In the Shadow of Babylon

You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in their lawsuits. Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and those in the right, for I will not acquit the guilty. You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the officials, and subverts the cause of those who are in the right. You shall not oppress a resident alien; you know the heart of an alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

– Exodus 23: 6 – 9

We have had several surprises in the weeks since the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States: former National Security Adviser  Michael Flynn’s discussions of sanctions with Russian officials, the White House’s unprecedented hostility toward the press and the remarkable combination of wealth, political pull and inexperience of the president’s cabinet picks are not least among them. But if there is one element of administration’s policy that is not unexpected, it is the approach to immigration. We may not have anticipated the presence of White nationalist apologist Steve Bannon on the National Security Council, but even as a candidate, Donald Trump announced promises to implement a Muslim ban and mass deportations, promises that he seems to be doing his best to keep.

In the midst of the firestorm that continues to surround the implementation of President Trump’s immigration policies, an odd trend has surfaced on social media. Several of my friends and acquaintances, harsh critics of the Trump administration in general, and the president’s aggressive approach to immigration in particular, have posted articles asking rhetorically whether supporters of widespread deportations intend to engage in the challenging, poorly paid work  undocumented workers so often perform. Their favorite example seems to be the agricultural labor on which our supply of fruits and vegetables depends. The argument seems to be that farm labor is so physically demanding, low-status and ill-paid that very few Americans are willing to do it. If this is true, and empirical evidence suggests that it is, then why do I find it odd, even disturbing, that this should be a key objection to President Trump’s immigration policy? Because basically what these decent, thoughtful people whom I love and respect are saying is that we should permit an underclass of underpaid, unprotected, exploitable labor to remain in the country to do challenging jobs at wages neither we nor our compatriots would tolerate. This reasoning – that we should not deport people who entered the country illegally so that we can exploit their labor for cheap fruits and vegetables – is both unfair and un-Christian.

It is unfair because having a labor force that is unable to protect its legal rights and standard of living due to fear of deportation likely  exerts downward pressure on both wages and working conditions in the agricultural, construction, caregiving and hospitality sectors where undocumented labor is common, even for legal workers. A person working legally is going to think twice about starting a union or filing a complaint about unsafe work conditions if he knows that his boss could find ten people to do his job without complaint, and at half the price. While no individual undocumented worker is at fault for the problem, it seems clear that having a large amount of undocumented labor distorts the labor market in ways that cause the greatest harm to our most vulnerable workers, who either compete with undocumented workers for employment or have jobs that are only slightly better paid.  It is simply wrong that the person working legally, whether native-born or a legal resident, should be denied the opportunity for a decent living just because an undocumented person is willing to work in indecent (by American standards) conditions for indecently low wages.

This reasoning is also un-Christian. Based on the Bible and historical sources, it is clear that when some are in need, Christians should share out of their abundance to fill the gap . If we need to pay more for the produce we feed our families so that those who plant and harvest can afford to feed theirs, it seems clear that this is the right thing to do. In a country that wastes an obscene amount of food each year – my dog once found a half-rack of ribs, still in its Styrofoam to-go box, abandoned on the sidewalk of our working-class Jersey City neighborhood – higher food and other costs may lead to more responsible stewardship of our resources, especially since the rise in cost is likely to be modest and diffused while wages may well go up sharply for the small group of people at the very bottom of the income distribution. I am not an economist, so I don’t know the relative size of the effects of rising costs and rising wages, nor do I know whether higher costs would primarily impact consumer prices or corporate profits. What I do know is that any economic system that depends on the exploitation of an entire class of people is contrary to God’s will. Period.

Lest there be any doubt, I do not believe that rounding up undocumented people and shipping them to homelands they may not have seen in years is how we will “make America great again.” True greatness, the greatness of the kingdom of heaven, would look like treating all residents and citizens with fairness and dignity, a goal that demands an approach to immigration that respects the needs of individuals, families and communities, while according with norms of fairness and basic decency. This is a greatness that America has never had, but our peculiar genius is that we are always reaching for it. Neither “let them all in” nor “round them all up” will get us where we need to go as a nation, and any Christian argument for undocumented workers needs to start from the reality that they are image-bearers of God rather than a cheap source of labor. Let’s keep reaching for the kingdom of heaven, with God’s help and with compassion for our fellows, keeping in mind that difficult questions won’t have easy answers.

