Former First Lady, Other UMs Ramp Up Resistance to Separating Immigrant Families

Ad Hoc Group Files Church Complaint Against Attorney General

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United Methodists ramped up their protests of the Trump Administration's policy of separating immigrant families over the weekend with on-site protests, conference resolutions and the beginnings of a church complaint against U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a United Methodist layman.

Former First Lady speaks out

Surprising the nation by speaking out on a public controversy, former first lady Laura Bush, a member of Highland Park UMC in Dallas, Texas, wrote an op-ed column for The Washington Post in which she denounced the "zero tolerance" policy.

"I live in a border state," Mrs. Bush wrote. "I appreciate the need to enforce and protect our international boundaries, but this zero-tolerance policy is cruel. It is immoral. And it breaks my heart.

"... Americans pride ourselves on being a moral nation, on being the nation that sends humanitarian relief to places devastated by natural disasters or famine or war. We pride ourselves on believing that people should be seen for the content of their character, not the color of their skin. We pride ourselves on acceptance. If we are truly that country, then it is our obligation to reunite these detained children with their parents — and to stop separating parents and children in the first place."

Protesting Tornillo tents

The latest developments in the Trump Administration's enforcement of its "zero tolerance" policy regarding undocumented immigrant galvanized thousands of people to protest in Tornillo, Texas, a desert town outside El Paso where the immigration service is erecting tents to house separated children. According to a report from U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, El Paso's congressional representative, more than 200 children are already housed in Tornillo and up to 4,000 are expected.

Rep. O'Rourke was joined in the protest by U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy III from Massachusetts; delegations from Houston, Dallas, Midland, Lubbock, and Austin; and a Utah resident "who learned about this 20 hours ago in Salt Lake City, and jumped in the car stopping only for gas and a McDonald's," according to an O'Rourke newsletter. Rep. O'Rourke is campaigning for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz, who has defended the immigration policy.

Among dozens of United Methodists who voiced plans to demonstrate and work against the child separation policy was the Rev. Lorenza Andrade Smith, Rio Texas Conference, who became known some years ago for being appointed as a pastor to the homeless. She wrote on Facebook:

"I’m on medical leave, and have tried to stay out of trouble... BUT I can’t stand it. Children... for the kingdom of God is theirs! Whatever side of the issue, however divided, our humanitarian response should be united concerning children.

"I’m in Brownsville which now holds over 1,500 young boys! https://m.brownsvilleherald.com/…/article_00ba1818-7006-11e…

"I think it’s time for me to take my drum and flute and express my 'spirituality under the stars' by the facility. A little fasting, praying and some sacred drumming will be my first social public response as I prepare to do my part in writing to those who represent me in Congress. And then let the Spirit guide us...."

Conference resolutions, local church speaker

In the Virginia Conference, the Rev. Jan Rivero moved that the conference formally oppose the child separation policy, call for its halt, and deliver its statement to the U.S. attorney general, according to a Facebook post by the Rev. Jeffrey C. Pugh.

In the Eastern Pennsylvania Annual Conference, a resolution on the immigration policy was proposed. Communications Director John W. Coleman reported:

"An emergency resolution, presented in English and Spanish and unanimously approved in the conference's final hour Saturday (June 16), called on the U.S. government to end its new policy and practice of separating parents and children immigrating here to apply for asylum as refugees from extreme violence in their Latin American countries. Calling it a 'violation of international law,' the resolution cites the 'traumatic' separation and incarceration of children in secretive detention centers that are operating outside the purview of elected officials.

"It requests that 'the U.S. Department of Justice and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a United Methodist lay person, immediately discontinue separating children from their families through the "zero tolerance" policy.' It further urges bipartisan legislation to end this 'child separation policy' and calls for the resolution to be mailed to Sessions and Pennsylvania members of Congress."

Also in Eastern Pennsylvania, Bishop Peggy A. Johnson made her feelings on the subject known by posing with sign criticizing U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, also a United Methodist, for attempting to defend the family separation policy by quoting Romans 13. Mr. Sessions' remarks had already sparked Christians ire because the passage he chose, exhorting believers to obey secular laws, historically was used by slave owners to justify slavery in America.

