Immigrants Becoming Citizens versus Temporary Workers: The Community of Wholeness

My lazy day of eating too much and watching videos on YouTube turned into a worrisome amount of information about at least some in Homeland Security and ICE, and an American agricultural program referred to as H-2A visas. This left me with deep concerns about what is occurring in my country, greater concerns than I’ve had about just ICE and Immigrants. 

I first watched an ICE raid on a market, Glenn Valley Foods, in Omaha Nebraska. Although several other news stations did a report, reporter Ali Bradley for News Nation, was given exclusive rights to report and film the whole event. Toward the end of the report Bradley interviewed the owner of Glenn Valley. The owner, Gary Rohwer insisted that he had verified all of his workers as legal. He stated that the workers were like family, and he just could not believe that they were undocumented. 

 However, Rohwer stated “Well I understand there’s a program we can work with Homeland Security and we can get visas from them along with a list of employees that we can interview and the ones that we want we give them a visa and its squeaky clean. And Homeland signs off on it.” I found this statement strange—how could Homeland Security give out visas in that manner. 

Later in the day I watched another video. People Breaking Immigration Law are not who you Think, which I did not realize was going to explain a lot about the first video. It was about the H-2A program and how it was affecting both local farm workers and those immigrants who were given visas to work in the United States. The video is produced by More Perfect Union, and it explains how the H-2A program is being used by some corporations to not hire local workers, (against the law) and the misuse of temporary migrant workers. There is suspicion that it is also being used to do away with any migrants seeking citizenship. 

Some of the complaints of local workers is that the agricultural corporations fire them and wait to hire temporary migrant workers. The temporary workers have many complaints. Poor crowded housing, long work hours without overtime, insistence that they pay for their travel expenses which is also, under the program, against the law. Probably the biggest problem is they cannot ask to stay in the United States-they will.

 If this program is being used to place Mexico and other countries, with brown skinned peoples outside of American citizenship, then it well become racist for several reasons. The owner of Glenn Valley Food kept saying that his workers were family and mentioned that they had families there. In other words, they were part of the community—This is the better idea for our country. To make farm workers less than members of our community and in some ways almost slaves is racists.

 Antonio de Lorea-Burst, communications director with the United Farm Workers, states in the video, “Theres a very nightmarish vision of the agricultural economy that effectively sees the entire labor force being composed of guest workers who are permanently excluded from citizenship who are denied basic labor rights and I think they see this moment as an opportunity to get closer to that.” 

 The President has even encouraged the farm workers to go home and then apply for a workers visa.

 Today a friend on Facebook reposted a comment by Trump: 

“Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long-time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace. In many cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs. This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!" 

I think this is simply another setup to remove immigrants and replace them with temporary workers who will have no rights and will not be a part of our communities. They will be outsiders who we will use to make sure we have plentiful food. But they will not contribute to our schools, our church communities, our gatherings as citizens. We will be less than we should be and if we are Christians we will sinfully contribute to the dehumanization of others.

 

About Means and Religious Freedom

Because of my posting of A Near Wicken Speaking Spells on Facebook yesterday, I want to do just a small amount of clarification here. Casey Means, the Trump candidate for the next Surgeon General, is truly into new age and other beliefs. If Means is doing moon rites she may be into witchcraft. However, that is not for certain, witches practice a nature religion and generally worship a goddess. However, some see the goddess as simply a symbol while other see her as a reality. For information from my blog check here

 NamingHis Grace: Wicca: from my Christian perspective: a series and here, Naming His Grace: Wicca: from my Christian perspective: a series 2. And here Naming His Grace: Wicca from my Christian perspective 3. But that is not what my main clarification is meant to be about. My friend Evy honestly pointed out the problem. That is, the concern that we are failing to understand what it means to live in a democracy where we don’t question one’s religion when appointing them for an official office in the government. That happened a few years ago when some questioned whether a Christian, a Catholic, should be allowed to hold an office:  

 

I am concerned about the medical abilities of the several candidates for health offices, but I know we can’t question their religion. We are after all the United States of America where we still, hopefully, experience religious freedom.

