We must all make a living.

A few weeks ago, I sat in a courtroom, deepening my knowledge of our immigration system and laws. I attended those horrid Operation Streamline hearings for undocumented people caught by you and your colleagues.

When one of those men told the judge he was worried about his 15-year-old son who had been taken away from him, the judge ignored him. Are you a part of this? Have you told your children that your employer makes you take babies and children from their parents? Do you feel okay going home to your children, hugging and tucking them into bed – then the next day supporting a Presidential Executive Order that rips other children from their parents? You shouldn’t.

How is your soul? Atheist, Catholic, Protestant, Humanist, Jewish, Buddhist: it doesn’t matter your spiritual beliefs. You can’t hide, in the end, from your own values and ethics and faith. Moral injury*, soul injury, is real. Please don’t put yourself in jeopardy.

With compassion,
Rev. Patrice

*Moral injury is the damage done to one’s conscience or moral compass when that person perpetrates, witnesses, or fails to prevent acts that transgress their own moral and ethical values or codes of conduct.