When Your Denomination Becomes the First Sanctuary Church Body in the U.S.

Yesterday the Churchwide Assembly voted to declare the ELCA a sanctuary church body.  The news reports I've read say that it's the first church denomination to do this--so it's hard to know exactly what this will mean.

From what I've read, yesterday was a day of declaring support for immigrants.  There was the declaration along with a march to the ICE building in Milwaukee where the marchers had a prayer vigil.

Last night, hundreds of miles away in Mississippi, ICE raided chicken processing plants in 6 cities, arresting approximately 680 people.  Apparently these raids had been planned for awhile--I'm not suggesting that the raids had anything to do with the events in Milwaukee. 

Cynical people might ask what difference it makes, to be a sanctuary church body, when these kinds of arrests still happen.  Some people might want the church to do more.  Many of us might be wondering exactly what we can do.

This week, I'm also thinking of the center in Homestead that had been a holding place for unaccompanied minors.  It was closed suddenly this week, with the children taken to airports in the middle of the night.  Do we consider that closure a success?

For months, I felt frustrated at the inability of any of us to "do something."  There were legislators who traveled to the site in Homestead; some of them were allowed inside, and some weren't.  There were groups of people who never left the site.  They kept watch and also held up signs of support so that the children could see them during the day.  There were prayer vigils and letters.

Did that work matter?

There were news stories and increasing worry about the lack of an emergency plan once hurricane season started.  There were local government agencies that began to ask for more information.

There are many ways to do social justice work.  It's hard to say what might have led to the shut down of the institution.

It's also hard to know if we should call this a win.  We're told that the children have gone to a variety of places:  reunification with families and other institutions where they will be safer in the event of a storm.  What should a sanctuary church body do now?  Celebrate?  Keep on keeping track of these children? 

I know that there were many foster families who had volunteered to take these children in.  But that option was not allowed.  To me, that seemed like a great option, so I feel that there's some larger picture we're not seeing.  I want to believe that the larger vision is one of bureaucratic mismanagement or difference of vision, not some larger evil.

I am deeply worried that we are seeing some larger evil, and that it's so large that I can't really believe that I'm seeing it.  I am strengthened knowing that I am part of a larger structure, many larger structures actually, that are committed to resisting this evil.