I am a gardener. I grow food from seeds and plants. I also work in settings of violence and disaster to assist locals in growing communities of peace and sustainability. These have been important places for me to focus my energy.
But I am also concerned about the ways in which climate catastrophes are forcing many populations to find safety in foreign places.
Vince Gaia in appNomad Centuryapp warns that billions of people on Earth will be forced to move to survive before the end of this century.
Our own North Manchester and Fort Wayne communities have been those safe spaces for many people, and we have benefited from their presence in businesses, employment, schools and friendships.
But now it appears that their presence could be threatened by massive deportations in the next couple of months. My thoughts and response center on my biblical/religious faith, to which some of you may not subscribe.
May I at least lay out my understandings and invite you to read and respond?
The Old Testament includes numerous admonitions to readers to care well for the alien, stranger and foreigner, in the same way as for widows and orphans. (Please note that appalienapp is not a space traveler.)
Jews are frequently reminded that they also were aliens in a foreign land once, which is a truth for all of us except Indigenous peoples here in the United States.
The New Testament then tells of Jesus in his early life fleeing, in his parentsapp care, as a foreigner, to Egypt to escape Herodapps killing of the infants.
Jesus in his subsequent ministry then has a special place for those on the edge of society app the outcasts, foreigners and strangers.
How will that translate for us?
I trust that my home can be a safe place for those threatened with deportation. What about your home, your church or retirement center? Or your school, university or medical facility? Place of business, factory, courtroom, sports arena?
Beyond a safe place, how do we respond if military units are ordered to round up foreigners, deportees, into large-scale staging grounds? Will we take the place of the deportees? Or, as military personnel, refuse to carry out such orders?
Then how do we support them in that refusal? What if police or National Guard are deputized to deport? How will they stay faithful to goodness?
What would goodness look like if adopted by our communities?
Prayers, safe space, food, friendship, medical care, continued education and love could all signal goodness to me. The shapes goodness can take are only limited by our creativity and courage.
Love is always an experiment. It is like a seed that we plant.
How do we grow a caring community? There is no guarantee how authorities and neighbors might respond to love.
We are not promised an easy way. But if we act together, there will be joy and encouragement in that caring action.
So, blessings of courage and peace to each of you!
Cliff Kindy is a North Manchester resident.
