Who is Blessed?
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessings. I will bless those that bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12: 1-3, NRSV)
Every Sunday after church, I go to the local, independent bookstore and purchase the Sunday New York Times. I get some of my news from online sources, but I love the gritty feel of the newsprint and the leisurely way that I can pick at the paper all week long until I’m satisfied that I’ve read enough.
Lately, I’ve been drawn to the stories of migrants streaming from one country to another. Mostly, I’ve been pondering how we, as the culture and media, phrase such stories as the “the migrant crisis.” Recently, as I was reading a New York Times article about a woman named July and her three children trying to flee gang violence in Honduras, it really put a name and to the story of violence in Central and South America. I saw her face and those of her children in a photograph and read their story of leaving Honduras only to be caught in Mexico and returned to the same town where her son, while walking to the market to buy food, was killed by gang members.
When I talk about migrant migration as an issue or problem I am framing it as an anonymous paradigm for which we can create policy to “solve the problem.” I forget that each of these crises is made up of human beings that have stories, longings and hopes for a dignified life without violence. Don’t get me wrong, I believe we need to create policy to create a structure that supports the dignity of human life, but I wonder what our policy would look like if we approached decision making with human beings in mind rather than the anonymous paradigm that we so often employ.
I am currently reading about Eleanor Roosevelt and her huge leadership role in writing and advocating for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I am keenly aware, when in a time of protecting geo-political interests of large nations after WWII, Eleanor Roosevelt was protecting the rights and dignity of human beings that can become forgotten or neglected in the jockeying of the global political sphere. Article 14 (1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, “Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.”
You shall not deprive a resident alien or an orphan of justice… (Deuteronomy 24: 17a, NRSV)
When I read the story of July, and how a policy of the Mexican government forbade her to remain in Mexico, I can’t help but wonder how I can reframe my understanding of the migrant “crisis” to include the stories of human beings and how they are being affected by global politics. And also ponder what our world would look like if policy was created based on human dignity as outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Or if we treated July as though she was living as a blessing and we offered her refuge as a resident alien. I wonder…
References
“Refugees at Our Door,” The New York Times, Sunday, October 11, 2015
UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS Adopted by UN General Assembly Resolution 217A (III) of 10 December 1948
julielunaponders 
You really raise a question in my mind about the relationship of our Christian teaching to international law. What shall we do when the facts on the ground put them in conflict?
Current international accords make the immediate care of the refugee the responsibility of the country of first receipt. But few countries are living up to that responsibility, partly because of lack of resources, partly because of political calculus.
As a result huge refugee flows are pressing into other nations who have no legal obligation under international law but have a Biblical moral obligation towards the stranger and refugee.
This relates directly to the vote yesterday in Congress on enforcing federal law on self-declared sanctuary cities. This is a conflict between state and federal law, as well as with how I interpret Biblical teaching. We are actually already where your example and the current refugee crisis are. It is not a distant thing.
I would be curious as to what you and others think WE, the United States, should do?
Blessings to you and all,
Wayne
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Immigration is such a big, complicated issue. It’s a mess, really. I agree, though, that individual stories make it a lot harder to treat immigration like an abstract issue that doesn’t actually affect real human beings. It’s these stories that remind us of the humanity of “the other.” How does Bonhoeffer’s reminder that we are to “bear each other’s burdens” affect our response to these stories?
What July’s story reminds me of is the complicated issue of asylum seekers. Mexico actually grants asylum to a lot of people from Central America and West Africa, while at the same time many Mexicans attempt to gain asylum in the U.S. What does it say when Mexico is a safer option for many immigrants, while at the same time being dangerous enough that people are fleeing for an even safer option?
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You give voice to such a complicated and systemic issue. It’s so important to hear each others’ stories – to understand their narrative so that the sojourner and the foreigner are more than just “those people” because when those people have names, their cause becomes our cause. When the foreigner has a name and we enter into relationship, then they become our neighbors whom God commands us to love.
Your voice gives me hope – hope for the July’s of the world who need the Eleanor Roosevelt’s of the world to right a tremendous number of wrongs – or at least to shine a light on injustice.
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