Sermon

INTRODUCTION: Cinco de Mayo celebrates the victorious battle of a much smaller force of Mexicans in 1862 against a much larger invading army of France, one of a string of colonial powers Mexicans defended against, including America. Today, Cinco de Mayo is primarily a regional celebration in the state and capital city of Puebla, Mexico, where the battle took place. But in America, it’s become something of a national holiday for Hispanic Americans to celebrate their country’s heritage, while in a foreign nation increasingly hostile to their presence. That despite the fact that our economy depends upon a quasi-legal immigrant work force.

And precisely because they are dependent, it’s open season for demagogic politicians, particularly those on the right wing. It also opens them up to assault and robberies on Friday nights when they’ve been paid in cash; and makes them afraid to call the police or go to the Emergency Room. Increasingly, in this land of the free and home of the brave, we are becoming less free and less courageous.

Nowhere is that more obvious than in Arizona, where racial profiling is already rampant…where the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department has bragged about putting undocumented workers in tents in the nearly 120 degrees of the Phoenix summer sun. The Arizona state legislature has enshrined his bigotry and prejudice into law with SB 1070 signed by the Arizona governor on April 23. But is it really that bad?

If you might be thinking I’m overstating the case, please listen to what Bishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize winner in S. Africa wrote this past week about Arizona’s law. At one time, his country required that its Black residents carry identity papers. Police even broke into homes and arrested Blacks in bed because they didn’t have their papers on them – they were on the table nearby. Out of that nightmare of the past, he drew this scenario about what has happened in Arizona and what can happen in America:

What if a young Hispanic immigrant in Arizona goes to the grocery store and forgets to take her passport and immigration documents with her? What if a policeman there hears her accent and forms a "reasonable suspicion" that she is an illegal immigrant. In English, he asks for her papers, she in broken English explains that she forgot and left them at home. She can and will be taken into custody until someone sorts it out, while her children are at home waiting for their dinner…waiting for their mother to return home. And if the policeman does not arrest her, the new law is that he can be personally sued.

But it’s not only liberal church leaders who have spoken out. Even conservative Republicans have, including our congressman for this 14^th District of Florida, Connie Mack IV. The chances that any of us here would agree with anything Congressman Mack would say are somewhere between very, very slim, to none. But last Thursday, he issued a press release as proof that miracles still happen. Please listen as I read his release in its entirety:

Congressman Connie Mack, the Ranking Republican of the House Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, today blasted the new immigration law in Arizona, calling it a blow to freedom and the ability of Americans to live our lives as we see fit. Mack said:

“There’s no question that our nation’s immigration policies are in dire straits. We all agree that inaction by both the Bush and the Obama Administrations has compounded this problem and forced states like Arizona to take drastic measures.

“But the new Arizona law strikes a severe blow to freedom and the principles that make our nation strong. This law of ‘frontier justice’ – where law enforcement officials are required to stop anyone based on ‘reasonable suspicion’ that they may be in the country illegally – is reminiscent of a time during World War II when the Gestapo in Germany stopped people on the street and asked for their papers without probable cause. It shouldn’t be against the law to not have proof of citizenship on you.

“This is not the America I grew up in and believe in, and it’s not the America I want my children to grow up in.

“Instead of enacting laws that trample on our freedoms, we should be seeking more ways to create opportunities for immigrants to come to our nation legally and be productive citizens. We must improve our border security both north and south, and make certain that we have sufficient resources in place to enforce our immigration laws.

“America has always been, and should always be, a beacon for those seeking freedom.”

When even Connie Mack thinks it’s bad, it’s got to really be bad. But what specifically is the law? The central provision of what is euphemistically entitled, “Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act,” reads as follows:

It “Requires officials and agencies to reasonably attempt to determine the immigration status of a person involved in a lawful contact where reasonable suspicion exists regarding the immigration status of the person….” Who determines, “reasonable suspicion?” Is that speaking Spanish…speaking English with an accent…having dark skin…looking Hispanic…or simply not White?

It also specifies that it is a crime to knowingly apply or perform work…or to get into a vehicle for the purpose of going to work…or for the driver to let you in his vehicle to take you to work…if you are undocumented. And any policeperson who refuses to do the dirty work of arresting you if he thinks you may be undocumented can be sued – by anyone.

“Authorizes a peace officer to arrest a person without a warrant if the officer has probable cause to believe that the person has committed any public offense that makes the person removable from the U.S.”

This despite the fact that our U.S. Constitution guarantees that “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.”

Let’s be clear: unemployment, foreclosures, huge credit card debt, savings lost, retirement planning down the tube, college no longer an option – these are all factors in building a society responsive to fear and insecurity, which hate mongers like Rush Limbaugh love to play off. Hitler was a master at it.