I was recently privileged to deliver a version of the below remarks at the first New York Yearly Meeting Quaker Exploration and Discourse (QuED) Day. QuED is a day of talks, fellowship and discussion taking place once a month aimed at connecting young adult Friends with Friends of diverse experiences from around the yearly meeting. You can watch the morning’s talks, including Q+A, here. 

Objectivity has had a bad run recently. University professors are being criticized for encouraging debate rather than comforting their students. Great Britain is exiting the EU based largely on a campaign of xenophobic fear-mongering. Our recent presidential election was marked by lies, half-truths and exaggerations which, even when debunked, had no discernible negative impact on those spreading them. Oxford Dictionaries’ Word of the Year was “post-truth,” an adjective “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” In this environment, it is important to stand for facts, accuracy and fairness and against the swell of emotion that can blind us even as it binds us together.

So why, in the age of ISIS fundamentalists, of the alt-right, of truthiness and post-truth, do I believe conviction is essential? Isn’t skepticism humbler and ultimately wiser?

The world is shaped by those with conviction. Conviction spurs us to action and helps us stay the course. Skepticism feels sophisticated, but is often merely cynical, an excuse we use when we don’t want to spend the time and energy reflecting on our own beliefs or when we are uncomfortable following them to their logical conclusions. Skepticism and uncertainty breed hesitation: if you aren’t sure of which way to go, you’ll usually wind up standing still. By contrast, when you spend the time to understand yourself and your beliefs, you are unleashed to act and act boldly upon those beliefs.

As Friends, we rightly affirm that Truth may be found in a variety of people, places, and ideologies, including very unexpected ones. This may lead us to believe, or act as though we believe, that no belief system is more right or wrong than any other. I encourage you to challenge that belief and truly engage in the act of exploring different belief systems. Be open to one that makes sense for you. There is no virtue in being either ignorant or undecided. Being tolerant is admirable; being tentative is not. Being open to changing your beliefs is laudable; being unable to articulate or stand up for them is not.  Of course, great harm can be done by people with wrong-headed convictions, but that should not deter you. Great harm can be done with a knife, but in the hand of a skilled surgeon, it is a life-saving instrument. Conviction is just the same. When it issues from our own thoughts and our own will, it can lead to ruin. When it is the result of a life-changing encounter with God himself, conviction can power us to acts of healing, courage and sacrifice, all infused with the joy of righteousness.

When Martin Luther King, Jr., put himself and his family in mortal danger to be a leader in the struggle for civil rights, he didn’t act out of an abstract belief in equality or even out of a personal desire to have his rights recognized. He acted out of the conviction that, as a Christian minister, God was calling him to raise a prophetic voice against an unjust system. When John Woolman labored with slaveholding Friends to show them the error of their ways, and putting himself to considerable hardship in the process, he didn’t do so out of a philosophical opinion, but out of the conviction that owning slaves was inconsistent with the Christian faith, and that God was calling him to do something about it. Conviction changes things.

There are all kinds of worthwhile things we can do with our time and energy: teaching First Day school; volunteering at an animal shelter; exercising; composing music or poetry. These activities are important and valuable. But if we aren’t acting out of a sense of calling, out of our convictions about God and his nature, about the world and our place in it, we will abandon all of these activities and more when challenges come our way and our time or energy is at a premium.

Right now, we are witnessing a turning point in history. Many of the shared assumptions and understandings built up since World War II – a constantly increasing standard of living, the steady march toward world peace and democracy, and faith in our ability to work together to solve complex problems for the public good – are dissolving before our eyes. The notion that progress is inevitable or assured is being daily proven false. There is a real chance that a day will come when we see things happening in America that would have been unimaginable ten years ago, things that demand that we either embody or abandon the  principles we claim to hold dear. When that day comes, just repeating the SPICE testimonies is not going to be enough to keep us standing in solidarity with our brothers and sisters among the poor, alien and outcast. We will not stand with them through dangerous times unless it is clear to us that we do not have the option of abandoning them, that something or someone larger and deeper than ourselves demands that we stand with them.

For me, that larger someone is Jesus Christ. Like George Fox, I have encountered the Spirit of Christ that leads into new life, and like William Penn, I have discovered that Christ’s way to Christ’s crown is through Christ’s cross. My prayer is that this knowledge will prepare my mind to suffer for the Truth even as the Holy Spirit prepares my heart. The Body of Christ has always been at its finest when true believers, such as the early Friends, were persecuted for the sake of the Gospel. But this is something that each of us needs to work out, really work out, for ourselves.

