we just know - in the depths of our being - that we are capable of so very much and so very little.  And we would know that God is a continual invitation to be our best and highest selves, to be in the place of so very much.  When we inhabit the place of so very little, and stay there, we live what William Sloane Coffin said is hell: truth seen too late.

What is the truth of the so much and the so little from inside of the immigration firestorm?  The so very little is the moment at which we can look another human being in the eye and say that, because of the color of your skin, or because of who your parents are, or because of the soil of the earth on which you were born, you do not belong here.  We slink even further away from God's invitation when, in all self righteousness, we justify ourselves in saying, not only do you not belong here, we will inflict violence upon you in order to convince you of that "fact."

This week, a religious institution once again surrendered its place in the possibility of so very much to wallow in the place of so very little.  See the story of Jose Gutierrez Guzman to know the depth of our capacity for so very little.  In this case, it's not even possible to look this man in the eye and disabuse him of any human dignity whatsoever.  Which is what tortures my sense of who we are as creatures and the place of so very little that we inhabit.

Back to Rev Coffin: "What is intolerable is for differences to become idolatrous.... Human beings are fully human only when they find the universal in the particular."  Jose's case is symptomatic of what idol worshippers we have become.  We worship the idol of Violence in the name of You Don't Belong Here.

Can you see the truth yet?

The Arizona Immigration Crisis is a Journey of 18 Inches

by Rev Randy J. Mayer, Good Shepherd UCC, Sahuarita, AZ

Recently I had the opportunity to hear Father Dan Groody, immigration scholar and professor at the University of Notre Dame.  Dan has spent the last 20 years or so of his life researching, writing, and speaking about the global phenomenon of immigration.  He has worked with the Vatican, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and the World Council of Churches, he has been an adviser and has given briefings to the US Congress.  He can dazzle folks with his knowledge about the intricacies and details of policy and procedure of immigration and he can break your heart in recalling the countless face to face encounters and interviews he has had with migrants in the field.  However, the most powerful story he tells about immigration is the story of going on a family vacation as a boy and having someone leave a religious tract on the car window.  He recalls that the tract said something to the effect that the distance between your head and your heart is just 18 inches.  The implied meaning was that those 18 inches are the distance between heaven and hell---accepting Christ or not.   Dan goes on to reflect that those 18 inches of immigration are the most important in the volatile conversation about immigration.  Do we have the courage to immigrate from our head to our heart and back again, for that is really what Jesus was asking?   It wasn’t just about belief(a head thing)---it was about following and living out Jesus call to love the neighbor(a heart thing). 

     Clearly that is the struggle when it comes to the issues of immigration in Arizona or for that matter the United States.   It isn’t hard to see once you wade very far into the conversation that the anti-immigrant position and the accompanied heated rhetoric has a heart of stone and has no rhythm of compassion.  From a head perspective you might be able to contort yourself into agreeing that the United States is a nation of laws and that we have the right to secure borders, but once you hear the stories of struggle, poverty, the push/pull effect of economics and the life and death situation of those who are forced to migrate, you begin to make that journey.  Only the hardest of hearts and heads can’t make that 18 inch immigration journey.

      There is no doubt that we have an immigration crisis on our hands in Arizona, but it isn’t about more fence along the border, more checkpoints on our roads, or more Border Patrol agents in the field.  No our crisis is a spiritual one that only involves a simple 18 inch immigration journey.   And the question is:  Do our political leaders and the people that elect them have the faith and courage to immigrate those 18 inches?

What's Theology Got to do With It?

As United Church of Christ clergy, we are often asked, "What does the UCC say about immigration?"

With a nod to the more unique aspects of our congregational polity, that is a very difficult question to answer.  Or, it could be said that it is a very easy question to answer.  The easy answer is: "It depends."

The dependencies have much to do with the autonomy/responsibility relationship that each congregation has with the denomination as a whole.  And, often, those dependencies lead to different responses from different settings.

When it comes to any conversations about the topic of Immigration, setting means everything.  It is often said that Arizona is at Ground Zero for this topic, and the reason for that claim is that several (not all!) aspects of the Immigration issue are at play in Arizona:  the border with Mexico, internationally recognized personalities in the Interior Enforcement arena, and the State of Arizona's relationship with privatized corrections companies charged with detaining those caught up in enforcement efforts.

Here are three clergy persons, all doing ministry in Arizona, with unique windows on different aspects of the Immigration issue, offering their perspectives through those windows:

The Rev Phil Reller served a UCC church in El Paso, TX before moving to Phoenix, Arizona.  The Rev Randy Mayer has served a UCC church in Southern Arizona at the center of the swirling debate around border enforcement.  The Rev Liana Rowe - a nearly 30 year resident of Phoenix - serves in a humanitarian capacity in the Southern Arizona Deserts as well as with mixed status families in Phoenix.

As a framework for what we will be about, here is a link to a site that explains a recent Speaking Tour around the state of New Hampshire by the Rev Liana Rowe that contains an audio recording of a presentation done in a UCC church in Peterborough.  Scroll down the page a bit to find the post and the audio.

That you would have ears and hearts open to hear, these three Arizona UCC clergy share.  Be well, be in Peace.