Does God Condone Caging Children?

by

John J. Dunphy

(published in the 7/13/19 edition of The Telegraph of Alton, IL)

I can’t support Pete Buttigieg for the Democratic presidential nomination. Serving as mayor of a medium-size city such as South Bend, IN, simply doesn’t give one the experience necessary to be a successful president of the United States. Nonetheless, a comment he made during the recently televised candidates’ debate made me want to stand and applaud.

“The Republican party likes to cloak itself in the language of religion,” he correctly noted. “Now, our party doesn’t talk about that as much” because Democrats “are committed to the separation of church and state, and we stand for people of any religion and people with no religion.”

If anything, affirming that the Republican party “likes to cloak itself in the language of religion” is an understatement. Since the 1980s, when Jerry Falwell rallied Christian evangelicals to help elect Ronald Reagan twice to the presidency, the GOP has been equal parts political party and religious denomination. The elephant, symbol of the GOP since the late nineteenth century, should now be depicted as holding a large cross with its trunk.

Buttigieg, who is a gay married man and member of the Episcopal church, then stated a truth that few Democratic politicians have found the courage to speak. “But we should call out hypocrisy when we see it,” he said. “And for a party that associates itself with Christianity, to say that it is okay to suggest that God would smile on the division of families at the hands of federal agents, that God would condone putting children into cages, has lost all claim to ever use religious language again.”

He’s right. NBC reported that these children are “being forced to sleep in cold metal cages, sometimes in wet clothing…being deprived of food, water and the most basic sanitary items; being forced to take care of one another after being separated from their parents; and being laughed at when they cry.” How do Republicans, who claim to be Christians, reconcile their faith with such barbaric treatment of children? Do they regard these little ones as somehow less than human because of their foreign birth, poverty and skin color?

Buttigieg was correct when he said that Democrats don’t talk about religion as much as Republicans. When they do, however, their comments should make Republicans who claim to profess the Christian faith quite uncomfortable.

While speaking at a town hall earlier this year, Elizabeth Warren, who is a Methodist, was asked about her Christian faith. The Massachusetts senator cited Matthew 25:31–46 in which Jesus tells the compassionate, “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”

When the compassionate asked when they had performed all these acts of mercy, Jesus replies, “Whatever you did for the least of these brothers and sisters, you did for me.” Jesus then dismisses those who showed no mercy to the unfortunate by saying, “Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”

These victimized children at our border seem to meet the criteria cited by Jesus. They’re strangers who really need to be “invited in.” They lack food, water and decent clothing. And they’re currently imprisoned. Those Americans who choose to turn their backs on these little ones so desperately in need of help seem estranged from Christianity as defined by Jesus in that gospel passage.

Buttigieg was right. No loving, merciful God could possibly condone putting children into cages. Jesus observed that no one can serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). Republican Christians must choose between serving God or serving the Trump administration.

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John J. Dunphy is the author of “Abolitionism and the Civil War in Southwestern Illinois” and “Unsung Heroes of the Dachau Trials: The Investigative Work of the U.S. Army 7708 War Crimes Group, 1945–1947.” He owns The Second Reading Book Shop in Alton, Illinois.