‘The Lord loves the aliens:’ Richmond Christian leaders call for compassion and reform amid aggressive federal immigration enforcement
According to 1 Corinthians 12:26, “when one member of the body suffers, we all suffer.”
That was the message local Christian leaders delivered to the public in a statement on Friday morning on the steps of the First Baptist Church regarding the immigrant community.
The statement – organized by For Richmond, a Christian nonprofit uniting churches – comes during the federal government’s crackdown on immigration that Christian leaders say has divided local families and kept longtime residents living in constant fear.
Earlier this week, about 450 Christian leaders from over 60 congregations in the Richmond region assembled with immigrants for worship and to hear firsthand the challenges that immigrants now face.
“While we chose to keep that meeting private for the safety of our friends in the immigrant community who are present, we believe it is really important for us who are able to speak publicly to speak to the broader Richmond community in this moment,” said Rev. Corey Widmer, the Board Chair of For Richmond.
Six months ago, Oscar Contreras, a Latino community leader and show host on Radio Poder – Richmond’s Spanish radio station – reached out to For Richmond asking for the churches to address the crisis immigrant and refugee communities are facing.
Radio Poder and For Richmond churches have since then hosted multiple community gatherings, leaders said, partnering with nonprofit, government and faith leaders to build trust and share resources.
Last summer, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained at least 14 people from Chesterfield County’s courthouse. Another individual was detained on Southside while on his way to work. The acts have resulted in many local protests, including ones from students.
“We lament the tone of our public discourse in which immigrants are often treated not as neighbors but as threats,” said Widmer, of Third Church in Henrico. Widmer later told news outlets that many immigrant friends and neighbors of his have had their visas revoked, are unable to attend hospital appointments or have pulled their children out of school, resulting in the need to support and advocate for them.
One by one, 11 of the 23 Christian leaders standing on the steps of the church facing the audience read the statement, quoting Biblical scriptures that support God’s love for all people, rejecting “nativism, ethnocentrism, racialized fear,” and reminding members that Jesus Christ too became a refugee when he was a child.
“The Bible begins with the declaration that every human being is created in the image and likeness of God. That dignity does not fluctuate with citizenship, documentation, language or national origin,” read Rev. Taylor Lewis Guthrie Hartman of Second Presbyterian Church in Richmond, quoting Genesis 1:27.
“The Lord ‘loves the alien, giving him food and clothing,’ and commands all people to do the same. The prophets condemn those who oppress the foreigner alongside the widow and the orphan,” she continued, citing scriptures in Deuteronomy and Zechariah.
In the statement, leaders also referred to Richmond's long history of racial oppression, emphasizing that it should not be ignored. Richmond became an epicenter for the domestic transatlantic slave trade in the early 1800s and was home to Lumpkin’s Jail, a slave trading complex in Shockoe Bottom.
It’s not far different from what’s happening today, said Rev. Nathan Walton of East End Fellowship in Church Hill. East End Fellowship has a network of smaller churches held in Richmond homes and recently created a Hispanic house church on Southside.
He said that individuals sometimes think about race “in very Black and white, binary terms,” which leads to an inability to connect injustices that come out of other racial situations.
“In the same way that so many African Americans throughout American history have fought for equal treatment and also fought for just naming and affirming their own dignity in the public square, the same thing is at play now with other communities,” he said.
Leaders acknowledged that the country needs to have an just immigration system and that the rule of law is necessary to follow. However, they added that immigrants must be treated as humans under any circumstance and called on elected officials to pursue urgent reform to the immigration system.
“The existence of law does not relieve us of the obligation to apply it with justice, mercy, proportionality and due process,” said Rev. Peyton Harris of River of Life Community Church in Henrico. “Scripture does not condition our obligation to love the stranger upon their immigration status.”
The clergy further called on Christians to be morally serious and not indifferent, and to respond to the call either through public advocacy, protest, accompaniment with families under threat or prayer, while ensuring that the response is not “silence, cruelty or apathy.”
Contact Reporter Victoria A. Ifatusin at vifatusin@richmonder.org
