Immigration
Praying for ICE Aggressors
Praying for those who are the aggressors in the current immigration focused violence across our nation.
To start our discussion about praying for ICE aggressors I want to recognize how triggering this might be for some, especially if you are closer to the brutality we’ve see on our streets. Praying for an aggressor should never be an exercise of excusing what they have done or ignoring the pain of the victim. If the very thought of praying for them only brings pain and confusion for you, please take a step away and breathe deep. This conversation will be here when you’re able to continue with it.
I’m writing from the perspective of a follower of Jesus Christ, and that brings an emphasis on what he himself taught about challenging things like forgiveness, reconciliation and mercy. I’ve been praying and advocating in my own small ways for the victims of ICE aggression spreading across our country, for the families and individuals of color unjustly targeted, for all detained and held without due process, and especially for those who have lost their lives in detention centers and on our streets. It has been growing in my heart and mind that I should also pray for ICE.
We pray, then we peaceably protest. We pray, then we speak truth to power. We pray, then we oppose the aggressors. We pray, then we stand in solidarity with our most vulnerable neighbors.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” Jesus in Matthew 5:9
That this federal administration can so easily find and hire all these agents, these willing aggressors, points to a moral, ethical and spiritual illness within our society. The violence is especially painful because the aggressors are also our neighbors and represent themselves as law enforcement. We’re sickened by their decision to hate and to do such violence, and we unequivocally oppose and condemn their actions. We also stand in a faith tradition that has always taught us that we do not return hate with hate or violence with violence. We chase after a better way. We chase after peace.
The highest example for living that better way is Jesus Christ.
In the midst of his own unjust and painful execution he could still look down upon an angry crowd who put him on a cross and pray, “Father forgive them.” (Luke 23:32-34) We want to also have the kind of eyes that can look upon an aggressor and see their humanity, even while deploring their actions and injustices. We also want the kind of heart that remains unstained by their anger and stronger than their hate. Jesus could see within that violent crowd people who themselves needed a better way.
Jesus asks us to make prayer our response to persecution and love our gift to those who would be our enemies.(Matthew 5:43-48)
That’s not a posture of weakness or a capitulation to violence, instead it’s a starting place from which we break the cycle of violence and hatred multiplying through our interactions. In that Matthew 5 passage Jesus lifts love and prayer out of the usual system of transactional reciprocity, just giving some to get some. He realigns love and prayer to be transformative and reconciling, able to bring about something new and unexpected.
The Apostles Peter and Paul (1 Peter 3:9-12 & Romans 12:13-21) both continue this teaching from Christ in letters to the church by reminding us to resist the all too easy reflex of repaying evil with evil. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. brings this wisdom home for us in our own time, in his amazing work, Strength to Love (1963).
“Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.”
To pray for ICE agents we begin by praying for ourselves.
We begin by asking for the Spirit of God to soften our hearts and to open our minds. It will take some imagination and effort to see past the masks, guns, grenades and tactical gear of war. Somewhere in all that mess is a fellow human being. We pray for the grace to see that valuable person, as broken and sick as their aggression might be. We ask for help because this is not an easy task.
“O God, help us to see the value and humanity in all our neighbors; even for the aggressor we would have a capacity to love and give mercy. Give us eyes to see them as more than their aggression. Help us to find within our hearts a sincere love for them, as undeserved, as unasked for and as unexpected as it might be.”
We pray for their healing.
A friend of mine used to always remind me of the axiom that hurting people hurt people. What kind of brokenness has moved these human souls to such aggression and violence? What kind of hurt causes a one to be so blind to the pain of others? Their willingness to put on all that gear and invade people’s homes and places of work points to some deep brokenness.
“O God, forgive them for their blindness to the evil they do. Give them healing from their fears and insecurities, and give them insight into the pain and fear they cause. Bring people of healing and wholeness into their lives, people who can show them the strength of love.”
We pray for their conviction and courage.
It’s so clear when we watch the videos that these aggressors are deeply insecure and afraid. The posturing, the escalation of violence and their willingness to follow bad-faith orders show how badly they crave acceptance and validation. The extremes of their bigotry and violence show a complete lack of self-reflection. Their moral and ethical compasses have been lost.
“O God, we ask you to open their eyes, ears and hearts to the pain caused to others by their actions. Weigh down their every waking moment with deep doubts about their choice to harass, divide and persecute. Awaken them to the shame of their chosen path.”
We pray for them to experience a conversion.
The word conversion carries a lot of baggage for some people, but it’s a good word for what we want for these souls. They need to be converted, changed, moved to a whole new way of being a human. We pray for a true interior reorientation. We’re wanting a Damascus Road kind of experience for them, like the one that stopped a murderously aggressive Saul in his tracks and turned him 180 degrees in life. (Acts 9:1-22) We pray for these souls to be shook.
“O God, draw them to yourself to be made new and transformed. May they be shaken from the fortress of ignorance and bigotry which blinds their hearts and fuels their violence. Humble them and bring their aggression to a standstill. Uproot them from the fear that binds and the hatred that drives.”
We’re believing in and calling for the best humanity in the aggressors and in ourselves.
