The Usual Suspects?

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Growing Split in Arizona Over Immigration

Addressing the recent anti-immigrant law passed by the Arizona legislature and signed by the Arizona governor, an article in today's (4/26/2010) New York Times names the role of fear in the immigration debate. The church's call is to preach good news--Good News that are repeatedly introduced by "Do not fear" ( "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people." Luke 2:10). We must do as we are called, and preach good news into this fear driven conversation...

Quotes from this article follow, and you can see (and participate in ) a fuller discussion of the legislation on the Forum section of faithonthemove.ning.com at http://faithonthemove.ning.com/forum/topics/arizona-antiimmigration-law?xg_source=activity

"Immigration has always polarized residents of Arizona, a major gateway for illegal immigrants. But the new law signed by Gov. Jan Brewer on Friday has widened the chasm in a way few here can remember."

"I also don’t feel it is racial profiling. You are going to look different if you are an alien, and cops know.” --Mr. White

She prays every morning as she steps out the door, “because we go out and we do not know if we are coming back.”--Ms. Miñon

Read the full article here.

Also, I just signed a petition asking President Obama and Congress to pass immigration reform so we won't see the racial profiling law in Arizona spread across America. Click here to join me!

http://act.reformimmigrationforamerica.org/cms/sign/not_in_our_amer...

Thanks!

Happy Easter/Felices Pascuas

Blessings to all this Easter season. May God's dream of justice and peace, which we celebrate this season, fill your homes, communities, and our world. We've put together a short "video greeting" in hopes of sharing the powerful experiences of Holy Week in Jerusalem. This year the Easter celebrations of both Eastern and Western Christian traditions coincided on the same week, together also with the Jewish celebration of Passover. You may watch the video above or see it on YouTube at the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpPTdbhvAO8

Saludos de Jerusalen en esta temporada de resurrección, cuando celebramos la promesa de justicia y paz que Dios trae a nuestras vidas, hogares, comunidades, y el mundo entero. Hemos puesto un video corto con la esperanza de compartir un poco de la experiencia inolvidable que hemos tenido esta Semana Santa aca en Jesuralen. Pueden verlo aca o en YouTube en el enlace siguiente:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpPTdbhvAO8

Peace/Paz,

David, Karla, Dawit, and Meheret

Something there is that doesn't love a wall

In this simple statement form his poem Mending Wall, modern American poet Robert Frost voices the deep concern with how human fear leads to building walls that separate us from others. "Before I built a wall I'd ask to know," goes on Frost, "What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offence."

While the Great Wall of China has been reduced to a tourist attraction and the Berlin Wall stand as symbol of the progress of freedom, reality is that nations around the world are building walls at an unprecedented pace--from the U.S. Mexico border, to Israel/Palestine, and in an article in today's New York Times, to a small village in Eastern Europe (Walls, Real and Imagined, Surround the Roma)

By contrast, Ephesians 2:14 portrays Jesus ministry as one of physically breaking down dividing walls: "For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us."

Share your thoughts about, as Frost says, "what I was walling in or walling out" at Faith on the Move Forum.

Marking Time and Space

Shabbat Shalom! We received--and accepted!--two gracious invitations to Shabbat meals this weekend. We visited with two of Karla's friends and their family/loved ones. Preparing to go to their house we learned a few things, for example: (1) we were planning to rent a car, scheduled to pick up at 1 p.m., but most rental places close by noon, even though the website didn’t indicate that right; (2) there are Shabbat elevators that run on their own throughout the day; (3) folks who observe Shabbat will not answer phones, so you need to be sure to have all your communications worked out ahead of time, especially if you're inviting someone over!
(4) observing Shabbat with small children can be quite fun--one of the families who invited us has four children under 5--kids can turn lights out on you that you need on for the rest of Shabbat!

