Abraham was an Immigrant:  A Theological Reflection

Abraham is widely accepted as a patriarch of the three great monotheistic faiths of the World.  Abraham was an immigrant.  His father,
Terah was from the land of Ur of the Chaldeans (somewhere in present day Iraq) and while the tribe was resting at Haran, Terah died.
Abraham, then known as Abram, heard God tell him to get out of his country and from his father's house to a land that God will reveal.
Abram, whose obedience is renowned, complied.Many know this immigration saga of Abram, but there is more.  For all was not well in
the early Promised Land - there was a severe famine and Abram and his family were forced to move again, this time further south into
the land of Egypt.  As refugees fleeing starvation, the tribe was at the mercy of the Egyptians.  Abram devised a plan – he ordered his
wife, Sarai (later called Sarah) to tell the Egyptians that she was his sister, for otherwise said Abram, the Egyptians would kill him to take
her. When the Pharaoh inquired of this irresistibly beautiful Sarai, Abram promptly sent her into Pharaoh’s house.  By this disingenuous
bargain, the tribe of Abram sojourned in Egypt and survived.

From the days of that unwitting, unnamed Pharaoh, we can take a giant leap in unspecified time to the days of the Roman Caesar Augustus.  Joseph, the father of a tiny household, decided
to obey the voice of an angel - he fled from Bethlehem with his wife Mary and new-born to Egypt. This family obtained political asylum in Egypt and lived safely with the Egyptians until the
death of King Herod who had cruelly ordered the killing of all male infants under the age of two in and around Bethlehem because Herod had heard that a future king had been born. The
Scriptures are silent respecting Joseph's dealings in Egypt.

Last, we can take another six century leap towards the present.  Another great prophet, after an assassination attempt, fled with a small group of friends from the great commercial, then
polytheistic city of Mecca to a remote village to the north then known as Yathrib (only later renamed Medina or City of the Prophet).  The reason for the Hijra of September 9, 622 was
religious persecution against the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) by his own Quraysh tribe for his preaching of the one God and the Day of Judgment.  This rag-tag band of asylum seekers who
trekked across the perilous desert in fear and hope, is called the muhajirun (Arabic for emigrants). Upon arriving exhausted in Medina, the muhajirun prayed towards Bait-ul-Maqdis (and
only later was the qibla changed to the Kaaba, a tradition that continues to the present).

Immigration plays an important role in all three traditions, and it is true that the outcome of each version of emigration is different.  Notwithstanding sublime religious ramifications, what is the
common human link in all three stories?  If we were to set aside for the moment all the theological subtleties, religious differences, and political conflicts that may derive from these instances
of immigration, and focus on the humanity of Abraham, Joseph and Muhammad, what can we, as temporal traveling companions who share for a limited time this small space on earth,
discern?  

Can we not see that each patriarch or prophet as is the case, was obliged, albeit for various reasons, to leave their ancestral home?  Abram was faced with the choice of emigrating or
starving to death.  Joseph fled to save his baby Jesus from execution by a paranoid satrap.  Muhammad sought safety for himself and the community of believers for his insistence on the
one God.  All suffered personal loss, fear of annihilation, and humiliation. Each placed the hope for survival and dream for a better future in a new place.  All approached from a position of
weakness.  Each began as a vulnerable  human prone to suffering and deprivation.  Perhaps, most poignant is the willingness to deliver and entrust their lives into the hands of another
better placed  than they were.  They all were immigrants.  A Theological Reflection by Charleston C. K. Wang 07/04/06.   Click here to send your comment.  


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Dream On
Reflections on Life
In the Turn Lane
Beverly Jones, July 16, 2011

Dreams do come true, and this time mine is wrapped in a piece of federal legislation by the same
name: the Dream Act.  My dream has been that the church of my faith would support public policies
that relate to the premises of that faith tradition – like ‘the last shall be first’, ‘love thy neighbor’ and
‘…love mercy and do justice.’ I think it’s called ‘walk the talk’.  

Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles it’s happened!  The Episcopal Church (among others) has
released a statement that it would participate in this fall’s  DREAM Act dialogue proposed by Senator
Dick Durbin, D-Il.   Sen. Durbin called for a Dream Sabbath, Sept. 16- Oct. 9.  Sponsored by the
Interfaith Immigration Coalition, its intent is to enlist churches to dedicate a Sabbath for dialogue on
the Dream Act, which he has reintroduced in the Senate.  

“The DREAM Act 2011 -- Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors -- is bipartisan legislation
that would grant "conditional permanent resident" status to students who entered the United States at
age 15 or younger and who have maintained "good moral character" upon acceptance to college,
graduation from a U.S. high school, or being awarded a GED in the United States.”

Alex Baumgarten, Episcopal Church director of the Office of Government Relations and international
policy analyst, said “The Episcopal Church supports the DREAM Act through the approval of General
Convention 2009 Resolution B006,.” [It] would help thousands of youth who came to our country as
undocumented to receive legal status, thereby granting untold opportunities on their way to becoming
United States citizens.”

Of course, I would be happy if this legislation developed into law and young people who’ve know no
other culture than ours could get on with their lives, and my happiness would overflow to know that
we, as institutional people of faith, would actually engage an issue of proposed law!  Once I
understood the social justice implications of our faith, it seemed but a straight line to live out those
principles in my life.  Since my life is affected by the laws and ethos of the land in which I live, logic
told me that “church”, and social justice should have something to do with the laws that affect us all.

Such naivete!  For years, I have been asking church “officials” why ‘the church’ didn’t support or ask
for dialogue on any number of social justice issues.  For years I have gotten the same answers:  
churches should stay out of politics; ‘the church’ embraces people with varied political views, so
highlighting a particular one would  be offensive to some; support of particular issues could offend
some people who might withhold contributions that are needed to pay salaries and support the
institution and its missions (mostly of mercy).  

Not wanting to offend the holders of such well-developed arguments, I caved and never asked my
silent, follow-up question:  Why is it o.k. to “offend” those of us who want dialogue, and who support
social justice issues by ignoring our concerns?  After all, didn’t Jesus speak to issues of justice too?   
This is not just a personal issue of what I believe, the projects and issues I support.  This isn’t about
me.  It’s about The Church – that institution which is the guardian of The Story and which says it
embraces and includes us all.  

Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu says God Has A Dream and that we should not be “beguiled by
much loved dichotomies between secular and sacred…  Oppressive and unjust governments should
stop people from praying to God, from reading and meditation on the Bible, for these activities will
constrain them to work for the establishment of God’s kingdom of justice, of peace, of laughter, of joy,
of caring, of sharing, of reconciliation, of compassion.”1  Tutu, who worked against a governmental
policy of apartheid in his country, has often said that it was the church’s participation in economic
sanctions against that government as well as the prayers of people around the world that helped to
bring about apartheid’s end, and democracy’s birth.  

Maybe we will yet find the path in the U.S. to end our economic injustice, to have the courage to elect
a government of leaders who “lead by leading, and [are]  ready to compromise, to accommodate and
not to be intransigent, not to assert that they have a bottom line.  Intransigence and ultimatum only
lead to more death.”1  “As we saw in South Africa, there is no peace without justice, and safety only
comes when desperation ends.”1  Thanks, Senator Durbin, for giving us the opportunity to try out a
dialogue between the secular and the sacred, where our dreams - legislative, mine for the church, and
God’s for the world - might have a chance to be fulfilled.  

© Beverly Jones 2011     Do Good. Together

1.         God Has A Dream, Desmond Tutu

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