April 22, 2014

On April 14, more than 200 students of North Park University in Chicago defied rain, cold, and snow to demonstrate and voice their support of immigrants and the incarcerated. I had the privilege of walking 5 of the 10 miles they walked through the streets of Chicago. Rachel Jurkowski, a North Park  student who also attended the 2014 CCT Annual Convocation representing the Evangelical Covenant Church, shares her reflections on the event. A poem by Hayley Sheaff, who is also a student at North Park, is included below.  (C. Malave)

Rachel Jurkowski Reflections on "People Are Not Illegal" Campaign

This spring, North Park University Ministries, together with faith leaders from around the city of Chicago, took a decisive step out in faith to stand with those who are suffering under our nation's systems of immigration and mass incarceration. We did this by organizing the "People Are Not Illegal" campaign, which just kicked off on April 13th and 14th with a worship service, rallies, and a 10-mile march. 

As one of the organizers of the People Are Not Illegal campaign, I had the privilege of witnessing how months of planning, collaboration, hard work, and a lot of prayer culminated in the events of the 13th and 14th. On April 13th, North Park University (NPU) hosted a powerful worship service where Joshua DuBois, the former head of the Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships under President Obama, gave the message. The next day, NPU hosted a public meeting where U.S. Representative Mike Quigley and IL State Senator Daniel Biss responded to testimonies and pledged to step up their support for immigration reform (Quigley) and to support legislation that weakened the current system of mass incarceration (Biss). After that, around 200 of us marched ten miles to the Cook County jail, stopping briefly for a rally at New Life Covenant Church in Humboldt Park and ending with a prayer vigil at the jail.

The weather on the 14th was less than ideal for a march, (it snowed for the last 5 miles!) but it was such an amazing experience. As we walked through neighborhood after neighborhood, singing, talking, and waving our signs, many people in the cars that drove by or in their homes waved or honked their support. Several of them thanked us for what we were doing, and a few asked us questions. These interactions were among the greatest moments of the day for me, as our simple action of marching together through the city spread encouragement, love, and hope to those we passed. People we had never met got to see the church in motion, standing up for those who are dehumanized and marginalized in our society, and I am so grateful to have been part of that. Now that the march is over, I am excited to see what God has in store for us next as we continue to do walk out our faith and love in the city of Chicago.

"People Are Not Illegal"  

I don't know when we decided that it was okay 

to bind the wrists of others together with caution tape

To place warning signs on someone's race

To make them feel less than human

Less than alive

This world thrives on compromising people's worth for the sake of feeling unjustly safe 

Entanglements of lies, how can we look into a child's eyes and deny them a future

Children should not be born with statistics etched into their DNA

I am a child who was born into privilege

Chances are slim that I will ever be seen as a threat

I have never been stopped and frisked on a city street

Or had my level of intelligence determined from the way I speak

I have never been unjustly accused of a crime and held behind bars even though my ancestors fought merely decades ago for the very freedom 

I have been denied

That is not me

But I can plainly see the amount of brokenness that is upheld 

in this nation

We've been looking for clarity through a shattered magnifying glass

that we have named justice

Serving a system that should be called illegal, not it's people

Lack of humanity has created an "us" and a "them" instead of a we

And yet I follow a Savior who probably would have been named "illegal"

Would Jesus have been able to get through airport security without being "randomly searched"?

Would my Lord have been welcomed even into the church

without being looked at with a shred of suspicion 

Our mission shouldn't be to change just the way we act 

but the way we see

Asking God to dilate our pupils so that we can let in more light

I've come to the conclusion that our pointer fingers are a lot stronger than our feet

We love to stand in light and point to darkness

We think and talk and proclaim

Hoping we'll inspire change

But we rarely go and do 

We point to problems more often than we solve them 

Even though our feet are begging to march

To march towards a day abounding with hope

Barriers broken, voices heard

A day where this messy kingdom is restored

People no longer ignored as a number

Or branded as illegal, caught up in vicious cycles

We march toward a day where our feet will always empathize with the footsteps of our brothers and sisters

A day where everyone will be named with endless love

Which intrigued me...

Krisanne, a lot of us have heard that there's enough food to feed the planet. Still so many go hungry. What's up with that? Give us a quick Hunger 101.

You know, Margot, that's a great question. It's puzzling: How it is that, according to FAO studies, the world produces enough food to provide at least 2,720 calories per person per day, yet there are still hundreds of millions of people going hungry? Unfortunately, a variety of economic issues and infrastructural roadblocks can stand in the way of a person's ability to produce, purchase or access food despite how hard they work. In other words, it's not so much a problem of production as distribution. Here in the United States, we know that one of the leading causes of hunger is a lack of secure jobs that pay fair wages.  Think about it: When you factor in housing expenses, child care costs, medical assistance, etc., minimum wage can't always cover all your expenses.

Internationally, things are a bit more complex. In the global south countries, hunger is often a result of limited access to nutritious foods due to poor agriculture practices or lack of resources. Climate change also plays a role. The International Panel on Climate Change just released a report that puts it bluntly: Climate change hurts the poor the most often. At Bread, we're concerned about maintaining the United States' commitment to emergency and development assistance because the U.S. has a leadership role to play in the international community, and we want to see our country do its part to help those around the world struggling with hunger and poverty.

How is Bread for the World changing things?

Bread has been around for 40 years as a collective Christian voice urging our nation's decision makers to end hunger and poverty at home and abroad.  We focus on the root problems of hunger and push lawmakers to address those root causes. Bread for the World's Christian character brings a moral voice to the national debate by equipping Christians of all stripes to use their voice and steward their influence for the common good.

Government has an important role to play in society. And Bread operates on the principle that our federal government has a part to play in ending hunger. Many folks are concerned that the government is doing the church's job in feeding people. Truth is charity-all charity-amounts to only about 5 percent of the food we distribute to folks in need here in the U.S. The federal government's nutrition programs, such as school lunches, the WIC program or SNAP - formerly known as food stamps -makes up the other 95 percent. Just to put that into context, that's $96.9 billion from the government compared to $4.1 billion of food distributed by all charities in 2011. That is a huge gap that charities wouldn't be able to fill if Congress cuts vital programs.  But the best tool to fight hunger is job security with fare wages.

A lot of evangelical churches work really hard to stay apolitical. But when you and I spoke, you had me convinced that lobbying lawmakers didn't have to be partisan!

Say more...

First, we should clear up that, just like no one is amoral, no one is apolitical-entirely absent of politics. We all live in community and participate in group decisions actively or passively. Bread believes that hunger isn't a political issue; it's a moral issue.

But in dealing with Congress, you're spot on that we're dedicated to bipartisanship. Since we advocate on particular issues, if we want to be effective and see good policies enacted, it is absolutely critical that we work with everyone, regardless of political affiliation; work with both sides of the aisle, if you will. Sometimes advocating for particular issues can "appear" partisan, but I think that's a signal that we have a thin understanding of Christian political philosophy. We can't allow political parties to define how we engage in the public arena-Scripture should guide our thinking. If we make political issues essentially partisan, then we've lost the battle to create a sensitive, nuanced political perspective, which is something that evangelical Christians are hungry for.  Concerned Christian citizens can advocate.  Christians can rise above partisanship to care for God's people.

Hunger affects everyone regardless of race, gender or political affiliation. Both sides of the aisle have contributed to ending hunger. President Johnson, after declaring the War on Poverty in 1964, helped launch Medicare, Medicaid and Head Start. Those programs have helped to reduce hunger for decades. President Nixon helped establish the WIC nutrition program.  In 2017, we'll have a new president of the United States.  Hopefully that new president will consider making ending hunger a national priority.