Carter Freeman<\/a> · Contributing Writer<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cIf you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow \u2026 then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever.\u201d – Jeremiah 7:6-7<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite our striving, our lives remain but a breath. Our nation will crumble, our empires will fall, the earth and the heavens will pass away. All that echoes through eternity is the way we love. We are blessed to be one nation under a loving God. What does it mean for our nation to live in light of God\u2019s love? It can begin in how we love our neighbor \u2014 fellow children of love, our sisters and brothers in this eternal, spiritual struggle against all that is wicked and evil, including the most wretched parts of ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How can we fight against this great enemy if we dehumanize our neighbors? How can we reach out our hand to lift up our brother if we do not see him as a child of God?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tragically, our government has forgotten our nation\u2019s fundamental truth. President Trump\u2019s administration has mocked the plight of women and men who have sought refuge in America, reducing their suffering to a joke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In July, the White House posted on its official Instagram: \u201cWhen ICE books you a one-way Jet2 holiday to deportation. Nothing beats it!\u201d with emojis of a plane and musical notes. The administration also collaborated with Florida to name a migrant detention center \u201cAlligator Alcatraz.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is not humor. This is humiliation. It strips our fellow man of his innate dignity and betrays our Christian duty to uphold justice. And it is not just the rhetoric of the White House that dehumanizes. Its policies do the same. On his first day in office, President Trump signed Executive Order 14159, \u201cProtecting the American People Against Invasion,\u201d which allows deportation to occur without a hearing, much less a trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow.\u201d The LORD is just. That will never change. Perhaps we should reconsider our jokes. Were we not once foreigners ourselves? Remember our past mothers and fathers. They left the world they knew, carrying only memories of the language they held dear, the applause of their grandmother\u2019s laugh and the wrinkles in their grandfather\u2019s eye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They left the world that loved them to go into a world that did not. They left their home so we might have a better one. Like Abraham, they made the great, strenuous and arduous step into a land unknown. A land of promise and opportunity, to pursue life, liberty and happiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We belong to a kingdom that took us in at our lowest, when we were weak, poor and in need of hope. A kingdom that washed us in the depths of its oceans and warmed our spirits in its eternal flame. A kingdom that liberated our enslaved souls, delivering us without judgment from the pit whence we came. A kingdom that looks at you and me and sees not a sinner, not a Gentile, not a Jew, but Christ. A kingdom of life. Our siblings to the south belong to that kingdom, as do we. I implore you, let us not look down on those who struggle toward this city on a hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May we see them in their time of need and extend our hands in imitation of the One who pulled us from the pits of despair. I do not discount the challenge before us. But we know nothing that endures is easily done. If we are one nation under love, let us bear the cross that comes with that distinction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Those seeking refuge deserve compassion, not mockery<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[215],"tags":[143,34,29],"class_list":["post-1062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinions","tag-carter-freeman","tag-issue-2025-10-10","tag-perspectives"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Ian Schartner","author_link":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/author\/schartnerij23\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Those seeking refuge deserve compassion, not mockery","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1062"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1932,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1062\/revisions\/1932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}