Dear Disciples,
The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada is a movement for wholeness with care and concern for fragmented and broken systems, and people displaced by disaster and persecution. We know that many of you have been following the news about the radical shifts in refugee policy in the US over the past four months. Many of you have reached out with deep concern because so many of our churches have been involved in supporting refugee resettlement locally as well as our collective work through Week of Compassion’s ministry partners.
You may have heard that after shutting down the US refugee program–and stranding 10,000 pre-approved refugees, many of whom already had airplane tickets, in the refugee camps that had held them for months or years–the current administration made the decision to classify white South Africans, specifically Afrikaners, as refugees who could skip the rigorous process to qualify. In recent weeks, our refugee ministry partners were told to resettle Afrikaners, while millions facing true persecution remain stranded between worlds.
The Christian Church takes seriously the messages in the Bible that remind us of God’s call to care for foreigners as for our own. We have, as a church, dedicated decades of work in Reconciliation Ministry. We know the value of racial equity is critical in how we welcome refugees, and the value of systems that prioritize and support persons in greatest need. South Africa’s own Truth and Reconciliation Commission inspired our Reconciliation Ministry, with our vision of a church “where brothers and sisters of all races, languages, and cultures will grow towards God’s glorious realm, where all have a place at the table and none shall be turned away.” That means we have to pay particular attention when the cause of reconciliation is being subverted to prioritize racial favoritism as it is now.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu once said “God places us in the world as his fellow workers-agents of transfiguration. We work with God so that injustice is transfigured into justice, so there will be more compassion and caring, that there will be more laughter and joy, that there will be more togetherness in God’s world.” It is painful that when so many of us prayed and marched and boycotted to end the sin of apartheid in South Africa, that legacy of Americans standing together in solidarity with oppressed people is being trampled not only so a small group of people can subvert a process to get protections they do not need, but that that process happens on the backs of real people facing real persecution.
Knowing that tens of millions of refugees have been forcibly displaced from their homes and live in countries without the infrastructure to help them rebuild their lives, we have supported many resolutions as a church to continue our support to refugees, most recently with General Assembly resolutions 1925 (On the State of Global Forced Migration) and 1935 (Concerning Steep Reductions in Overall Refugee Resettlement Arrivals to the United States). We stand with our siblings in the Episcopal Church who are ending their contract with the US government to settle refugees, until such a day as the process is again one based on need instead of racial hierarchy. We continue to support refugees abroad through Week of Compassion and Global Ministries. And we pray for an end to the hatred, fear, and violence that create the conditions refugees need to flee in the first place.
Moving towards wholeness together,
Rev. Terri Hord Owens,
General Minister and President
Reconciliation Ministry Commission
Rev. April Johnson, Executive Director; Rev. Eric Brown and Rev. Brian Frederick-Gray, Co-Chairs; Rev. Bill Rose Heim, Rev. Erin James-Brown, Rev. Yvonne Gilmore, Rev. Tracey Anderson Tellado, Jasmine Sanchez, Rev. Delesslyn Kennebrew, and Rev. Lori Tapia
Ted Searle
So………What you are saying – Is that the white farmers in South Africa – whose farms are being confiscated – along with the many white farmers who are being killed……….are not “real people facing real persecution.” ???????????
Rev. Tim Trussell-Smith
What they are saying is there is no confiscation or persecution of Afrikaners. There is crime in South Africa, but there is no evidence that white people in rural areas of SA are in more danger than people of color. So, yes, Afrikaners should not jump the refugee line when so many thousands are waiting their turn and have been turned away. And many of those are people of color without economic mean, as many of these Afrikaners families possess.
Fran Hall
Trump’s embrace of these far-right conspiracy theories directly led to the resettlement of some 50 White Afrikaners as refugees to the United States this month. “We’re sending a clear message that the United States really rejects the egregious persecution on the basis of race in South Africa,” said Christopher Landau, deputy secretary of state, in regard to the granting of refugee status to these Afrikaners.
In South Africa and elsewhere on the continent, the move was met with disbelief. “They can’t provide any proof of any persecution because there’s not any,” Ronald Lamola, the country’s international relations and cooperation minister, said earlier this month. “There is not any form of persecution to White South Africans.”
Rev. Neil Tellier
Yes that’s exactly what’s being said. The farms they themselves confiscated is being taken from them because it doesn’t belong to them and being given to whom it properly belonged to in the first place.
Lisa M. Ursino
Thank you for taking a stand for us and for the immigrants still here and deported. I support the decision of the Episcopal Church and the joining of the DOC!
Sharon I Gouwens
Thank you for helping the CCDC express the church’s concern for these folks.
judy francis
Thank you for standing up for refugees and immigrants. May they have safe haven for them and their family.