What's Inside Your Heart?
Most people I know have a very troubled heart these days. It's not just the brutality of ICE that's disturbing. It's the alarming deadness of soul the agents exhibit when yanking people, including children, through broken car windows, hurling peaceful protesters to the ground, pepper spraying them, or killing them. Their militant body language and accompanying backhanded remarks speak volumes: they are power-tripping under the assumption no accountability awaits them. They are mistaken.
Just because they've abandoned God, doesn't mean God has abandoned them. And, though our country fell into the hands of godless leaders, it sure doesn't mean God has ghosted us.
For those whose hearts remain open, God is speaking loud and clear—through our willingness to protest, witness, advocate, and do whatever it takes to come to the aid of the tens of thousands who are being targeted and dispossessed.
Earlier this week, I learned there are American communities I'd never heard of where people are protesting ICE's plan to seize and refurbish abandoned warehouses in their neighborhood. Apparently, the administration is planning to temporarily warehouse 80,000 immigrant detainees in these locations before shipping them out of the country for good.
In a separate news story, I heard that a quota has been placed on ICE to detain 3000 new people per day. Crimes aren’t prerequisite, just bring 'em in!
Those of us who feel disgust and heartache understand that we're living through a time of crisis and being tested spiritually. My recourse is to sit quietly in prayer every morning and ask, how can I serve today? I then listen for words and, to the best of my ability, follow any prompt or suggested action.
So, when I heard the word "westerbork" the morning after the news about the warehouses, curiosity got the best of me. What is westerbork? What does it mean?
To my surprise, I learned through Wikipedia that Westerbork was a Nazi transit camp in the Netherlands used to temporarily house Jews, Sinti, and Roma detainees ultimately destined for concentration camps where their lives would end. One of its prisoners was Anne Frank. One survivor, Jona Oberski, published a book about his experience there which was later made into the Italian film Jonah Who Lived In The Whale.
I can't say for sure how I was supposed to act on the information or if it was just a reminder of how history repeats itself. What I can say with certainty is, the seemingly all-knowing voice within is offended by ICE's criminal behavior and scoffs at those who condone it while calling themselves faithful to any religion.
God, I will assure anyone if asked, is within us. But we can choose to pretend otherwise. We have free will. We can kick Him to the curb, look the other way, plug our ears, but His omniscience is a given—a pilot light for our conscience.
In 1980, a week before his assassination, Archbishop Oscar Romero celebrated mass at a packed church in El Salvador. He asked his parishioners to read the Parable of the Prodigal Son:
"I urge you, sisters and brothers, to read this Parable in your homes, in a church, or in some silent place, but always thinking about yourselves and the many times in your lives when you have foolishly abandoned God with the illusion of finding happiness far from the Father.
"As long as you have money and health and opportunities to advance, you will have friends who offer you everything, but then what we thought was "our everything" or "our god"—whether it was money or power— comes to an end. We realize that we were only worshiping idols, and we experience a harsh awakening before the reality: 'Ah, that wasn’t a god! Ah, money couldn’t give me every satisfaction! Ah, I couldn’t do what I wanted with the power I had!' How foolish we feel! "
To all the ICE agents out there, remember, chickens always come home to roost. Don't let a quick buck be your god. It isn't worth it.
Well Street
Through its recruitment practices, it's clear that the Department of Homeland Security's ideal ICE agent is a member of a specific demographic.
On its social media accounts, ICE has posted several recruitment ads containing images and slogans that resonate with the alt-right and those sympathetic to extremist ideologies.
One such slogan, "America for Americans," was adopted by the Ku Klux Klan in the early 1900s. The motto of another ad posted shortly after Renee Good's death, "We'll have our home again," is a song circulated in online white nationalist forums with lyrics describing replacement by foreigners.
The Washington Post reports that $100 million will be spent this year to send targeted ads to specific groups, including using geo-tagging technology to deliver ads to attendees of events like gun shows and UFC fights.
NBC News reported that ICE has placed recruits into training without completing the vetting process, only to learn some had failed the drug tests, had disqualifying criminal records, or didn't meet the academic requirements. Over three months, nearly half the recruits were sent home for failing to pass an open-book, written exam.
Who knows how many ICE agents are men of faith, but based on their behavior, those who do believe resonate more with the Old Testament themes of wrath, vengeance, destruction, and death.
Thank you for this post.
Evangel
As always, thank you for your thoughtful, informative comment.
Evangel
To add to Well Street's comment, ICE created a 5-month-long training program for new recruits. The president decided to reduce that training to 47 days. Why 47? Because he's the 47th president. Everything he does, must in some way, logical or not, sensible or not, reflect him—even if it puts criminals on the street arresting non-criminals.
Slipstream
They aren't looking for candidates with education or sensitivities. They're targeting the desperate and angry who are underpaid, can't find work, or can't hold a job.
These days, even trained police officers are known to be on steroids to make them buffer and tougher. "Roid rage" leads to feelings of grandeur and quick tempers, and add to that a battle-ready uniform and a face mask, there's bound to be violence and tragedy.
I continue to have faith that good will overcome evil, and that our nation will re-focus its attention on helping its people rather than beating, pepper-spraying, and killing them.
Evangel
Instead of hauling people into prison camps across the country, or worse, shooting people, one way to overcome this evil is to offer undocumented immigrants the same $30-$50 grand (signup bonus going to ICE recruits) as an incentive to leave the U.S. on their own volition. A family of 5 could receive $150-250 thousand and set up nicely in a friendlier country that would welcome them and help settle them into a decent job. It would be our loss, but another country's gain.