The “Hearthhold of God” in our midst: A relection on immigrants
Presentation given to UMW Social Action Mission Coordinators
March 10, 2006 at the Capitol Building
Advocacy Days Orientation
March 10, 2006 at the Capitol Building
Advocacy Days Orientation
by Glory E. Dharmaraj *
Every day, I go to work on a commuter train, from Peekskill, New York to the Grand Central Station, New York City, and walk to my office at the Church Center for the United Nations, a United Methodist Women’s Division-owned building. This building houses several denominational offices as well as non-profit organizations that work with the United Nations on peace and justice.
Last month, on a day of heavy snow, I almost missed the train, due to traffic on my way from home to the train station. When I ran to the station from the parking lot, the train had just begun moving. But something happened. The conductor of the train kept the door open, stretched his hand out for me to jump in, and then held my hand till I steadied myself on the slow-moving train.
I made it that day.
It felt a sheer sense of hospitality offered to me on the commuter train. For me, that commuter train, moving with hundreds of people, reminded me of those local churches where innumerable nameless people have stretched out their welcoming hands to strangers in their journey to God.
The conductor of the train had a name. I, who had not previously cared to learn his name, intentionally found it out that day.
Bobby…. Bobby crossed race, class, gender, culture, age, and all the hurdles that often obstruct one’s vision.
As Christian community, each of us is a recipient of God’s daily hospitality. The church itself is enjoined to be the “household of God” extending its hospitality to everyone (Ephesians 2:19). A constant challenge is hosting the other and making the other feel at home in the midst of the faith community.
There is another word that brings the concept of hospitality equally close to one’s heart.
Hearthhold.
African families center around the hearths of women who manage that space and provide warmth, cordiality, and hospitality. In its best sense, the hearthhold seeks to include “the other,” enveloping them in hospitality. Using this image from African realities, Mercy Oduyoye comes up with the concept of “Hearthhold of God,” where basic hospitality is extended to the “other” in spite of differences in race, culture, religion, and nationality.[i]
HOSTING THE OTHER:
Letty M. Russell says, “The Church as a household of faith is called to be a sign of God’s power at work among all the nations of the oikoumene.”[ii] The household of God is also the space where the faith community is struggling with forces that destroy the God-given task of bringing about the New Creation.[iii] A challenge today is twofold: 1) expanding our concept of mission to imagine the world as the “Household of God,” even as the “Hearthhold of God,” and 2) hosting the “other.”Often, talking about God or theology may not interest people who encounter the faith community. But, people are interested in how we neighbor with others. Kosuke Koyama, a renowned theologian, has coined the term “neighborology” to describe the way we neighbor with others, especially with those who do not share common beliefs with us.
THE BIBLE AND IMMIGRANTS
The Bible is the “Ultimate Immigration Handbook, written by, for, and about Migrants, Immigrants, Refugees, and Asylum Seekers.”[iv] The God of the Bible is a Traveling God. Father Rene Castaneda calls Jesus, “the Migrant Jesus.”[v] Our God is a Migrant God who always travels to the margins, and takes up his residence with people at the margins.The Bible abounds with examples.
God calls Abram and Sarai to leave their land and go to the land God showed them (Genesis 12:1). At Sarah’s suggestion, Abraham takes in Hagar, a stranger. She has a son, Ishmael. Both Hagar and Ishmael endure the “wilderness” experience at the hands of Sarah. God appears to Hagar, and this oppressed woman becomes the first person to name God in the Bible.
The Bible, at its core, mandates hospitality to the stranger. Deuteronomy 10:17-19 says,
For the Lord your God is the God of gods, Lord of Lords,
the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no
bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves
the strangers, providing them food and clothing. You shall also love the
stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
The God of the Bible is a lover -- a lover of the alien, the orphan, and the widow.
To the alien, this God offers a mutual mandate. God says, “You shall not detest and Egyptian, because you were an alien in his land.” (Deuteronomy 23:7).
A mutuality of humane treatment in human interactions.
The story of Exodus is a story of an uprooted people. The story of Ruth, the Moabite, who follows her mother-in-law, Naomi, is a story of an immigrant. Jesus himself was born in the family line of an immigrant and foreigner.
The story of Jesus is a story of a refugee child. It is also the story of a God who made himself a migrant and a homeless person. He himself said, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of God has nowhere to lay his head.”
