President Trump is under fire for referring to certain countries as “s—hole countries” and questioning why we are allowing so many people from these countries to immigrate to the U.S.
Following the alleged comments, Trump tweeted:
The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used. What was really tough was the outlandish proposal made – a big setback for DACA!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018
Although the President denies this statement, a firestorm quickly ensued.
Thabiti Anyabwile, pastor of First Baptist Church in the Cayman Islands, which are located south of Cuba, wrote a piece in The Gospel Coalition in which he details the beautiful diversity of the Body of Christ, and his subsequent distress over the President’s comments about immigrants and places that are very different from the U.S.
“This is my immigrant family, my true brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. We have been a diverse family from the start, from the time we were sent from a larger diverse congregation of brothers and sisters. I look out on embodied, relational evidence of the reconciling power and reality of Jesus Christ,” said Anyabwile.
Anyabwile went on to explain why the President’s comments were so hurtful to him and so insensitive to many immigrants:
“I’m a pastor, not a politician. But I am a pastor of particular people with diverse and rich backgrounds. They contribute to our church family in indescribable ways. They are our church family. My job is to shepherd them, which means I am to feed them, lead them, and protect them.”
Many, like Anyabwile, caution that Christians should not be silent on this kind of rhetoric that can be construed as at the least insensitive and unpresidential, or, at the worse, blatantly racist.
Photo courtesy: Flickr.com
Publication date: January 12, 2018
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