This is exactly the question that Alexia Salvatierra, one of the leaders in the New Sanctuary Movement in a recent piece she wrote (posted below).
Civil Disobedience has been a part of movements for decades if not centuries. It is the act of moving outside of (i.e. breaking) an unjust law. The very act of disobedience brings to light the injustice and inhumanity of that law.
Sit-ins and lunch counters, Rosa Parks moving to the front of the bus, and other such simple yet powerful acts have shown the indecency of unjust laws and have called our society to change.
The New Sanctuary Movement is again bringing forth the injustice of our immigrant rights laws that destroy families and run our communities asunder.
It is not simply time to break unjust laws, it is time to break unjust mind sets, hateful ways of treating others, and wrongful practices that hurt us all. What do you think of the new sanctuary movement?
Sanctuary Breaks An Unjust Law
by Alexia Salvatierra
Why would a congregation risk prosecution to provide sanctuary to an immigrant family? Why would a pastor decide that people who have broken laws deserve protection, support, and advocacy?
When I was doing missionary work in Southeast Asia, I attended a service in a language that I didn’t speak. At a certain point, I discerned that they were saying the Lord’s Prayer. It was an amazing moment; I felt the depth of our connection as brothers and sisters in Christ, beyond all of our differences. When we got to the line, “Forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors,” I was struck by the insight that one of the deepest roots of our connection is the common experience of God’s mercy. While we were yet sinners … while we did not deserve forgiveness … before we had any capacity to repent … someone loved us enough to die for us. Someone had compassion on us—literally “com” (with) and “passion” (feeling)—someone felt with us, felt our pain as if it was his pain, our hopes and dreams as if they were his hopes and dreams. Continue Reading…
