S-COMM Represents "Bad Theology" says District Executive

At a rally held September 21, 2011, Rev. Sue Phillips, District Executive, declared oppressive immigration policies such as  Secure Communities (or S-COMM) "bad theology." The rally was organized by Centro Presente and a variety of other organizations, including the Unitarian Universalist Association's Office of Advocacy and Witness, in the hopes of swaying Boston's Mayor Menino to opt out of the Secure Communities program since, as even he has declare, the program actually make communities more unsafe.

The following is a transcript of Sue's full speech:

Good evening. I am The Reverend Sue Phillips, and it's my honor to represent 23,000 Unitarian Universalists in congregations throughout Massachusetts and Connecticut.  

You’ve heard from other speakers who have talked about the fact that S-COMM is a disastrous policy. I’m here as a religious leader to say that S-COMM is disastrous theology.

I am bold to believe that it’s the work of every religious person to increase the amount of love and justice in the world. It’s our job to create the Beloved Community in real time, right here and right now. Beloved Community where diversity is honored as a sacred gift, where people are free to move about without fear, where justice is our birthright.  As people of faith we seek to build up communities, not threaten them. It’s our job to uplift families not tear them apart.

Oppressive immigration policies are bad theology because they create fear and mistrust and call it justice. There’s something deeply cynical about framing S-COMM as a community safety program meant to keep dangerous criminals from the streets, because it both relies on and fuels racist assumptions about immigrants. By ICE’s own accounting, the majority of people deported as a result of S-COMM had no criminal record.

I got a tiny glimpse of what this might mean in immigrant communities this morning on my way to work, when I was pulled over for a minor traffic violation. I had all the right papers. The officer gave me a warning and told me to have a nice day. No problem. If S-COMM were being pursued here by local law enforcement – and thank God it isn’t – my neighbor, driving to work on the same road and making the same harmless mistake, could have been detained on the spot and forcibly separated from his family.

We are standing here tonight because this is simply not okay.

The only secure communities are the ones that justice-seeking people create. Our communities can never be whole when some of us are subject to sudden detention and deportation. Our communities can’t be free and fair when some of our brothers and sisters are terrified every day that family members might disappear.

When our communities are weakened by this kind of fear and injustice, we all lose a little bit of the light of god that is in us. And we can’t afford to. We need every drop. And so I ask you to pray with me. Will you pray?

Spirit of Love, who is known by many names, open our hearts so that we might welcome all who come to our communities, searching as many of our ancestors did for the promise of a new land, and a new life.

We pray for those men and women who are in ICE detention facilities, and for the families who have experienced the devastation of raids and deportations.

For children who have lost parents,
For the husbands and wives who have been left alone to take care of their families.
For all undocumented people who experience fear and live in a state of uncertainty.

We pray for leaders in our country and leaders of all faiths,
that we may work together with a  common wisdom to stop deportations and work toward compassionate immigration policies.

God of Courage and Compassion,
teach us to respect and protect the rights of all people.

God of Justice, who crosses all boundaries,
makes us strong, that we might resist S-COMM and other unjust laws. Compel us stand on the side of love.

In the name of all that is holy to each of us,
Amen.