If your foundation isn’t Christ, what is it? What is the Truth that you will plant your feet in when every bone in your body screams for self-preservation? What is the conviction that will ground you when it’s time to put up or shut up? What is the Reality that will fuel your stand for integrity, for compassion, for a life of sacrifice in the face of evil? To say it a different way, what canst thou say? If you don’t know, now is the time to find out. Not tomorrow. Not next week. Now.

I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. For you say, ‘I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.’ You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich; and white robes to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen; and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. I reprove and discipline those whom I love. Be earnest, therefore, and repent. Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me. To the one who conquers I will give a place with me on my throne, just as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

-Revelation 3:15-22

The electors have cast their ballots. The long-shot “anyone but Trump” campaign has met its end. Barring catastrophe, Donald J. Trump will be the 45th president of the United States of America. As he steps into that role, he will have at his fingertips the largest and most powerful military arsenal in the history of the world. He will have at his disposal an intelligence network that can penetrate ever more deeply into the private lives of individuals domestically and abroad. He will have decades of relationships with the wealthy and powerful the world over, relationships that are unlikely to substantially change simply because Mr. Trump is moving his primary office to Pennsylvania Avenue. With Republican majorities in both houses of Congress, the power to fill a Supreme Court vacancy, and two-thirds of state governorships in Republican hands, Mr. Trump will likely face the weakest opposition in modern history. Between the political dynamics currently in force and the power of the executive branch at a peak due to policies pioneered by President Bush in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and expanded by President Obama, Mr. Trump may well be the most powerful president in history, a fact likely to be exhilarating or disturbing depending on your perspective.

But Mr. Trump can bring neither salvation nor judgment to the earth.

Oh, he can kill. He can destroy. He can oppress. He can divide. I don’t want to minimize the very real suffering that many will face if Mr. Trump governs – or reigns, to use his word – as he campaigned, with pettiness, brutishness and the ever-present threat of violence. Open corruption, political persecution and racist aggression are very real possibilities, and indeed are already taking place.

But as the time the world calls Christmas nears, I want to encourage you to look past Mr. Trump’s displays of power to the Power on which all of creation relies. Look beyond Mr. Trump’s pussy-grabbing ways to the Savior born of a woman to restore all of creation. Look beyond Mr. Trump’s mockery of the disabled to the Healer who came to make all whole. Look beyond Mr. Trump’s scorn for the “losers” of the world to the Victor who triumphed over death itself and only shares that triumph with those who are willing to become like little children – teachable, innocent, dependent.

The potential for violence, for chaos, for the crumbling of American hegemony and the bitter end of our great experiment is very real – but God is still more real. The powers of earthly government can kill the body, but there is One who has the power of salvation or destruction over body and soul. So rather than simply lamenting the risks to life and freedom that so many around the country and the world face, let us join with Mary in singing praise to God  for his grace in sending us a life-giving liberator – and then let us wait on the Holy Spirit to teach us how to live into that holy life and sacred liberty year-round.

My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.

His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;

he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,

according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.

-Luke 1:46b-55

I, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to you who are in America, Grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father, through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ…

I am impelled to write you concerning the responsibilities laid upon you to live as Christians in the midst of an unChristian world. That is what I had to do. That is what every Christian has to do. But I understand that there are many Christians in America who give their ultimate allegiance to man-made systems and customs. They are afraid to be different. Their great concern is to be accepted socially. They live by some such principle as this: “everybody is doing it, so it must be alright.” For so many of you Morality is merely group consensus. In your modern sociological lingo, the mores are accepted as the right ways. You have unconsciously come to believe that right is discovered by taking a sort of Gallup poll of the majority opinion. How many are giving their ultimate allegiance to this way.

But American Christians, I must say to you as I said to the Roman Christians years ago, “Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Or, as I said to the Phillippian Christians, “Ye are a colony of heaven.” This means that although you live in the colony of time, your ultimate allegiance is to the empire of eternity. You have a dual citizenry. You live both in time and eternity; both in heaven and earth. Therefore, your ultimate allegiance is not to the government, not to the state, not to nation, not to any man-made institution. The Christian owes his ultimate allegiance to God, and if any earthly institution conflicts with God’s will it is your Christian duty to take a stand against it. You must never allow the transitory evanescent demands of man-made institutions to take precedence over the eternal demands of the Almighty God.

-Martin Luther King, Jr., Paul’s Letter to American Christians