Would you help her? Protest! Hide her! Go to jail to protect her! Would I, I keep asking

My father-in-law lost his first wife in a horrible accident on an icy Oregon road. A few, years later he married again, a Christian woman who was a cook at a Christian school. She was a nice lady, who loved her husband and cared for him though years of dementia. But she did have one quirk, she was a racist. When setting behind her in a car my husband teased her, your neck is kind of pink. But really it was red. When she stated that she believed the Japanese really deserved to be interned during the second World War, we asked why they didn’t intern the Italians. Her first husband was Italian. She stated it was because the Japanese were sly. 

Just this morning I read an article from Christianity Today about the internment of Japanese Americans during the second World War. The author, Raymond Chang, writes about visiting one of the internment camps and also about the livelihood and property lost by the imprisoned Japanese. In Chang’s article, “We Should Not Be Silent This Time he writes of those who were Christians: 

“The gospel was certainly the good news that the incarcerated Japanese American Christians clung to. In the face of immense hardship, they refused to let their faith be extinguished. 

They gathered in makeshift chapels and worshiped in the camps, finding solace in the stories of exile in Scripture and trusting that God’s promises were greater than the fences that confined them. They called on the God of justice and mercy, and God met them there.”

 I keep asking these questions, to myself as well as my reader. If you had a neighbor or friend who was an Afghan who faced the almost certain possibility of being deported back to her homeland where she would most certainly be killed, either because she is a Christian or because she had helped the United States government in their war against the Taliban, would you help her? Protest! Hide her! Go to jail to protect her! Would I, I keep asking. 

One of my favorite heroes is Sophie Scholl, a member of the White Rose movement during the nazi years. The White Rose, a Christian group, wrote pamphlets about the injustices, the persecutions, happening during those years. They would leave their writings anywhere and were caught leaving them at the university of Munich. Most of them were beheaded for their actions. 

 The director of the movie about Sophie Scholl and the White Rose movement made this comment about her:

 “I admire her courage. She turned down the ‘golden bridge’ offered her by the integration officer Robert Mohr—thus practically signing her own death sentence. I find that quite startling: how does such a life—affirming positive-minded young woman like Sophie Scholl come to terms with the fact that her life is being taken away from her? And of course as an atheist I ask myself: Is it easier to face death as a believer?” 

nd so I keep asking the questions. There is the gay man, not a gang member, sent to the terrible prison in El Salvador. One congressman keeps asking Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security, if she can just find out for Asylee’s mother if he is still alive. She won’t. There is the little girl with brain cancer, a US citizen, sent with her parents to Mexico, at first no time for the seizure medicine she needs—and no right to stay in the United States with her parents until her treatments are finished. No mercy for anyone. 

But there is mercy from God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—who overshadows his people and carries them. So too we are called to have mercy as his children. But still the questions?

 

Timothy Snyder's on How to Avoid or Resist Tyranny: His quotes with my thoughts #17

I have written some about an orphanage in Baja that me and my family often visited because my husband’s brother worked there. He was eventually to marry a lovely Danish woman who also worked there. I at one time went to visit her when she was sick and by herself. I found myself in an uncomfortable position.

 I at that time was working in a ministry dedicated to apologetics and trying to help friends and families of what we then called cult members. My expertise was mostly working with those whose family members were involved in cultic and abusive churches who insisted they were Christians. I became aware while at the orphanage that just such a situation was developing there. A pastor was treating other workers as though they had no meaningful goal or purpose. They, in reality, were begging for freedom—they were not even allowed to have a key to a storage room where the equipment they used was kept.

 It seemed that most of those upset were the Mexicans who lived and worked there. One of my concerns was that during the meeting to sort out the problems, leaders, some Americans, kept insisting there must be unity because Mexico was being taken over by communist who were already coming near Baja. So the implication was all will be lost if you don’t all listen to your leaders and stay in unity. In such a situation the real problems don’t get discussed or taken care of, rather it is suggested that it is an exceptional time which must be addressed in a different way. 

 Over the years there were changes and the orphanage thrives. But this use of fear words can be used by leaders to gain power over others. Timothy Snyder in his book, On Tyranny puts it exactly right:

Listen for Dangerous Words: 

“Be alert to the use of the words extremism and terrorism. Be alive to the fatal notions of emergency and exception. Be angry about the treacherous use of patriotic vocabulary.” Those words are very familiar to this time and this place. Yes, we do have extremist groups and we have experienced terrorism. But not to the extent President Trump and others keep pushing. For instance, in her book, Start With Welcome, Bri Stensrud writes: 

“President Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly emphasized, ‘The majority of the people that move illegally into the United States are not bad people. They’re not criminals. They’re not MS-13.’ Most immigrants come to the United States to pursue educational and economic opportunities and have little to gain by committing crimes.” 