It was interesting to see the way that people make arrangements to be able to keep the traditions of not working on the Sabbath. Participating in both of these family meals and celebrations made me realize that much of the “protections” about not working on the Sabbath are really more a response to an increasingly encroaching mechanical/electronic life style, than any antiquated, legalistic system. How do we protect our time off from computers, electronics that let things run 24/7, demanding communication, availability expectations, etc. Preparation for a day of rest mean some hectic planning, I am sure, the day before, but then once you begin the Sabbath, there is really only the focus of family and being together. I am sure it is not just ideal and there are all kinds of challenges to overcome, but I these two wonderful experiences have given me a renewed appreciation for a tradition that is so deeply rooted—and that can offer so much to our hectic, driven world.


Marking time has been a significant part of this week, but also how we mark "space." On Thursday I was able to travel with the group here from Tantur, a group of folks on a six week continuing ed program, to go to Jericho. We stopped in the Judean desert on the way out and had a few minutes to walk around. It was really beautiful in a strange/austere way. The intent of the brief stop was just to listen to the silence of the desert—the area where John the Baptist, Jesus, and many early Christians as well as others sought escape, renewal, etc. The abundance of stones in the desert made the temptation of Jesus to turn stones into bread make total sense!!

The place we stopped overlooked Nabi Musa, a shrine that marks the place Muslims believe to be the place of Moses’ death and burial. Moses is viewed in Islam as one of the prophets, and this site was identified in tradition as Moses’ burial place based on a dream/vision Salah Eddin had. More significant than the actual location of Moses’ burial site (which in the biblical text is said to be unknown Deut 34), is the fact that the place marks his life and death for many faithful people. In general, Sister Bridget—the vice-director here at Tantur and the person who was leading our group that day—shared what she called her own “theology of place.” That while it is impossible to verify the claims of most of the places one may visit in the Holy Land, what is significant is to be present in the places that have been associated with important events in the stories that are core to the faith of millions around the world and throughout centuries. Being able to take a picture of the very sycamore tree that Zacchaeus climbed, however, on a category all its own!!


We then traveled to Jericho. It is an incredibly green area—given its context surrounded by desert landscape. Jericho owes its lush greenery and abundant agricultural production to springs throughout the area. It is believed to be the oldest city in the world, with excavations dating back to 8,000 BCE (so 10,000 years ago).


Above the city is Monastery of Temptation or St. George's Monastery built on the mount of temptation—the place where Jesus was tempted by the devil. The monastery also has a small chapel in a cave that commemorates the place where prophet Elijah’s stopped and was fed by ravens as he ran from King Ahab and Jezebel. There’s a cable car that takes you up most of the way to the monastery (alternatively, you can walk up the zig-zag path which would take just under an hour). The place is literally built into the rock on the face of the mount. It is incredible. The views from above are breath taking. In each of the monasteries we visited, there is usually only one, two, or a few monks or nuns. From what I could tell, there was only one there at the monastery, which is a Greek Orthodox monastery.


We spent about an hour in Jericho proper, walking around the markets and shops and grabbing lunch. We then went out to two more stops. One was an incredible palace from the early years of Islam. Hisham’s Palace was a retreat for one of the early Caliphs. A huge bath area in the complex has incredible, extensive mosaics, one of them—referred to in the guide book as “one of the most beautiful and elaborately decorated mosaic floor in the world”--depicts the “Tree of Life.”


Finally, we stopped at this beautiful monastery just outside Jericho. St. Gerassimos Monastery has a history that dates back to the fourth century and the colorful story of its founder (which includes a tamed lion that is very prominent in the iconography of the saint). The site of the monastery, among other things, is believed to mark one of the stops the Holy Family made during their flight to Egypt. There are birds and other animals everywhere in the monastery and surrounding areas, and it too like Jericho is an oasis because of a natural spring beneath it. They have many preserved mosaics and are currently renovating and making new ones. The monastery grounds include what amount to beautiful pic-nic areas open to the public. One of my favorite images—of the many beautiful painting on walls and frames throughout—was a set of angels in the ceiling of one of the small chapels.


This week has been marked by the idea of marking both time (Shabbat) and space (sacred sites that mark important events in the life of the faithful). In a world marked by demands of both time and space, these practices becomes both more peculiar and more significant. As the psalmist says, “teach us to count our days,” and I would say also claim/mark our sacred space, “that we may grow a wise heart” (Psalm 90:12).

