When I was a kid, I remember my parents saying, “The Devil’s tactics never change. Satan isn’t creative. The same things that tempted me will tempt you.” The ways that the devil usurps control of systems has not changed either. In World War II, the United States practiced inhospitable fear by imprisoning certain Japanese-American members of the country.
Now, decades later, we are at it again. This time, we are practicing inhospitality with children. If you haven’t heard about the Government’s practice of separating parents and children who are coming as asylum seekers, read about it. Consider this story for example, of baby Constantin (Photo from this article is featured for the post), who spent four months of his first year of life away from his parents.
I read in a daily devotional recently:
The Trump Administration has opted to use an Army base in Oklahoma to hold growing numbers of immigrant children in its custody after running out of room at government shelters. Fort Sill, an 150-year-old installation once used as an internment camp for Japanese Americans during World War II, has been selected to detain 1,400 children.
You can read that devotional at this link.
In Children of the Camps we saw that imprisoning children can have a lasting effect on them. I wonder what effect our mass imprisonment of asylum-seeking children will have on them. For the millions of Latinx children who will one day be American voters and adults, seeing this racism in place, I wonder what effect it will have on the future of our country. I wonder what you can do to sow seeds of love and peace to those around you, in the midst of this.
Let us Pray: Dear Lord, who was present with us, when nobody else was, we ask that you be present with the immigrant children who are being abused and separated from their parents. Please, help us be brave to show our neighbors that we love them and would hold and hug them in their time of pain and hurt. Amen.
*Article written by Rev. Jason Villegas