 The United States, sadly, has a history of maligning and hurting immigrants. After the Chinese had worked at some of the most dangerous jobs on the railroad, particularly in California, they were banned from the United States. Both Catholics, the Irish and the Jewish people were discriminated against. The Japanese were, as most know, interned in camps during the second World War. Most of them lost their homes and business. And of course, just recently some Haitians in Ohio were falsely accused of eating their neighbor’s pets. It is too easy to pick on the vulnerable.

 Snyder points out the times authoritarian leaders and governments use the scare words to take away freedoms from their people. There was the Reichstag fire in Germany, for the next twelve years Germany was no longer a democracy because of the “emergency.” Putin used such “emergencies” to gain total power in Russia. The fear words will be used. Already we hear that millions of terror groups, gangs, have been sent into the United States, We are at war with them and it is an “emergency.”

 So where does the Christian stand in all of this? 

Under the cross which means for now speak the truth and as some are saying care for the weak, the hurt, the accused, the slandered and yes even the enemies. Honor rulers but with truth. It is not honor for rulers to allow them to lie and never refute the lies because Scripture tells the believer to both speak truth and honor rulers. And then there is this: 

The Lord is my shepherd. 

I shall not want. 

He makes me lie down in green

 pastures; 

He leads me beside quit 

waters. 

He restores my soul; 

He guides me in the path of 

righteousness 

For His name’s sake.  

Even though I walk through the Valley of the shadow of death, 

 I fear no evil, for you are with

 Me. 

Your rod and your staff they 

Comfort me. 

You prepare a table before me in 

The presence of my enemies. 

You have anointed my head 

 With oil. 

My cup overflows. 

Surely goodness and 

Lovingkindness will follow me 

All the days of my life, 

And I will dwell in the house of  

The Lord forever.

 

Timothy Snyder's on How to Avoid or Resist Tyranny: His quotes with my thoughts #16

I’ve gone on a lot of trips and vacations. Two stand out in my mind. The first I’m thinking of was my second trip to England. My husband went on a plane with choir members, going to Avon, and then Cambridge to sing. I went several hours later on a plane to a different airport in England and went the next day by coach to Avon. (the trains were down one day a week although I can’t remember which day.) We met there; I went to their concert in an ancient church. He attended a play with me, fell asleep during it and then left with the choir for Cambridge the next morning. I went by train to Oxford, spent hours in Blackwells’ bookstore, went to service at King’s College, walked to the Inkling’s favorite pub hoping to see it a second time. They were closed. We met again and went together to Wales. One of the joys of this trip was traveling by myself and finding out I could do well by myself. 

 The second trip was a trip together by car across the United States visiting a daughter and her family and some of our friends. That meant, first an old friend from school in Pattonsburg Missouri, our daughter in Chicago: her husband was attending Trinity Evangelical Divinity School; Grand Rapids to visit one of my husband’s best piano tuner apprentices and back through West Yellowstone to visit two pastors, a husband and wife. The wife had encouraged my husband in leading Bible studies which he did until Alzheimer’s made it impossible. That was probably my favorite vacation, no cares just joy. (Well, okay there was that almost tornado.) 

I’m writing all of these memories after reading Timothy Synder’s 16 chapter in his book, On Tyranny. He writes: 

“Learn From Peers in Other countries: 

“Keep up your friendships abroad, or make new friends in other countries. The present difficulties in the United States are an element of a larger trend. And no country is going to find a solution by itself. Make sure you and your family have passports.” 

I admit I really haven’t kept up my friendships abroad. And at my age, 84, I doubt if I will need a passport, but I think it’s a good idea for many. I have relatives that are using theirs for identification which is also a good idea. (I do know God surprises us sometimes with the future.) 

 One thing Snyder is reminding the reader of is the turn toward the extreme right in several countries. Remember both communism and fascism is some of Synder’s academic expertise, as well as the history of all of those movements in Europe including Russia and the Baltics as will as Ukraine. 