The logic of the Empire

"I haven't been across that wall in 12 years," said the owner of a small Palestinian restaurant in Bethlehem where we had lunch.
"I will come over to visit you in Jerusalem. I have a permit for this week," said a retired Palestinian teacher I spoke with on the phone to make arrangements for us to meet.

"My family (husband, originally from Austria, and two kids born in Austria) are visiting the Dead Sea, but I couldn't go with them as I have not been given a permit. We are scheduled to leave for Austria in a couple of weeks, and if I don't get my permit I will need to go through Jordan, which will cost 800 Euros more... I have an Austrian passport, but that doesn't matter. To the occupying forces, I am a Palestinian and nothing else matters" said a woman during coffee hour after church at Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem.

I can see "the wall" from the back porch of the apartment where we are staying at Tantur Ecumenical Institute. The institute is just a block form the Bethlehem "gate" or "check point." References to the wall and the way it shapes peoples' lives are inescapable in just about every conversation with people from Palestine.


The graffiti on the Palestinian side of the wall connects it to atrocities of the past--the Berlin wall, walls that hemmed Jews into ghettos. On the Israeli side, a large picture of the fortress wall around the Old City of Jerusalem (posted right by the Bethlehem gate)wordlessly connects the wall to a history of protection, even to the biblical references picked up by Luther's "A Mighty Fortress."

Connecting or drawing parallels between the situation here and situations elsewhere and at other times in history is fraught with complexities and pitfalls. Yet, in the morning when I go running and see men who have crossed the wall and are standing in the corner right outside Tantur waiting to be picked up by someone who will hire them for the day, I can't help but think of Hispanic laborers standing in the corners of cities throughout the U.S. I can't help but wonder about the similarities and connections of those around the world and throughout history who have designed, funded, and built dividing walls.


Dealing for months with the consequences on individuals of an immigration policy visually represented by the U.S./Mexico wall, I can't help but wonder about "the logic of empire." What is the logic that destroys a small town in Northeast Iowa or threatens the future of a community in rural Washington State; the logic that assigns a permit for a week to a retiree to cross a border, but denies it the following...

Today I went on a guided study tour of the Old City. Layer after layer of rock and debris attest to one empire after another, making a claim on this land--a claim that in time would prove to be tenuous. Each empire has seen its own logic and advocated its own well being. Each has claimed its own right and divine revelation... how might we speak today to the walls that surround us? Are they our "mighty fortresses"? Are they the walls against which Jesus, as the writer of Ephesians puts it, throws his own body (Eph 2:14)?

40 days and 40 nights

The devastation of the May 12, 2008 immigration raid in the small rural town of Postville in Northeast Iowa was followed by unprecedented large scale criminal prosecution of many of those detained. Aptly termed a lottery of justice by federal interpreter Erik Camayd Frexias, the prosecution "processed" people through an assembly line of "justice" that reflected the rush, pressure, and dehumanization that the workers lived through within Agriprocessors (their former employer). A little known part of the ensuing mess, was the fate of about 40 individuals in that prosecution. After serving about 5 months sentences--to which they agreed under pressure that this would be their "quickest way home"--about 40 individuals were held back as material witnesses in the criminal prosecution against their former employer. For close to a year and a half, these individuals have lived in uncertainty--passed on from one federal and state case to another, told at various times to pack up and get ready to go, just to be told again that they had to stay longer. Repeatedly they have had to call their families and tell them to prepare for their arrival, only to have to call them again and tell their children that it will be a while yet. I myself have been to their house a half a dozen times to inform them of their impending departure, only to return two days later to let them know that the latest word from one agency or another is that they are to stay...

The latest permutation of this--which does seem to come with some finality, but so have other statements--is that they have 40 days to prepare to be sent back to their countries of origin. One of the people from our area faith coalition commented on the irony of the journey these folks will go through as we journey for 40 days and 40 nights of lent. Their wilderness, of uncertainty, of joy at the prospect of seeing family again, of fear of the future, of economic uncertainty, is a journey that clearly points to the integration of both our spiritual and our physical lives. There is wisdom in the church's liturgy and memory, to recognize that what our bodies do--when we move, when we journey, when we hunger--has a direct bearing on our spiritual journey.