Statement On The Southern Border Atrocities
In an age in which everyone feels they must say something about everything, it is easy to not feel it necessary to speak out in moments of even clear and present crisis. But we must, as image-bearers, as human beings, as citizens, especially as Christians, speak now and denounce this horrid practise that is taking place at our southern border. First, facts, lest we get lost in the cable news cycle and cease to be able to discern what is real and what is rhetoric—particularly information that is coming from the mouths of our present political leaders.
The inhumane practice of taking infants , toddlers, children and teens from their parents is not being caused by “bad legislation passed by the Democrats.”
It is not being caused by “legal loopholes that Democrats refuse to close and these laws are the same that have been on the books for over a decade and the president is simply enforcing them.”
This is not “because of a court ruling… that makes new legislation necessary.”
As the AP released, these events have been solely caused by the Executive Administration’s “zero tolerance” policy. It, coupled with President Trump’s executive order, are responsible for spurring family separations. Court rulings do not mandate that course.
Zero tolerance means that when a family is caught illegally entering the U.S., the parents now are routinely referred for criminal prosecution, even if they have few or no previous offenses. That typically means detention for the adults, pending their trial. Under U.S. protocol, if parents are jailed, their children are separated from them because the children aren’t charged with a crime.
Until the policy was announced in April, such families were usually referred for civil deportation proceedings, not requiring separation.
What does all of this mean? It means that one man can end this tomorrow, should he choose to do so.
I am a father of four young children, and though my heart aches badly and it feels as though I cannot breathe when I hear the screams and cries of those babies in recent news coverage; and though I cannot imagine my little Ella being ripped from my wife Breanna’s arms as she is nursing, this is not the motivating factor for my speaking against these atrocities.
My motivation is the supposed faith that so many who support this move say they hold. How can you be pro-life and watch families torn apart, children kept in cages, and infants separated from mothers at the most crucial time of bonding? How can you say you follow a faith that was founded by and for the poor, but despise the poor and believe them only to be leeches and not people with dreams? How can you say you believe the Scriptures, but ignore the HUNDREDS of verses that speak to issues of justice and mercy, from the Old Testament to the New? Here are just a few:
Deuteronomy 10:17-19
Isaiah 1:17
Isaiah 58:6-8
Psalm 103:6-11
Amos 5:24
James 1:25-27
James 2:1-13
The simple answer: you are not pro-life if you do not denounce this inhumanity.
America, despite the many opportunities I and others have been afforded, has a bloody and broken history, a history founded on the exploitation and dispensing of various peoples. Our sins run back from this present dehumanization all the way to the founding documents.
The Irish were once enslaved here, their children ripped from their hands. The Indigenous of this land were slaughtered, as they fought to their last in order keep what was rightfully theirs. My ancestors, brought over like animals, sold in markets as property—they too had their children ripped from them, and their families separated. Many Chinese and Japanese were kept in cages at different junctures in our history, one while building our railroads, the other simply for being citizens during a war.
This is the American Way, and it will continue to be, unless we, her citizens—in particular her Christian Citizens—say no. Christians, or at least those who claim they are, have been complicit in every atrocity ever enacted in this country. We cannot let that be the narrative again. Fight this! Fight it for your soul, but more so, to honour the God you say you love and follow.
I denounce this inhumanity. Renovation Church denounces this inhumanity. We will do all we can within the scope of our influence and resources to see it come to an end.
Pastor Lèonce B. Crump Jr. Senior Pastor and CEO Renovation Church