Orthodox bishops address President Trump on his immigration policy

Washington, D.C., June 21, 2018

Photo: www.neomagazine.com Photo: www.neomagazine.com
    

President Donald Trump signed an executive order yesterday providing for immigrant families to stay together when they come to our borders.

Before yesterday's events, several Orthodox hierarchs from various jurisdictions operating in America had addressed President Donald Trump on his immigration policy that sometimes led to immigrant children being separated from their families for a time.

The federal government made a deal in 1997 by which unaccompanied illegal immigrant children cannot be held in custody more than 20 days. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals then ruled that accompanied children could also not be held in custody under the terms of the settlement, meaning the government either had to release whole families or separate parents from children.

The policy had come under fire lately, given Trump’s “zero tolerance” stance on enforcing the nation’s immigration laws.

With the media and social media abuzz, filled with a mix of information and misinformation, hierarchs from the Orthodox Church in America, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, the Romanian Orthodox Metropolia of the Americas, and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the United States of America took the opportunity to address the president.

“In a letter dated Tuesday, June 19, 2018, His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon, appealed to US President Donald Trump for compassion with regard to children who, as widely reported, are being separated from their families at the US border,” reports the site of the Orthodox Church in America.

“On behalf of these children—some of them infants and toddlers—and together with all the bishops of the Orthodox Church in America, I ask that you reconsider this policy and allow families to be kept together while the immigration courts are considering their cases,” His Beatitude writes.

Met. Tikhon also recalled the president’s words addressed to the March for Life in January in which he pledged to always protect the right to life, noting that, “Every one of these immigrants is a child of God.”

Read Met. Tikhon’s full statement here.

In its statement, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America focuses on the family as a creation of God, “a divine institution (cf. Ephesians 3:14) … that we as Orthodox Christians cherish and hold as sacred.”

The Archdiocese also appeals to the example of the Lord Jesus Christ, Who Himself became man, born into a family.

“In love and harmony, the family finds joy, each member in the other. Reflecting this joy, the Psalmist proclaims, your children will be like olive trees around your table (Psalm 127/128:3b). Let us bear in mind that the branch of an olive tree is a universal symbol of peace, not something to be torn apart and broken,” the Archdiocese continues.

The statement ends with a pray that the authorities would find a speedy solution to the problem of families being separated.

Read the Archdiocese’s full statement here.

His Eminence Metropolitan Nathanael of the Greek Metropolis of Chicago has also released his own statement, in which he writes, “my heart aches and my conscience is restless” over reports he has heard about practices at the borders.

Met. Nathanael argues that the “zero tolerance” policy violates Orthodox sacred moral norms by separating children from their parents and “transgresses basic human rights and foundational Christian convictions.”

The Chicago hierarch writes much more forcefully than either the Greek Archdiocese or Met. Tikhon, writing that the governmental policy is “inhumane and, therefore, sinful … unnecessarily cruel and damaging to both children and their parents … [and] spiritually unconscionable,” given the sacred quality of the family institution.

His Eminence finishes his appeal with a call for concerned faithful of the Chicago Metropolis to “exercise their free speech and to call for the cessation of this barbaric practice.”

Read Met. Nathanael’s full statement here.

His Eminence Metropolitan Nicolae of the Romanian Orthodox Metropolia of the Americas has also addressed President Trump, noting that it was Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ “misuse of the Holy scriptures” that compelled him to respond, referring to his quoting of Romans 13, which instructs Christians to obey the laws of the civil government.

“The Holy Scriptures constantly remind people of faith that they should greet, accept, and welcome: travelers, refugees, persons persecuted, widows, orphans, and those in need,” His Eminence writes, and then endeavors to offer several examples.

Met. Nicolae also points to the example of the Lord Himself, Who, he notes, sought refuge in Egypt when Herod sought to kill Him as an infant. He also quotes the Old Testament: You shall not oppress a stranger, you know the heart of a stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt (Ex. 23:9), adding that the foundational principles of America, “A City on a Hill” in the words of John Winthrop, can be found in Scripture.

The Romanian hierarch notes that the nation’s immigration issue is complex, but that the present situation is “a nightmare that betrays who we are as a nation and a people.”

He ends his appeal to the president with a word of encouragement: “God will help you and us in this. He is a God of wonders. Trust him.”

Read Met. Nicolae’s full statement here.

His Eminence Metropolitan Antony and His Eminence Archbishop Daniel of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the United States of America have also released a statement, opening with a focus on the Sessions’ use of Romans 13, as had Met. Nicolae.

The bishops argue that while submission to the government via Romans 13 is sometimes invoked, we do not hear of the other Scriptures “that declare that submission to civil authorities is mandatory only as long as those authorities promote good works rather than acting in opposition to God. When the civil authorities are in direct opposition to God, the believer must follow God (Acts 4:19 and 5:29).”

And while Met. Antony and Abp. Daniel affirm that they believe in strong borders and the need for immigrants to come legally, they “can describe this situation in no other way than inhumane and sinful.” Talk of stemming the “’infestation’ of illegal immigrants” devalues the immigrants, treating them as “rodents” rather than the image of God, the bishops argue.

The bishops note that they had already drafted their initial statement before the president signed his executive order, but having heard they news, they write, “we are thankful to God in the Holy Trinity that this policy is gone and we pray that what we witness is a true change of heart regarding this and other such issues.”

Read Met. Antony’s and Abp. Daniel’s full statement here.

Updated 6/21/18, 11:56 AM to include the statement from the Ukrainian bishops

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6/21/2018

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