A call to action - Write to the White House Faith Office

[CURE News]

Churches and civil action groups are writing to the White House Faith Office and calling upon its minister to take a moral stand on the treatment of immigrant detainees.  Below is a suggested letter which you could email to the Faith Office at this address: fa...@hhs.gov.  Thanks for all you do. Joe Pavia

Suggested letter:

I write to you today as a voter, as a concerned American, and as a person of good conscience who believes this nation must uphold our duty as leaders of the free world and stand firm for human rights.

The United States is once again normalizing internment camps – that great atrocity we visited on hundreds of thousands of Americans of Japanese and German descent during the second World War. Today, they are built for mass detention and mass deportation of anyone suspected of being an immigrant.

The facility in the Florida Everglades known officially as “Alligator Alcatraz” has already drawn widespread, credible reports of maggots in food, medication being withheld, overflowing toilets leaking sewage onto floors, restricted access to counsel, and worse. Among those who’ve been detained are U.S. citizens and even a minor child.

Troublingly, one man reported that his Bible was confiscated and guards told him “here there is no right to religion.”

As Christians yourselves, how can you accept such treatment of those Jesus commanded us to serve and welcome with love?

Conditions at Alligator Alcatraz are so appalling that a federal judge has ordered further construction be suspended while legal challenges proceed. Despite this, hundreds more facilities like this one are being planned across the country as the administration you serve demands that thousands be arrested every day.

These camps are a stain on our country and on the souls of all people of faith and good conscience.

As faith leaders and Christians, you well know that Scripture commands that we welcome the stranger and give mercy to the vulnerable. It does not license cruelty, profiteering, or deliberate degradation.

As the senior Christian voices in this administration, your silence can be taken as consent to the abhorrent abuses being visited on detainees of these facilities.

I call on you to immediately issue a clear, public condemnation of these internment camps, including Alligator Alcatraz, as contrary to Christian teaching and to basic human rights. Announce that no person made in the image of God should be confined in conditions that degrade body and spirit.

History will remember what you do with the authority vested in you as leaders of the White House Faith Office. But no matter what the history books say, the eternal consequences will be yours to carry.

Sincerely,