Reflections
Presiding Bishop Eaton speaks on Family Separation
Posted on June 19, 2018 | Posted by Pastor Daniel
Last week children and their families with no place to lay their heads received hospitality, food, and compassion in our church basement for our IHN host week.
This week children from within and outside our congregation fill our church to experience God’s grace and love during Rainbow Trail Day Camp.
Next week we send our youth to Houston to worship and serve among 30,000 other Lutheran youth from across the country.
Every week, children are cared for in our Children’s Learning Center, and families are supported and kept together at the KPC Respite Center we support and house across the street.
Ascension has long cared for the plight of children. And so the news of children being removed from their parents at our southern border deeply saddens us. This is contrary God’s call to love the neighbor.
Pastor Daniel Smith
A Statement from faith leaders on family separation
Recently, the Administration announced that it will begin separating families and criminally prosecuting all people who enter the U.S. without previous authorization. As religious leaders representing diverse faith perspectives, united in our concern for the wellbeing of vulnerable migrants who cross our borders fleeing from danger and threats to their lives, we are deeply disappointed and pained to hear this news.
We affirm the family as a foundational societal structure to support human community and understand the household as an estate blessed by God. The security of the family provides critical mental, physical and emotional support to the development and wellbeing of children. Our congregations and agencies serve many migrant families that have recently arrived in the United States. Leaving their communities is often the only option they have to provide safety for their children and protect them from harm. Tearing children away from parents who have made a dangerous journey to provide a safe and sufficient life for them is unnecessarily cruel and detrimental to the well-being of parents and children.
As we continue to serve and love our neighbor, we pray for the children and families that will suffer due to this policy and urge the Administration to stop their policy of separating families.
Rev. Elizabeth Eaton and other faith leaders, June 7, 2018
To see the complete list of faith leaders who signed the statement, go to: https://www.elca.org/News-and-Events/7935
(Refugees: La Sagrada Familia by Kelly Latimore gives a new look to the scene of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus as refugees fleeing Herod to Egypt. Matthew 2:13-18)
