Can We Love Like Jesus?

By the Rev. Shannan R. Vance-Ocampo

I need to confess to you this morning that it was very hard for me to not get depressed, deflated, and dejected this past week. So much of what went on in the world around us, let alone the individual suffering I know about in people’s lives as a pastor left me feeling this week as though I was out of emotional and even spiritual steam. Like many of you I find myself watching the increasingly negative information about the catastrophic oil spill that continues without an end in sight with horror.

I have found myself thinking about and praying for the local communities on the Gulf Coast; communities that have been tested so much over recent years, who are just beginning to put their lives back together. So many of these people depend on the waters in the Gulf of Mexico for their livelihood, and once again they are being asked to face an uncertain and potentially economically debilitating time. I have found myself as well thinking about the beautiful animals of that part of the world, wondering about them, praying that they will not be harmed or made sick. Our sisters and brothers on the Gulf Coast are once again in the position of needing our prayers this morning.

But I must confess you to you that the thing that has upset me the most this past week is the recently passed immigration law, SB1070 in Arizona. As we have been hearing all week, the law allows for individual persons to be required to show proof that they are either a U.S. citizen or in the United States legally at the time of arrest or being stopped by the police. For your first arrest and offense it is either a $500 fine or six months in jail, and the penalties increase from there. The law also gives citizens of Arizona the right to sue any state or local municipality or agency they feel is not holding up the law to its fullest extent. The law also makes it a crime to give “shelter” or “help” to anyone who is undocumented. For that you can also face jail time. If you are transporting someone who is undocumented in your personal vehicle and this is found out through something as simple a routine traffic stop that is a class one criminal misdemeanor on your record.

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