The final test of a person, a local church, and a nation is summed up in Jesus’ words in the Judgment of the Nations: “I was a stranger. You welcomed me.”
In short, the moral question is, “Have you hosted the other?”
The summary of Matthew 25, 31-46 is not about what you say about God, but what you do to your neighbor. It is not about theology, but “neighborology.”
In a strange way, it is the Guest Worker in our midst who provides food for us. It is the migrant, agricultural worker, working for low wages, who often provides the food that we buy from the market. In a sense, it is the seasonal migrant farm worker, the one who works to provide food on our tables, who is our host .
Without due protection of their jobs, thousands of workers have engaged in dangerous border crossings.
Immigrant legislation will be incomplete without favorable immigrant Guest Worker provision. Because this provision is omitted, the Bill passed in the House of Representatives (HR 4437) is not favorable to the farm workers.
Border-security and illegal immigrant enforcement legislations are looking at the issue solely from the “migration-management” point of view, and not from the migrants’ human rights point of view.
FEMINIZATION OF MIGRATION
Historically, worldwide economic migration was undertaken primarily by single men, but today, among those migrating to other countries seeking employment, more than 50 percent are women. They offer low-cost labor as domestic and agricultural labor. Many are trafficked for economic or sexual exploitation. Forced prostitution and bonded labor are part of violence against women.Most of the workers in sweatshops in the United States are women. In 1999 and 2000, United Methodist Women members wrote postcards demanding fair wages for sweatshop laborers. They wrote postcards supporting the “Ain’t I a Woman?” campaign, and “Immigrant Garment Workers in New York City Demand an End to Donna Karan’s Sweatshops.” The National Movement Against Sweat Shops (NMASS) organized these two advocacy initiatives.
They successfully organized the Garment Workers in New York City, and launched a class-action lawsuit against Donna Karen to protest illegal and inhumane conditions the manufacturer has promoted. A Federal judge denied Donna Karan’s request for the immigration status of the workers, stating that it was irrelevant and could be used to intimidate.
It is imperative to continue to raise awareness that labor and services of the migrant worker are often welcome in our land, though the persons who perform the work are not.
UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
The United Methodist Church calls upon its members to:Encourage and support international economic policies that promote sustainable development.
Work to eliminate, within the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), all abuses of civil and human rights including such practices as the violation of due process, denial of bond, and hasty deportation of people who are undocumented or have overstayed.
Monitor all attempted reforms on immigration and refugee policy and practices in order to ensure fair and adequate process in regard to asylum petitions, judicial review, refugee resettlement priorities, and immigrant categories.
Denounce and oppose the rise of xenophobic and racist reactions against newcomers in the United States and elsewhere, and to support any and all efforts to build bridges between people of diverse ethnicities and cultures.
Continue to work with community-based organizations to provide forums for citizens to voice concerns, educate one another, and confront the problems of racism and xenophobia as obstacles to building community.
These are some of the policy statements, guides and models, for the Church’s work and ministry with the immigrants. (“Immigrants and Refugees: To Love the Sojourner,” The Book of Resolutions #265)
Further, find out if there are volunteer-supported church-based law-clinics in your areas that provide legal advice, education, and hospitality to vulnerable low-income immigrants and undocumented workers. These are sponsored by Justice for Our Neighbors, a network of church-based volunteers. Educate church members and others on discrimination and prejudice that immigrants face, and also, offer workshops on “Know-Your Rights” to immigrants.
FAITH COMMUNITY AS A PILGRIM COMMUNITY:
After all, the faith community itself is a pilgrim community. “Love your neighbor” requires the host in us to understand the “other,” and even take on a certain amount of "foreignness." The call for the hour is to be an inner émigré, and be engaged in lifting up the right of the immigrant through humane solutions.The greatest challenge in mission today is to see God’s image in one who is not in our image.
Lest the faith community miss the train, it is time for us to get on board as God's hand stretches out to help us leap on the Gospel Train. Will that faith community practice Gospel concern for a public policy that is a comprehensive embrace of others who are running to catch up with the rest of us who already have made it?
The God in Christ who takes us aboard in the Gospel Train is the same One who sets up God’s hearthhold of food and warmth, and then, lovingly invites us to “Come and eat” (John 21:12)