Christians must offer safe places

Neighbors encouraged to reach out to others

Sometimes I wonder if our religious imagination is broad enough. So much of what passes for Christianity these days is constrained within a highly individualized piety focused on personal salvation and morality. Such religion, when it does consider others outside Christianity, thinks about them only or primarily as non-believers to convert rather than neighbors to love -- neighbors who, perhaps, might teach us our own faith better.

In the meantime, modern technological complexity and globalization makes us aware, and so in some ways responsible, for the connections we make far beyond the level of the individual. We can be aware in just one week of white nationalism energizing a terrorist attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, while equally concerned about rural Nebraskans affected by flooding and snow. Our connection to new media means we're often aware of all of this at the same time, while also living our lives in family and neighborhood.

This complexity means communities of faith are going to need to organize in ways different from previous eras. Although we will still study Scripture and train people in prayer, we will also need to adapt historical forms of faithful organizing to the present moment.

Let me offer one example. Last fall I spent some time in Tucson, Ariz., visiting the border and learning from those faithfully serving among immigrant populations there. Because I work in refugee resettlement and advocate for immigrants, I was especially concerned about stories we have been hearing from the border. Add to this, one of my own parishioners was recently deported to Tanzania after he was targeted by our county participation against Immigration and Nationality Act Section 287G, and you can imagine why I'm concerned at both the local and the national level.

What interests me is collective forms of organizing between communities of faith. For churches or communities to offer sanctuary today, they'll need to expand notions of sanctuary, recognizing that anti-immigration voices have even co-opted and politicized the word "sanctuary" itself.

We are living in extraordinary times, which call for more resources and support from as many people as possible to help strengthen our capacity to create sanctuary spaces. One such step we're taking is to host a launch event for the Northwest Arkansas New Sanctuary Network this May. We'll have trainers from Church World Service at the event, along with local immigrant organizers who will help us understand how to support them in their work and strengthen networks between our communities.

In the meantime, I encourage all of us to take all the steps we can to understand our neighbors and move beyond white nationalism, Islamaphobia, and individualistic approaches to religion that fail to recognize strangers, immigrants, and people of other faiths as neighbor, too.

Tonight you might attend the Christchurch remembrance event at the Islamic Center of Northwest Arkansas at 7 p.m. as one way to start making the connections and entering into the complexity.

NAN Religion on 03/23/2019

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