Solidarity Draws Boundaries

I am not a 'bridge' person when it comes to conversations about human rights. Never have been, never will be. I believe that inalienable human rights actually exist. I believe they are built into the fabric of existence by the will of our Creator. That is to say we are endowed by our Creator with inalienable rights. These rights can be protected, or they can be attacked and destroyed, but they are not up for negotiation. We cannot confer dignity on people. We cannot say who gets to have dignity as human beings and who doesn't. We either acknowledge inherent dignity or we're spitting on it.

So, brass tacks time. If someone claims that the treatment of students with disabilities is a states rights issue, then the dialogue de-facto moves to the territory where people with disabilities are now considered to be less than fully human, individuals whose inalienable rights are up for discussion. This is a state of affairs that I reject with every fiber of my being. No matter how 'good' of a person you may be in your private life, no matter how generous, if your goal is to have a 'dialogue' about the humanity children with disabilities I am your enemy. I do not hate you, I may even be your friend and love you profoundly. But the humanity of people with disabilities is not up for debate in my heart, in my mind, in my spirit or in my soul. We are working at cross-purposes and I will not find a way to 'negotiate' or 'dialogue' on this issue. I will not bridge the chasm with people who want to have this dialogue. I will do everything I can to stop them. I do not care about how this makes them feel. I do not care if they feel that my intransigence makes them think I am angry or hateful. My concern is that someone will stand in the gap on behalf of those whose inalienable rights and inherent dignity are under attack. My concern is that when we have contempt for the poor, the vulnerable, the disinherited we despise their Creator.

The same principle applies when it comes to students who are transgender. If the issue is how do we best support their needs and balance those needs with that of the broader community I am for that conversation as long as it is within the framework of the basic truth that all LGBTQ people are human beings endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights including the right to be in public and use a bathroom (life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness). As soon as someone says they want to have this conversation under the rubric of states' rights we have now moved into a territory where the conversation puts up for grabs the actual full humanity and dignity of trans students. Again, this conversation is one I am not willing to have. I am not going to engage in a dialogue with someone who wants to discuss whether or not a trans student is a human being. Period. I don't care how uncomfortable it makes someone. My concern is for the child whose humanity and dignity is being questioned. My concern is that when we have contempt for the vulnerable we despise their Creator.

Yes, this has everything to do with why I oppose Betsy DeVos. But you can extend this logic to people who are undocumented migrants, documented refugees, worship Allah, etc. If a country's perceived need to secure it's borders drives us to destroy the fundamental idea of and actual lived reality of human dignity I am not going to try to be a bridge person with people who are rounding up children at after school programs and be concerned about how they feel if I resist their work. Instead, I will look for the people who have been demonized. I will see how it is I can live in greater solidarity with them, protect their rights, uphold their right to have an existence.

I am reminded of an experience Nicholas Wolterstorff shares of an encounter with white South African Christians during the age of apartheid who vigorously argued that if blacks were given equality the efforts of the church to show love and compassion towards them would be greatly diminished. If your perception of compassion and love requires you to build a world filled with injustice, that is not a project I will join. That is work of profound evil and hypocrisy that I will attempt to diagnose and destroy. I may love you, I may even be your friend, but I am plain and simply not on your team. Not now, not ever.

Prayer for Migrants and Refugees

The more I think about what it means to be a migrant, a sojourner, a stranger (a category of person that is urgently upheld for society's protection in the biblical texts as a signature concern of God's) the more damning this 11 million person round up seems to me. Here is a prayer from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops that I filed a few years ago when I was taking some classes from the Sisters of Mercy. In my time of prayer and reflection I am letting this prayer sink deep in my heart. "Lord Jesus, when you multiplied the loaves and fishes, you provided more than food for the body, you offered us the gift of yourself, the gift which satisfies every hunger and quenches every thirst! Your disciples were filled with fear and doubt, but you poured out your love and compassion on the migrant crowd, welcoming them as brothers and sisters. Lord Jesus, today you call us to welcome the members of God's family who come to our land to escape oppression, poverty, persecution, violence, and war. Like your disciples, we too are filled with fear and doubt and even suspicion. We build barriers in our hearts and in our minds. Lord Jesus, help us by your grace: - to banish fear from our hearts, that we may embrace each of your children as our own brother and sister; - to welcome migrants and refugees with joy and generosity, while responding to their many needs; - to realize that you call all people to your holy mountain to learn the ways of peace and justice; -to share of our abundance as you spread a banquet before us; -to give witness to your love for all people, as we celebrate the many gifts they bring. We praise you and give you thanks for the family you have called together from so many people. We see in this human family a reflection of the divine unity of the one Most Holy Trinity in whom we make our prayer: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen."

The Meaning of 'Refugee'

What is the moral and spiritual meaning of being a refugee? What does it do to a child's consciousness to be raised as a refugee - a person the world has officially deemed worthy of no home, no official status, no meaning? I ask this because Jesus was a refugee and his articulation of how God stewards blessing for the poor despite the world's treatment is stunning and revolutionary (try reading the beatitudes of the gospel of Luke from the perspective of a child refugee).

Again, our times force me to turn to Hannah Arendt, who experienced first hand the total rejection of being human that is the status of being a refugee.  Arendt's thoughts run, in part:

What does it mean to use people as a weapon, as Putin has done in Syria, by turning millions of 'undesirables' into refugees? What does it mean to refuse refuge to those whose de-humanized status is being used to destabilize democracies, to undercut the principles of rule of law and inalienable human rights? These are the pressing questions we must ask in this time if we are to remain morally and spiritually resistant to genocide.