Compassion Is Not a Crime
I am a native of Minneapolis, the dreaded sanctuary city that Trump and the Republicans have invaded with more than three thousand ICE agents. In response to and in support of your February editorial, “State of Siege,” here is my question to ICE supporters: What is so wrong about wanting to extend compassion and dignity to vulnerable people who sought refuge here and now reside among us? Yes, some of them needed a helping hand to get started, and a few have committed crimes, but most are hardworking, taxpaying, upstanding people who are our neighbors, whose children attend school with our children, and whose families sit next to us in church. Does standing in protest to their arrest and mistreatment really warrant being pepper-sprayed, or worse, being killed? I know: they have broken the law by being here illegally. When you break the law, you must be punished, because we are a nation of law and order. I could challenge that trope, starting with, let’s say, the conduct of politicians. But on the particular law of entering the country without authorization, why is deportation the only answer? Why not help them attain citizenship? Or does the real reason have less to do with proper authorization and more to do with the color of their skin? Even Trump said in his MLK Day post that people’s rights are God-given, not government-given. There is a higher order than laws made by governments. The Bible insists over and over that welcoming the stranger is at the heart of the Judeo-Christian message, and the Gospel says we will enter the kingdom based on what we have done to the least among us. So, to supporters of ICE’s presence and mission, I ask again, why are you so vehemently opposed to compassion?
Carol McNamara
Minneapolis, Minn.
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A Transcendent revolution
Jonathan Heaps provides a very lucid and consoling exposition of Bernard Lonergan’s too often neglected and underappreciated theological and philosophical achievements (“Things Will Get Better Before They Get Worse,” February).
Lonergan tells us: know what it is to know, and you’ll know what it is you’re doing when you choose to be the person you want to be, and when we choose to be the communities and society we (and hopefully God) want us to be.
As the scientific method revolutionized the world, Lonergan hopes that human beings will be revolutionized by people becoming conscious of their own conversion processes, moving them toward self-transcendence and authenticity. Such people and groups will make for a world of progress. The lack of such transcendence and authenticity, on the part of both individuals and groups, will make for a world of decline.
And despite the probable historical reality of the longer decline, in the universe characterized by emergent probability, there is the hope of redemption, the power and grace of God channeling human cultures, history, and free personal and societal choices.
Not only has the love of God through the Holy Spirit flooded our hearts (Romans 5:5) but also “for freedom Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5:1).
Fr. Rick “Mugs” Malloy, SJ, PhD
Chaplain of the College and Assistant to the President for Mission Integration
Le Moyne College, Syracuse, N.Y.
