Dear Editor:
Although I grew up and have lived for most of my long life in rural America, there are things about rural Americans themselves I still have trouble understanding.
For example, Page County, where I have lived for almost a decade, is full of Christian churches. Yet, when ICE was in the county recently and arrested more than a dozen productive members of our community, some of whom have been here for years, the absence of compassion from people who profess to be Christians, as seen throughout social media, was shocking.
Whatever happened to the biblical injunction to “welcome the stranger”? Is this how Jesus would have treated people whose only “crime” is seeking a better life? Would Jesus tear families apart and terrorize communities? Are Christians happy about their growing national reputation for heartless cruelty?
We’ve come a long way from “they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”
I haven’t been a practicing Catholic for many years, but I am a great fan of the first American pope, Leo XIV. As someone who spent most of his priesthood in the Third World, he has a unique perspective on the basic humanity of immigrants, and has been a consistent critic of the federal government’s deportation policy, which he has described as “inhumane.” He truly expresses the message of Jesus, in regard to loving our neighbors and having compassion on “the least of these.”
It is no secret that our current representative in Congress, Republican Ben Cline, is an enthusiastic supporter of ICE and the federal policy toward immigrants. I think ICE needs serious reform, and to be held accountable for its murders of U.S. citizens and for the record number of deaths in ICE detention facilities.
So I will be not be voting for Ben Cline this year. It’s time to end the cruelty, and return America to truly Christian values.
Mike Hasty ~ Luray, Va.
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