Fighting them with reciprocal hatred and violence will not solve our shared societal illnesses. Again, from Strength to Love, Dr. King so powerfully defines the call, the work and the hope of being a peacemaker.
“At times we are able to humiliate our worst enemy. Inevitably, his weak moments come and we are able to thrust in his side the spear of defeat. But this we must not do. Every word and deed must contribute to an understanding with the enemy and release those vast reservoirs of goodwill which have been blocked by impenetrable walls of hate.”
We pray, then we peaceably protest. We pray, then we speak truth to power. We pray, then we oppose the aggressors. We pray, then we stand in solidarity with our most vulnerable neighbors.
“O God, we’re all broken, but we would be made whole. May our reservoirs of goodwill be found and opened wide. Bring us all together in greater humility do kindness and mercy. May we always be peace-makers, peace-seekers, peace-doers and peace-speakers. Amen.”
The Politics of Punishment
I’ve had a thought steeping in my head for a while, and I need to serve it up. I’m not sure if you’ve followed the fate of the “DREAM Act” or not, but it’s an attempt to assimilate and welcome minors who were brought to our country illegally by their parents.
Now, I’m one of those political cats who can’t always decide which view to hate more, so I’m usually a little more conservative than my neighbors in DC, but am usually way more liberal than my neighbors in Alabama and Texas. I rarely have big political statements to make. A lot of people think that’s the problem with “moderates,” but at least you can’t blame us for clogging the blog-o-sphere with our rants.
Today is different for me. I have a statement to make. Opposition to the DREAM Act is not “conservative” politics, it’s the politics of punishment. I grew up in conservative geography in which I was taught a love of one’s neighbor, compassion and empathy. I grew up in conservative geography where I was taught that we are a country of many kinds of people, and that’s alright. I was raised in a conservative geography where I was taught that I am in fact “my brother’s keeper.”
So what happened to all those ideas? When did “conservative” come to mean conserving an ideological viewpoint at the price of people’s futures? When did the politics of punishment take over?
The answer is partly found in the polarizing nature of Conservative and Liberal points of view, and the necessary vilification of “the other” to win in an arena of competitive viewpoints. We simply cannot share an issue, and that’s just sad… it may be the great American weakness.
But something like the DREAM Act rolls along and suddenly we have a moment of sublime clarity… a lot of us are just pissed off, and we want to punish someone because we’re pissed. Kids? Sure, we can punish them too. And we’re blinded enough by a politics of punishment to think it’s OK to refuse a simple gesture of welcome to someone who is already our neighbor. The sadness deepens.
Go ahead and quote the reasons for wanting to punish minors who were brought to a country by decisions not their own… really, this is your time. Right here. Spill it. Say how the influx of undocumented illegal immigrants is destroying our health care system. Say that it’s overwhelming our social services. Say that it’s depleting our job pool. Say that it’s unfair to those who came here documented. I’m pausing now for you to do that.
Now, tell me that those reasons are good enough for you to reject a neighbor who was brought to our great country as a minor and knows this as their home. Tell me that even with the included requirements of education and proof of moral character in the DREAM Act, that we can’t open a door for them. Tell me that it is for all those reasons just stated that we faced our recent economic depression, collapse of banks, sky-rocketing unemployment and record setting home foreclosures. Hmmmm, you can’t. I can’t. We “legals” made that mess. Our banks made that mess. Our home lending policies and practices made that mess. We have a fine enough time designing our own demise without ferreting out the least among us to scapegoat.
Did you read up on the DREAM Act? If these kids manage to get citizenship, according to the terms of the DREAM Act, some of them will have done a whole lot more with intentionality for their citizenship than I’ve ever done for mine. (I’m whispering this part, “Or the vast majority of you.”) I was just along for the ride… oh, wait! So were they! Truth is, as minors go, they are in about the same position I was in as far as choosing where we’d call home. My neighbor is me.
We all honor those who come to our country in an open and legal process. But that’s just lip service. Have I ever found a way to help tutor someone in process for citizenship? Have I ever written a “thank you” note or a given a congratulatory gift to someone who was naturalized as a citizen in our country? Of course I haven’t. And though someone out there surely has, I’m betting the vast majority of us haven’t unless we by chance had a family member or close friend go through the process. No, we’re not galvanized into action by that to which we give lip service. We are moved by indignation.
The politics of punishment offends my ingrained Texan neighborliness. I was taught that being a neighbor meant better than that. The politics of punishment offends my sensibilities as a Christian. As one who has been shown the grace of God and heard the stories of Jesus, I am offended. I think of the servant who choses to punish another servant after witnessing the grace of One greater than he; Matthew 18:21-35. I think of the servants who have come late to the fields and are just as welcomed and paid by the owner of the fields as those who came earlier; Matthew 20:1-16. These are the stories of Jesus Christ. This is the legacy I was raised to carry forward.
So, I support the DREAM Act. Because my unintentional arrival on this continent makes me no more important than these other children who arrived here by no choice of their own. I need to work hard to love my neighbor, every neighbor. There are in fact people in this life deserving of some of the punishments that come their way, but let’s not ever let our political needs lead us deny a neighbor. That would be a fundamental mistake.
My neighbor is me. That’s how I was taught.
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