But I submit that one of the reasons we Unitarians exist is to say and do differently. And when we do, it’s important to note this one thing:

Since this is a Unitarian congregation, and I’m a Unitarian Universalist minister, I realize that’s a strange question, which might occasion another question, “What does it matter, what the Bible says?” We sometimes make much of the fact that there are at least 38,000 different brands of Christianity in America, and several hundred of those thousands think only they are right and everyone else is wrong. And to prove it, they quote the Bible. There are several different Jewish groups as well, some of whom believe only they are right.

It’s like the old preacher’s story of the person who dies and goes to heaven and is given a newcomer’s tour. But when they get close to one area, the guide says, “Shh, they don’t think anybody else is here.”

But more seriously, without question, our heritage is Judeo-Christian, which roots first of all in Jewish sacred scriptures, and secondarily upon Christian scriptures, which would not make sense without Jewish scriptures.

What that means is that respect for written law not only roots in Judeo-Christian scriptures, but in the traditions of the West. In fact, all of the nations West of Rome have in their very DNA a presumption of special status to written law and its interpretation – In America, it’s the Bible and the Constitution.

Even though we may not carry a Bible with us, or read it that often, the Ten Commandments, the Golden Rule, the reaffirmation by Jesus of the love of our neighbor as ourselves – they reflect that most basic self-understanding of who we are as an American people.

But did you realize that the next most pervasive commandment of all in the Bible, after love of God and your neighbor, is to protect foreigners? It’s mentioned more than any other, precisely because Jews as a people start with Father Abraham, who began his spiritual journey as an immigrant. He wanted a better land…a better job…a greater opportunity.

Ditto for Islam. In fact, I read a book just a few years ago of a non-Muslim American who before we invaded Afghanistan traveled across that ancient country, depending upon and requesting the hospitality of Muslims to strangers, which the Qur’an dictates, based upon the same principles of Judaism. The author made the entire journey as a guest…an alien…staying in the homes of perfect strangers.

So anytime you hear anyone mixing their Judeo-Christian faith with their anti-immigrant views, quote them some scriptures like these:

Exodus 22:21: "You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt."

Leviticus 19:34: "The alien who resides among you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt…."

From Christian scripture: "Do not neglect to show hospitality to aliens, for by doing so some have entertained angels unawares" Hebrews 13:02.

From the Qur’an: "And do good unto your parents, and near of kin, and unto orphans, and the needy, and the neighbor from among your own people, and the neighbor who is an alien….” An-Nisa (4:36)

How can we do what we’re doing? From house care to child care to lawn care, they wait our tables, cook, and clean at our restaurants by the thousands. They wash our cars, construct our homes or office buildings, and harvest the cheap fruit and vegetables to which so many of us have become accustomed. At hotels, hospitals and schools, they clean the rooms, sweep, mop, and wax the floors. In beef and chicken plants, they work at some of the dirtiest and toughest jobs in industry. Yet despite our dependence upon them, demagogic politicians, first in Arizona, and now with other states lining up to copy them, have chosen Hispanics for the hate de jour.

Of this law, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles, who began his work in ministry with Cesar Chavez and other immigrant advocates, said this past week that what Arizona has done is “the country’s most retrogressive, mean-spirited, and useless anti-immigration law on the books.” It is born of a baseless assumption that “immigrants come to our country to rob, plunder, and consume public resources.”

Is that true? Who are these immigrants? When you think immigrant, think Peggy JSingh, think Werner Stocker, think Ngure waMawachofi, think Segundo Valesquez, think Ingrid Martinez-Rico, think Al Jassim, everyone of whom is a member of this congregation; think Luis our sexton who helped you in the parking lot; think Adreanna, our food services coordinator. These are good and gracious people…immigrants every one.

But before we go on, let us also realize that every one of us has immigrant roots. It is the height of hypocrisy to act as though we are somehow different than every immigrant in America today, regardless of documentation.

Why is this important for us in this service today? Isn’t it just politics? Unfortunately not. Rev. Anthony Robinson, a United Church of Christ colleague of mine, explains why:

“Injustice anywhere leads inexorably to injustice everywhere. If there is a class of people without rights, without voice, without legal recourse and protection, it puts not just that group at risk. It puts an entire society at risk. It becomes a cancer that eats away at the whole social body. If a certain group can be exploited, then exploitation begins to infect the whole society. Its overall standards of justice and fair play are lowered and distorted.”

Rejecting hate and insisting on fair play are what most of us think are among the most American of values. Let us work to that end and resist the increasingly hate filled prejudice racing across our nation.

[1] Given Sunday, May 02, 2010, at the All Faiths Unitarian Congregation, 2756 McGregor Blvd., Ft. Myers, FL, by the Rev. Dr. Wayne Robinson, minister.