SAN DIEGO — “Unprecedented” may be the most overused word in English today—yet it rarely helps us understand what’s truly happening. Something could be unprecedented because it is wonderful, like an unusually large harvest, or discovery, or cure. That’s not what we mean today.
So, what makes this moment so unprecedented? One answer is that our country has never been in such a purposefully cruel and damaging state of chaos in the memory of most of us alive today. What’s unprecedented is that we, the people of the United States, are facing situations of lawless disregard for life and dignity at the hands of our government that defy our ability to call upon experience to confront them. This lack of experience paralyzes us.
I grew up appreciating my classes in civics, and history. As I got older, I enjoyed learning about ethics and drawing from the deep well of Christianity’s wisdom expressed in Catholic Social Teaching. For me, a large part of the bewildering quality of the present moment is that an unusually high number of people seem to have absolutely no memory of civics, history, ethics or religious wisdom. This lack makes them apparently incapable of discerning right from wrong, truth from lie.
In a finding that should distress all of us who call ourselves Christians, a new poll from the respected Public Religion Research Institute reveals that 54% of White Catholics support deportations without due process. This astoundingly high amount is second only to White evangelicals who are 65% in favor of deporting undocumented persons—without due process, legal recourse, or access to constitutional protections guaranteed to all people under U.S. law.
The disconnect of biblical faith from ethics is also heartbreakingly clear in Hispanic Protestants who express support for deportation without due process at 30%. Tellingly, the largest opposition to mass deportations comes from non-Christians, Hispanic Catholics and Black Protestants. Our communal well is empty.
Experts in water use tell us that sometimes a well goes dry because silt and other obstructions are blocking the water flow. In these situations, the solution is to inject water at high pressure, to overcome the blockage and allow the water to flow again. How do we do this? I think we have begun.
In the face of the mass firings at the National Park Service, the Alt National Park Service was set up to continue caring for the lands we hold in common. It is their careful analysis that testifies to the gushing water of peaceful protests held on June 14th, a day when war-making and authoritarian fealty were on full display in Washington. In opposition to the glorification of violence and despotism, over 13 million people turned out in communities big and small, in states blue, red and purple, in cities and in rural towns, to irrigate our community well with the water of good will, kinship, and responsibility.
Two days later the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement of support stating that “no one can turn a deaf ear to the palpable cries of anxiety and fear heard in communities throughout the country in the wake of a surge in immigration enforcement actions.”
We can all contribute to the flowing water, which as the evidence of peaceful demonstrations shows, has so energized the imagination of young people. Communities are organizing to raise funds for immigrant families left without parents, and the elderly left without their young caretakers. Communities of faith are organizing rapid-response teams to rush to the aid of the detained, incarcerated or left behind. Fear recedes as empathy surges—and together, we walk as pilgrims of hope, drawing living water from a well renewed.
Cecilia González-Andrieu, PhD, is a professor of theology at Loyola Marymount University.
