God at Our Gate

The gospel of Luke (16:19-31) tells us the story of Lazarus; a poor man covered in sores who lived out his life begging at the gate of a rich man who ignored Lazarus day after day until both of their deaths. The rich man in the story ends up in hell for his failure to extend concern or hospitality toward Lazarus. He ended up in hell because he was blind to the suffering right at his front door. I can’t imagine where the rich man might have ended up if instead of ignoring Lazarus, he rounded up Lazarus and everyone like him, criminalized their very existence, whipped up public sentiment against the poor by playing off of unfounded fears, and then shipped Lazarus and the rest of the begging poor to camps so that they could not be seen or heard. I can’t even imagine what level of hell that rich man would have been sent to.

President Trump’s recent executive order, Ending Crime And Disorder On America’s Streets, is yet another attempt to divide Americans, dehumanize the most vulnerable among us, and play to people’s fears, rational or not, in order to violate the civil liberties of those deemed undesirable by the current administration. If enacted into law, this executive order would allow for widespread civil commitment of homeless people deemed to be a threat to themselves or others due to mental illness and/or addiction. The language is not narrowly tailored and would have the effect of criminalizing homelessness. The order also targets those who were previously incarcerated and are currently on a register. There are no guidelines to indicate who will make the determination that someone is a threat, or by what criteria. There are not enough institutions or beds to remotely accomplish this goal of disappearing hundreds of thousands of Americans, and thus additional contracts with the private prison industry will be necessary to make this dark vision a reality.

In Luke’s narrative, hell is a physical place of torment where the unjust are sent. I do not personally believe that an actual place exists for an angry God to send people to for an eternity of torment and torture. I think that separation from God is torment enough. But I do believe in hell because we keep recreating it over and over again to punish and destroy the least among us for the crimes of poverty and illness. This executive order purports to act out of concern for the wellbeing of all, while dismantling housing first - the only model shown to work when fully implemented with well funded wrap around services and trauma informed care. The very worst kind of inhumanity is that which cloaks itself in false concern.

Security, the type which creates the conditions for humans to flourish and realize their potential within community, will never be obtained through the negation of another’s humanity. This executive order will not make our communities safer; it will only expand the rampant othering already taking place and will create more harm and more trauma. God would give us the gift of beholding the stunning awe of creation in our neighbor’s face, but we cannot see God in our neighbor when blinded by fear or hate. We are given the sacred duty to serve and to heal, and when we fail to do this, we fail to embrace our own sacredness, and we give back what God has given us.

When we allow a government to disappear our neighbor, we disappear God.

Originally published in the Bennington Banner