Tom Petty is sometimes a wordsmith, sometimes just repetitive in his lyrics. “You can stand me up at the gates of hell, but I won’t back down.” Sounds fearlessly bold. Most of us, however, are more easily swayed. Sometimes it takes little more than some rhetoric about a 55-foot wall (or is […]Continue Reading →
Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared on redletterchistians.org in February 2015 and can be found here. ____________________________________________________________________________ Marco Saavedra is an artist, poet, writer, and sometime-dishwasher at his parents’ restaurant in the Bronx. He’s also an undocumented immigrant and one of nine Dreamers who, in 2013, turned themselves over to border patrol at Nogales, AZ […]Continue Reading →
Editor’s Note: This blog originally appeared as part three of a series on the author’s personal blog in October 2015.
And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. – Deuteronomy 10:19 (NIV) Immigration is a topic that is not foreign to the Bible. Seen in […]Continue Reading →Editor’s Note: This blog originally appeared as part one of a series on the author’s personal blog in September 2015.
______________________________________________________________________ So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. –Genesis 1:27, NIV As far as I can tell, I am a fourth […]Continue Reading →
Editor’s Note: This blog originally appeared on April 18th, 2012. If I could, I would drive to my church. The great state of New Jersey does not issue driver’s licenses to undocumented residents (yet), so I usually rely on my pastor for a ride to church. As Define American’s […]Continue Reading →
Editor’s Note: This blog originally appeared on the G92.org blog January 19, 2011. It is a guest blog by Kirsten Strand. Four years ago my family moved from an upper-middle class, mostly Anglo neighborhood to a low-income, predominantly Hispanic community. Four years ago, “illegal immigration” was a nameless, faceless issue. Today, undocumented […]Continue Reading →
Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared on February 6th, 2013. Jesus: I’m increasingly stunned how He came in the midst of the messiness and margins of humanity surrounded by the whispers of scandal. He was without welcome in His father’s home town, welcomed by the low-class shepherds and Gentile kings, the target of […]Continue Reading →
Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared July 13, 2012. Can’t we all identify? We’re late for work because we can’t settle on an outfit from our jam-packed closet. We’ve already left the drive-thru before we realize they forgot the ketchup packets. Our wallets won’t close neatly because they’re too full of cash and […]Continue Reading →
Editor’s Note: This post originally ran December 14, 2012 on the G92.org blog. Last year my wife and I left suburban NJ for Brooklyn, NY. On a map they seem so close; it’s only in person that you realize how different they really are. Like any immigrant, I looked at my surroundings […]Continue Reading →
Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared February 27, 2012. We are re-posting it, for this Ash Wednesday. Last week marked the beginning of Lent. Many Christians—including a growing number of generally non-liturgical evangelicals—observe the forty-day period preceding Easter as a somber time to fast, repent, and prepare to remember Christ’s death and, ultimately, […]Continue Reading →
