(RNS) — As a rabbi and an Episcopal bishop, we part the ragged belief that each and every person is made in the image of God. But our capacity to put together this elementary tenet of our faiths is now being threatened by the U.S. executive’s contemporary rescission of pointers that small immigration enforcement in safe areas similar to homes of esteem.
Allowing the manager to violate our sacred spaces and our congregations with immigration raids both shocks our consciences and infringes on our freedom of faith — a freedom enshrined in the First Modification to the U.S. Constitution.
Earlier this week, we joined a multifaith coalition of dozens of plaintiffs representing thousands and thousands of American citizens in a lawsuit filed in opposition to the Division of Build of birth Security by Georgetown Legislation College’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection. We are suing the manager on tale of subjecting areas of esteem to Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions with out a judicial warrant offers an intolerable burden on the free exercise of faith in violation of the First Modification and the Non secular Freedom Restoration Act. These enforcement actions picture a appropriate away attack on our capacity to meet the spiritual mandate to welcome and abet immigrants.
For decades, particular areas had been deemed off-limits to immigration raids, most notably hospitals, colleges and areas of esteem. These areas part a total bond: They address the human physique, the human mind and the human spirit. They abet other folks, no longer in step with nationality or ethnicity, but as human beings whose needs, hopes and beliefs transcend borders and backgrounds. Our synagogues and church buildings are sacred spaces, consecrated by our faiths and established below our elementary tenets to welcome in all who enter. Conducting warrantless raids in these spaces shatters their sanctity and tramples on our freedom to put together our faiths.
Freedom of faith has fashioned this nation from its inception. It has served as a beacon that brought reasonably about a our ancestors to these shores. Nowadays, that very same gentle guides immigrants to our homes of esteem looking out for refuge and a space to esteem freely, with out distress of persecution. We are compelled by our faith to commence the doorways of our synagogues and church buildings to them, no matter their background, nation of foundation or immigration residing.
Caring for the stranger is a spiritual duty for Jews. For heaps of of Jewish history, Jews have moved from one land to yet every other attributable to exile, persecution or the hope of a nearer future for the next generation. Jews came to the USA as immigrants and have supported and welcomed immigrants ever since. Jews have always heeded the commandment repeated 36 times in the Torah: an exhortation to just like the stranger on tale of Jews were strangers in the land of Egypt.
In this kind, Jewish Scripture and history compel the Jewish community to work with and relief immigrants and refugees. Nowadays, Jewish congregations are spiritual homes and areas of sanctuary for new immigrants and refugees looking out for safety and a nearer future.
Christian tradition shall be fashioned by the biblical commandment to welcome the stranger, and Jesus publicizes a kingdom by which the persecuted are on the very coronary heart of God. The apostle Paul writes that Christians’ correct citizenship is in God’s kingdom and that Christians are called to transcend the earthly distinctions made by the leaders of this world. Christians also imprint themselves to be contributors of the physique of Christ by which every and each believer plays a fraction, and this elementary tenet approach that Christian congregations can’t esteem freely if some among them are absent on tale of they reside in distress.
This distress is no longer theoretical. Already, raids had been conducted true thru the nation. Our congregations and the thousands and thousands of americans represented by our lawsuit are already seeing declines in esteem attendance attributable to distress of ICE action.
Come Atlanta on the tip of January, an asylum seeker who had emigrated alongside with his family from Honduras in 2022 left church on tale of his ankle be aware, positioned on him when he crossed the border, went off as he and his family listened to their pastor’s sermon. Out of doorways, he used to be arrested by ICE agents.
By subjecting our congregations to such threats, our executive is disturbing that Jews and Christians true thru the nation flip our backs on our core spiritual beliefs. Our Scripture, teaching and traditions are particular: We are called to love those who’ve fled persecution, escaped violence or who merely expect a nearer existence in a safer land. In step with this sacred call, we have committed ourselves to this battle to present protection to our congregants, uphold our faith and abet our God.
(The Most Rev. Sean W. Rowe is presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church. Rabbi Hara Particular person is chief govt of the Central Convention of American Rabbis, a Reform management organization. The views expressed on this commentary attain no longer necessarily replicate those of Faith News Service.)
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