DeSantis has betrayed Fla.’s values of refuge, hospitality
The state of Florida is known and blessed for the charism of hospitality. Our state is famous for being a refuge to generations of Cubans escaping communism. Our governor once again cruelly attacked our migrant neighbors in the past week.
While Florida politics have embraced the idolatry of the age, mainly Christian nationalism, our governor somehow failed at the Biblical mandate, which is our shared duty of care to provide hospitality and protection to the stranger. Worst yet, He has not learned from the state’s own newly mandated ethics and anti-communist lessons and sent away on two airplanes 50 people, including children, mostly representing political refugees escaping the brutality of Cuban-aligned Venezuelan socialism.
Taryn Fenske, DeSantis’ communications director, said, “States like Massachusetts, New York, and California will better facilitate the care of these individuals.” In almost Biblical parable literary form, our governor passed on providing aid to a battered group of people. While he intended to humiliate the people of Massachusetts, he instead allowed them the opportunity to be seen as the Good Samaritan State. These Good Samaritans stepped up and provided care and hospitality to the least of these among us.
These refugees did not come to America because of the policies of a few states. They responded to a longstanding invitation engraved on the Statue of Liberty welcoming “the homeless, tempest-tost.” States like New York didn’t enact policies hurting America; they enacted policies that made good on an American promise. Instead of building walls, these states are opening America’s front door to fulfill Lady Liberty’s proclamation: “I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Our governor is not governing according to our American values. Instead, he has aligned our state with the kind of governance seen in the dictatorships crippling Cuba and Venezuela.
America made a promise. That promise built our great nation and continues strengthening us by keeping our democracy from stagnating. Flying 50 hurting and disoriented men, women and children into Martha’s Vineyard through a $12 million transportation program to further alienate the tired, the poor and the huddled masses yearning to breathe free goes against our shared American and many person’s Christian values.
Instead of punishing our fellow Americans on Martha’s Vineyard, our governor brought shame to our state and made the entire hospitality industry that keeps the state tax-free a moral sham. He proved Florida’s monuments and their inspiring ideas as a fairy tale. Florida has monuments famous for inspiring children through visions of a magical kingdom. Many years ago, our state was part of a great movement of children and families away from Castro’s failed communist revolution into the hope, prosperity, and promise of Florida through Operation Peter Pan.
Our governor also failed to show how being a neighbor and answering the Savior’s call to offer radical hospitality to the stranger can cripple an economy. Instead, he inspired ingenuity and created moral wealth in Massachusetts. Like Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan, this story quickly moves away from the antagonists in the story and rightly refocuses on our just and righteous heroes — the people and community of Martha’s Vineyard who stepped up to provide food, shelter, clothing and hope to those our governor slandered with the description of illegal.
Lady Liberty and the people of Martha’s Vineyard have this to say about our governor’s inability to faithfully execute his duty of care to our neighbors: “Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp! … Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me.”
The Rev. Dr. Jose Rodriguez is the Vicar of Iglesia Episcopal Jesús de Nazaret in Orlando and was a 2020 finalist for Central Floridian of the Year.
“America made a promise. That promise built our great nation and continues strengthening us by keeping our democracy from stagnating. Flying 50 hurting and disoriented men, women and children into Martha’s Vineyard through a $12 million transportation program to further alienate the tired, the poor and the huddled masses yearning to breathe free goes against our shared American and many person’s Christian values.”