Members of Lincoln UMC in Pilsen, Ill., heard U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez on Sunday "slam" President Trump’s immigration policy, likening it to those used in Nazi Germany, wrote Mitch Dudek of the Chicago Sun-Times. Dudek reported:

“'He is using fear of the immigrant … he is using prejudice … you know who did that?

“'...That’s the way you got fascism in Germany. That’s the first thing the Nazis did in Germany. They said, "Get rid of all those foreigners, and let’s make this a German nation,' said Gutierrez, a son of Puerto Rican immigrants.

“'So understand that blaming other people for your woes is an old strategy, and that’s exactly what the president of the United States is doing,' he said."

Possible UMC complaint against Sessions

Mr. Sessions' attempt to justify "zero tolerance" via scripture fanned public outrage in a viral effort to charge him with violations of United Methodist Church law. By Monday, June 18, some 500 laypeople and clergy alike were signing on to the effort. Signers included United Methodists from multiple annual conferences: Pacific-Northwest, New York, Virginia, North Georgia, North Alabama, Tennessee, Rio Texas, Northern Illinois, Michigan, Yellowstone (now Mountain Sky), Indiana, New England, West Ohio, Desert Southwest, and Illinois Great Rivers, as of 3 p.m. June 18. 

An early draft of the potential complaint was posted for discussion on Facebook by the Rev. David Wright, manager of the Center for Intercultural and Civic Engagement and chaplain at United Methtodist-related University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash. As of Insight's 3 p.m. Monday deadline, a final complaint had not yet been filed.

The draft posted on Google Documents reads in part:

"We, the undersigned laity and clergy of the United Methodist Church, issue a formal complaint against fellow United Methodist layperson Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, by our understanding a lay member of Ashland Place United Methodist Church, in Mobile, AL, and an active participant in Clarendon United Methodist Church, Arlington, VA.  While we are reticent to bring a formal complaint against a layperson, Mr. Sessions’ unique combination of tremendous social/political power, his leading role as a Sunday School teacher and former delegate to General Conference, and the severe and ongoing impact of certain of his public, professional actions demand that we, as his siblings in the United Methodist denomination, call for some degree of accountability.  

"... Pursuant to Paragraph 2702.3 of the 2016 United Methodist Book of Discipline, we hereby charge Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, Attorney General of the United States, a professing member and/or active participant of Ashland Place United Methodist Church (Mobile, Alabama) and Clarendon United Methodist Church (Alexandria, Virginia), with the chargeable offenses of:

"Child Abuse (examples: advocacy for and implementation of documented practices that indefinitely separate thousands of young children from their parents; holding thousands of children in mass incarceration facilities with little to no structured educational or socio-emotional support)

"Immorality (examples: the use of violence against children to deter immigration; advocating and supporting the separation of children from their families; refusal of refugee/asylee status to those fleeing gang or sexual violence; oppression of those seeking asylum or attempting to enter the United States with refugee status; directing employees and staff members to kidnap children from their parents)

"Racial discrimination (examples: stopping investigations of police departments charged with racial discrimination; attempting to criminalize Black Lives Matter and other racial justice activist groups; targeting incarceration for those engaged in undocumented border crossings as well as those who present with requests for asylum, with a particular focus on those perceived as Muslim or LatinX)

"Dissemination of doctrines contrary to the standards of doctrine of the United Methodist Church (examples: his misuse of Romans 13 to indicate the necessity of obedience to secular law, which is in stark contrast to Disciplinary commitments to supporting civil disobedience)."

Mr. Wright said on Facebook that a copy of the complaint will be posted in the future on a website where concerned United Methodists can sign on to support the action symbolically. Additional signatures will have no effect on the church investigation into Mr. Sessions' behavior, but could contribute to the public pressure for changing the immigration policy.

According to the United Methodist Book of Discipline, a complaint against a layperson is filed with her/his pastor for investigation. The ultimate goal of the United Methodist complaint process is a "just resolution" in which the complainant and the respondent are reconciled to one another and the church, usually through a formal apology and evidence of changed behaviors. Should the "just resolution" process fail, a church trial may be held. In the case of a complaint against a layperson, her/his district superintendent would serve as the trial judge, rather than a bishop as is the case with clergy trials.

A complaint against a United Methodist layperson hasn't been filed since the late 19th century.

Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011.