SoulCreek

Lao Tsu, Buddha, Jesus, and the Migrant Child

Luke 9:47-48

"But Jesus, aware of their inner thoughts, took a little child and put it by his side, and said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes this child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me; for the least among all of you is the greatest.’"

The Tao Te Ching,  chapter 36, says, "That which shrinks must first expand. That which fails must first be strong. That which is cast down must first be raised..." It continues by stating, "Soft and weak overcome hard and strong." God, hear our prayer.

Recently, Attorney General Sessions quoted Romans 13 to justify the expansive and abusive strength of an oppressive and cruel policy that rips migrant children from the arms of their asylum seeking parents. There are many interpretations of this chapter, but any that does not consider it's cultural and linguistic context, are suspect, especially those that ignore the almost 2000 verses in the bible that command justice and peace.

The quoting the Apostle Paul’s admonition to obey the authorities (Romans 13), and thus the law, as a justification for horrific policy is not only abominable biblical interpretation and textual manipulation, it is woefully (and likely intentionally) ignorant of the broader witness of Scripture on the the issue of the law, power and authority, and the vulnerable. For instance, one should spend some time reading other relevant  passages; Revelation 13, and Isaiah 10 are both a good beginning.

The prophet Isaiah, in chapter 10 of the book of Isaiah writes, “Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless."

Buddhist teacher and activist, Thich Nhat Hanh, in his book Peace Is Every Step, writes about "interbeing." He says, "To be is to inter-be." In other words, "We cannot just be by ourselves alone. We have to inter-be with every other thing.

He writes about the rose and the garbage; how the rose decays and becomes garbage, and how the garbage becomes soil for a rose. He writes about wealth and poverty; how wealth produces poverty, and poverty creates wealth. He writes about the "good girl" and the girl on the street and how they help create the other. He encourages us to "look deeply into ourselves"and see her.

Maybe this is why Jesus was upset when he saw his disciples turning away the mothers that were bringing their children to him to receive a blessing. Maybe this was why he said to them, "Whoever welcomes this child in my name welcomes me." Maybe this is what he meant when he summed up all the Jewish law into two; Love God, and love your neighbor as yourself. Why?  Because we can't be, we can't exist by ourselves. We have to inter-be.

What does this mean for us? It means I am the migrant child. You are the migrant child. We are the migrant children ripped from the arms of our fathers and the nourishing breast of their mothers.  By allowing this misinterpretation of Christian scripture - by remaining silent while families are destroyed and children are imprisoned in cages - We destroy ourselves.