 For those who don’t want to hear this I will quote Synder anyway: 

“The fact that most Americans do not have passports has become a problem for American democracy. Sometimes Americans say that they do not need travel documents, because they prefer to die defending freedom in America. These are fine words, but they miss an important point. The fight will be a long one. Even if it does require sacrifice, it first demands sustained attention to the world around us, so that we know what we are resisting, and how best to do so. So having a passport is not a sign of surrender, On the contrary, it is liberating, since it creates the possibility of new experiences. It allows us to see how other people, sometimes wiser than we, react to similar problems. Since so much of what is happening now is familiar to the rest of the world or from recent history, we must observe and listen.”

 Now I want to add my own observation to this and recommend some slightly different thoughts. First of all there is Rod Dreher’s thoughts in his books The Benedict Option and Live not by Lies. I think what he has to say about resistance while living in the United States under oppression is really helpful. The problem is he only sees that problem coming from the left, not at all from the right. So besides reading Dreher also read The Dispatch’s “A Confessing Church For America’s Weimar Moment” by Paul D. Miller. This will cover resisting both the extreme left and extreme right. 

And besides this read, read about what is happening in the United States- yes read both sides but read good articles by both sides, that is one reason I am suggesting you read Dreher and Miller. 

 And then if you are a Christian read deeply of the redemptive sections of the Bible, of the forgiveness, the righteousness of Jesus which becomes ours in Christ. And also read deeply of the call to discipleship, the call to live holy, to love enemies, to be blessed in poverty and persecution, to follow in the way of the cross. Read Matthew 5-6. Read all of Philippians in the New Testament. And think on these words of Paul. 

“But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ More than that I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I might gain Christ.” (Phil 3:7-8)

 Christ.” (Phil 3:7-8)

Authoritarian Leaders and the Letters of Those Who Hold on to Joy

The Dispatch today under their heading, Worth Your Time, pointed to an article in the publication Aeon. The article “The Last Letter” with the extra words, “Condemned to death by firing squad, French resisters put pen to paper. Their dying words can teach us how to live.” The essay is of course sadly poignant. Its purposed meaning, how to live, well thought out. It did however remind me of a very old small booklet I have from around the same the same period, Dying We Live, its editor’s words of explanation, “Letters by prisoners in Germany on the verge of execution: ‘No cause of sorrow but rather great joy.” Most of these letters are by Christians or at least religious persons. One of the first letters is written by a confessing pastor, whom I have written about before, Paul Schneider. He was the first Confessing pastor martyred. But there are so many more. 

There are several thoughts that occurred to me reading the Aeon article and once again browsing through Dying We Live. There are clues among these letters to the times we are living in. Negative reasons that answer our questions about whether it is the beginnings of authoritarian rule or not. There is an understanding that community and family ties are so necessary. And then there is affirmation that for the Christian that to be in Christ, under the rule of insufferable leaders, is to be safe. Tomorrow is everlasting in a forever loving, just Kingdom. 

My first thought, negative reasons, that tell us if we are in the beginning of authoritarian rule, slips in between the letters written. Not everyone even knew about the letters or the people who sent them. Not everyone understood or believed that anything was amiss. Life was going on as it seemingly always did. If you did not wish your children to attend church or be confirmed, there was no thought that belonging to the Hitler Youth groups was replacing your commitments. If you were dragged out of your house, or church or off the street and sent to a detention center usually no one would notice. (You just might be some criminal after all) Of course, if you were Jewish you were named a trouble maker, the enemy, vermin, and sent eventually to a concentration camp in a distant country where no one could communicate with you. People just quit reading, or listening, or asking questions and then said they just didn’t know. 

But in the beginning some knew. Mostly Catholic. The disabled and ill, did not come home but were sent to an institution of sorts—they were disposed of. But an outcry helped it to end for a little while.

 There was concern that Germany needed more babies, but healthy, Aryan babies, as many as possible—babies for Hitler. If you think you are exceptional and have no qualms about faithfulness in sexual faithfulness than yes, many, many more babies. This was one of the reasons for pastor Schneider’s arrest, he decried the officials for promoting easy sex for the sake of having many Aryan babies. But mostly it was just government issues—until the safeguards of democracy were gone. 

Concerning the idea that community and family ties were so important to those who were writing those goodbye letters and those receiving them one only need to read the letters. And read the endings, to mothers and wives, to children and husbands and friends. Encouragement for the days ahead and thankfulness for the past with family. Even pastors and priests writing to their “brethren” with encouragement. 

