~The Canary in Our Moral Coal Mine~

Dear Friends,

Two years ago, as the interim at St. John’s, Ellicott City, I was tending a parishioner by the name of James Purcell. Jim was a longtime employee of the State Department serving with distinction multiple presidents of both political parties. From his perspective his greatest work was done in the decade that has been called the “refugee decade” 1979-1989. It began with the fall of Saigon and ended with negotiations to end the civil war in Nicaragua. After a home communion, Jim autographed and gave me the book he wrote about that decade that was a quote from one of the refugees he aided, “We’re in Danger! Who will Help Us?” As I read the book I began to realize that the last time there was a political and to some extent a moral consensus about what to do about both refugees and immigration was under the Reagan administration. We have been stuck and in an ever-widening set of differences about who may come into this country and be an American ever since.

That division in my mind culminated in the death of an American woman in Minneapolis. While protests have taken place, many have said to me that we need to galvanize all that energy and vote. I do not disagree. In my mind there is a greater issue beyond voting that is plaguing us, and it is our willingness to hold our elected officials and ourselves accountable for first, “doing no harm” to our neighbor who by Christian teaching is anyone, stranger and friend alike. That is the canary in our moral coal mine that I fear is in danger of dying, meaning that our own moral life and action is in the same danger. In Jim Purcell’s book his last chapter is entitled, presciently, “And Now…a Test of Civilization.” I would add a test of our moral life.

In subheadings that read, “Above all, do no harm”, “Mystifying breakdown”, Is America still reliable?” “Searching a way forward”, “Ending war and moving ahead”, “A test of civilization” are all the questions we need to be asking ourselves as a society right now. My concern is greater, at what point as Christians do we need to speak up, and act in ways that claim a moral ground that argues against violence, as readily directed at us, as it is against others who may be in this country illegally. I cannot help but believe that we are in this terrible place because we looked the other way, thought the law would take care of the issue, enjoyed the benefits of the cheap labor that illegal workers gave us, and thought time would make it different. For this I repent, and as a Christian now must add my voice and my body to protest. The loudest voices are the ones that argue for self-interest as the pragmatic and wise solution. The cross teaches me that self-giving love is the only way forward however foolish that appears to the world.

God's peace and keeping,

Mary +