Recently, ICE arrested a Honduran man in church on a Sunday. Half-way through the sermon. This week in Christianity Today, I draw on Augustine to explain why this is truly despicable, regardless of your views on immigration policy otherwise. A taste from my argument:
I am simply asking what it says about this administration that it is willing to thus disrespect spaces set apart for God—that it has no regard for the centuries-old tradition of sanctuary.
What does this arrest say about churches? What message does it send when state agents use Christians’ obedience to the biblical command to meet together (Heb. 10:25) to make a political point? Why would US officers conduct this arrest during the Sunday service? Even the Visigoths balked at that.
There are seven days in the week, and people who wear a GPS-tracking ankle bracelet, as Velásquez did, are very easy to find. Even if we all were to agree this arrest was legitimate and necessary, it could have been planned for any other time and place. Church was a choice. And why? Why choose to arrest a man at church?
When Augustine wrote in City of God of the horrors of the sack of Rome, he saw the Visigoths’ respect for sanctuary as a remarkable witness of God’s provision for Christians and non-Christians alike. Vicious to everyone and disrespectful of every other space, the Visigoths at least understood that churches were unique, a space set apart for God.Â
You can read the complete article here.
Adam Serwer famously noted, during the first term, “The cruelty is the point.” I suspect that’s a partial answer to the “why?” question, but I think it might be even more the deliberate disdain that you note. The lesson at every level–and this is of course what the voters wanted–is that there will be no respect for norms, traditions, pieties. This action makes that loud and clear.
Not only cruelty, John, it is also to produce fear. Supposedly, Trump said that fear was the most important political tool. He certainly has put fear into the hearts of many and it is working to his advantage.