“Dear brothers, Now I must in the end take the other road. The death sentence has been demanded, and the air is so filled with hatred and animosity that presumably it will be announced and carried out today. I give thanks for all the kindness, loyalty, and help, especially as accorded me in these last difficult weeks. I ask for forgiveness for many things that have been wrong and unjust, and I ask for some help and care for my aged, sick parents. … 

May the Lord keep you all. …"

 

And a protestant advising his wife and comforting her:

 “My last thought my dearest wife, will be that I consign you, my dear ones, to the mercy of the Savior, and my spirit to his hands. I want to die thus rejoicing in my faith. And I would have you for your part, my dear Barbie, remain ‘the ever cheerful Frau von Haeften.’ Joke and laugh with the children, fondle them and be merry with them; they need your gaiety of spirit—and be assured that nothing could be more in keeping with my wishes. 

So I salute you, my dearest ones, with the old greeting, ‘Rejoice!’ Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice … And the peace of God shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ.”

 And then this: there is affirmation that for the Christian that to be in Christ, under the rule of insufferable leaders, is to be safe. Tomorrow is everlasting in a forever loving, just Kingdom. 

There is some questions, to God, why the suffering, is the whole nation being punished, is there fairness on God’s part. But mostly in these letters is the longing for the eternal home and the clasping of the Savior’s arms. The knowledge that their tomorrow will be eternal without darkness. 

There is knowledge of deep evil, but more deeply still knowledge of the holiness, light and love that belong to God. We have not known for the most part such deep evil but we do know Him who carries His people in the midst of any evil. If it comes He is here.

 

Timothy Snyder's on How to Avoid or Resist Tyranny: His quotes with my thoughts #15

The students who majored in Philosophy at Sacramento State University, because at the time few in number, could often be likened to close-knit groups. Pranks were important. I couldn’t participate in the class on ethics so it was taped for me. The professor at one point was teaching on the philosopher Nietzsche, the other students made a pact to pretend they loved Nietzsche’s ideas, and told me their plans. When I got the tape I laughed and laughed, the professor was astounded and disappointed. But they finally told him the truth. 

Now we face some of those ideas, ideas, about the “will to power.” The anti-democratic events happening right now in the United States include, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, an immigrant who was mistakenly sent to an awful foreign prison in a country where his life was threatened and two officials of the first Trump presidency being threatened, by the president, with an investigation by the DOJ because they disagreed with the him. The events are too often based on the dark desire for revenge and enemies. But Timothy Snyder’s booklet On Tyranny replaces the darkness with some light. He tends to use fellowship against tyranny. In his 14th chapter Snyder writes: 

“Contribute to good causes: 

Be active in organizations, political or not, that express your own view of life. Pick a charity or two and set up autopay. Then you will have made a free choice that supports civil society and helps others to do good.”

 I want to quote a few more of his suggestions in this chapter. 

“The anticommunist dissidents of eastern Europe, facing a situation more extreme than ours, recognized the seemingly nonpolitical activity of civil society as an expression and a safeguard of freedom.” 

Snyder points out that “one element of freedom is the choice of associates, and one defense of freedom is the activity of groups to sustain their members.” 

He writes, “Háclav Havel, the Czech dissident thinker, gave the example of brewing good beer.”

 It seems that all or most of the organizations I have belonged to were formed to either promote the goodness of Christianity or stand for the truths of Christianity. My last two, Apologetics Resource Center and then in the Presbyterian Church USA, Voices of Orthodox Women, (VOW), which was formed to counter “Christian” women worshiping Sophia and doing communion with milk and honey.

 But in all of that I think beer making might be a very good thing. And, in fact, a group of men in a Presbyterian Church in Loveland Colorado, where VOW held their board meetings, made beer together and it was very good beer. 

Christian or not the members in these groups did sustain each other and friendships were deep. And their love for Jesus grew because of their friendships—that is part of freedom. 

 I have visited the Inklings pub, The Eagle and the Child, in Oxford. There they gathered and read their works to each other and forged deep friendships over good ale and probably tea. They kept away what C.S. Lewis would call Britian, and France and China. Looking for peace, not power he wrote in That Hideous Strength, “When logres really dominates Britian, when the goddess Reason, the divine clearness is really enthroned in France, when the order of Heaven is really followed in China—why, then it will be spring.” 

He goes on to say “we’ve got Britian down but who knows how long we can keep her down.”

 So the United States is rising, that hideous strength is rising here, but stay in fellowship with those you care about, doing those things you care about with the gifts given by a gracious Creator.