(RNS) — As a rabbi and an Episcopal bishop, we share the traditional perception that each individual is made within the picture of God. But our capacity to apply this elementary tenet of our faiths is now being threatened by the U.S. authorities’s latest rescission of pointers that restricted immigration enforcement in protected areas corresponding to homes of worship.
Permitting the federal government to violate our sacred areas and our congregations with immigration raids each shocks our consciences and infringes on our freedom of faith — a freedom enshrined within the First Modification to the U.S. Structure.
Earlier this week, we joined a multifaith coalition of dozens of plaintiffs representing tens of millions of Individuals in a lawsuit filed in opposition to the Division of Homeland Safety by Georgetown Regulation College’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Safety. We’re suing the federal government as a result of subjecting locations of worship to Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions with no judicial warrant presents an insupportable burden on the free train of faith in violation of the First Modification and the Spiritual Freedom Restoration Act. These enforcement actions represent a direct assault on our capacity to meet the non secular mandate to welcome and serve immigrants.
For many years, sure places have been deemed off-limits to immigration raids, most notably hospitals, faculties and locations of worship. These locations share a typical bond: They maintain the human physique, the human thoughts and the human spirit. They serve individuals, not in response to nationality or ethnicity, however as human beings whose wants, hopes and beliefs transcend borders and backgrounds. Our synagogues and church buildings are sacred areas, consecrated by our faiths and established beneath our elementary tenets to welcome in all who enter. Conducting warrantless raids in these areas shatters their sanctity and tramples on our freedom to apply our faiths.
Freedom of faith has formed this nation from its inception. It has served as a beacon that introduced lots of our ancestors to those shores. Right this moment, that very same mild guides immigrants to our homes of worship searching for refuge and a spot to worship freely, with out worry of persecution. We’re compelled by our religion to open the doorways of our synagogues and church buildings to them, no matter their background, nation of origin or immigration standing.
Caring for the stranger is a non secular obligation for Jews. For many of Jewish historical past, Jews have moved from one land to a different as a result of exile, persecution or the hope of a greater future for the following technology. Jews got here to the US as immigrants and have supported and welcomed immigrants ever since. Jews have at all times heeded the commandment repeated 36 occasions within the Torah: an exhortation to take care of the stranger as a result of Jews have been strangers within the land of Egypt.
On this approach, Jewish Scripture and historical past compel the Jewish neighborhood to work with and assist immigrants and refugees. Right this moment, Jewish congregations are non secular properties and locations of sanctuary for brand new immigrants and refugees looking for security and a greater future.
Christian custom can also be formed by the biblical commandment to welcome the stranger, and Jesus proclaims a kingdom by which the persecuted are on the very coronary heart of God. The apostle Paul writes that Christians’ true citizenship is in God’s kingdom and that Christians are known as to transcend the earthly distinctions made by the leaders of this world. Christians additionally perceive themselves to be members of the physique of Christ by which every believer performs an element, and this elementary tenet implies that Christian congregations can not worship freely if some amongst them are absent as a result of they reside in worry.
This worry is just not theoretical. Already, raids have been performed throughout the nation. Our congregations and the tens of millions of individuals represented by our lawsuit are already seeing declines in worship attendance as a result of worry of ICE motion.
Close to Atlanta on the finish of January, an asylum seeker who had emigrated along with his household from Honduras in 2022 left church as a result of his ankle monitor, placed on him when he crossed the border, went off as he and his household listened to their pastor’s sermon. Outdoors, he was arrested by ICE brokers.
By subjecting our congregations to such threats, our authorities is demanding that Jews and Christians across the nation flip our backs on our core non secular beliefs. Our Scripture, instructing and traditions are clear: We’re known as to care for individuals who have fled persecution, escaped violence or who merely search a greater life in a safer land. In response to this sacred name, we now have dedicated ourselves to this battle to guard our congregants, uphold our religion and serve our God.
(The Most Rev. Sean W. Rowe is presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church. Rabbi Hara Individual is chief government of the Central Convention of American Rabbis, a Reform management group. The views expressed on this commentary don’t essentially replicate these of Faith Information Service.)
