Paxton attacking love, fostering fear with lawsuit
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is waging war on love, the most central tenet of faith.
He has accused Annunciation House, a Catholic nonprofit that runs several emergency shelters for immigrants in El Paso, of human smuggling and operating a stash house.
This statement came after the attorney general’s office launched an investigation into the organization, demanding an immediate release of client records, and filed a subsequent lawsuit when the organization did not meet the request. Annunciation House filed its own lawsuit and requested a restraining order against the attorney general.
As a pastor, I spend a lot of time thinking about, preparing for, preaching on and acting on loving kindness. But it is not something that comes naturally.
Embodying God’s love in the world is a discipline. We have to fight against our human instincts to maintain the status quo. We have to remind ourselves to turn our gaze outward, to focus on others more than we focus on ourselves.
Our human nature is not the only barrier that prevents us from loving one another. There are systems of injustice and oppression that put up blockades by keeping us separate.
Paxton’s attack on those who are choosing to act decisively and sacrificially in love and compassion is a particularly insidious way for the Texas government to engage in its anti-immigration campaign. It is designed to create suffering and a climate of fear among those who are dedicating their lives to helping the most vulnerable.
Immigration is good and healthy for our country. With some reasonable constraints, we could create a structure for immigration that would benefit everyone. The New York Times estimated that we need to admit around 4 million immigrants a year to maintain our historical population growth rate, a huge jump from the roughly 1 million immigrants who are officially granted the right to stay in the United States each year.
Welcoming the stranger, the poor, the hungry, the rejected and the persecuted is a biblical imperative. It’s hard to argue with Jesus’ teachings about reaching out to those most in need. But it’s also right there in Leviticus 19:33. A hallmark of every faith is to care for those in need.
We may have differing opinions about how many people should be allowed to enter this country and settle here or exactly by what process that should happen. But the fact is that right now there are people — mothers, fathers, children, babies, brothers and sisters — who are hungry, who are cold, who are vulnerable, who are sleeping in the open. An attack on those who are caring for them is an attack on our primary imperative as people of faith.
We cannot stay silent.
I humbly call to my fellow faith leaders to denounce hatred, wherever it has taken root. We will not be silenced. We will not be intimidated. We will not walk away from those in need.