Week 1

This week I found out a little about what the faith community is doing about the issue of immigration in America. The Minneapolis synod of the ELCA recently approved a statement on immigration calling for the cessation of immigration raids and for reform of immigration policy appealing to biblical ideas about both strangers and neighbors. I was asked to draft an endorsement form for the Minnesota Immigrant Freedom network that could be given to churches because of my experience with the church. They want to ask churches to endorse the Reform Immigration for America campaign, which is working to put immigration reform through congress in the fall.

I talked to several people involved in the church, including Lutheran pastors, Catholic nuns, and a UCC pastor. This gave me some insight into what is necessary to combine church and state in a productive way without threatening the limits that churches impose on themselves not to get involved in the political. It seems to differ depending on denomination. Some denominations have structures that are very democratic and therefore something like an endorsement would have to go through church councils and would take months. However, I am not sure if that is true of all denominations. I may end up getting endorsements from clergy rather than churches. However, there are clergy who are working in ways that are very political, for example having a church service on the anniversary of the Postville Immigration raid to call for immigration policy change. There seems to be a fine line between what churches can or cannot do in the political realm. There is definite hesitation on the part of the church to get involved. However, it seems that if politics affect issues of social justice, the church must become involved if it is going to fulfill its mission. The church is uniquely placed with both human and financial resources which it can use in many ways. It is interesting to think about the ways in which the church can either strengthen or challenge the hold that patriarchy and kyriarchy have on society. This is something that I need to think about as I consider what I want to do in the future. I have considered going into pastoral ministry and this power of the church is something that I must wrestle with as I make decisions for my future.