Dear Representative Huizenga,
I’m addressing this to you, as one of your constituents, not to single you out, but rather quite simply because you have influence in our system. You can make a difference, in ways I cannot even begin to imagine.
That’s why I want to introduce you to a friend of mine. Gilo and I are both pastors in the most American of denominations, the Presbyterian Church (USA). (A dozen Presbyterians signed the Declaration of Independence, including the only clergyman to sign, John Witherspoon.)
Gilo is on the right, in case you wondered. Gilo’s church is the Fountain of Life Faith Community, which serves Ethiopian (Anuak) and South Sudanese refugees in Minnesota. I had the privilege of working with Gilo for nearly a decade, before I moved last summer to your district.
Why am I telling you, a U.S. representative from Michigan, about a minister in Minnesota, and why should you care?
Well, because you’re my representative, and because recently many members of your political party leadership have spoken quite harshly of people like Gilo. Last month, President Trump speaking about East African immigrants to this country, and specifically to Minnesota, Somalis in particular, said that they were “garbage.” People, real people, good decent people, being called “garbage.” It didn’t stop there. “Most of those people — they have destroyed Minnesota, OK?,” the President continued. There were other xenophobic words; I don’t need to tell you—you heard them too, I’m sure.
I wish you and members of your party, and really all of Congress, would take the time to meet Gilo, and meet the members of his church. These women, men, and children, all immigrants to this country, having come to Minnesota and the Upper Midwest to flee violence directed against them in Ethiopia and South Sudan, are some of the most remarkable I’ve ever met. Every day, Gilo is out among his people, comforting, encouraging, challenging them.
It’s hard being an immigrant in this country, just as it was generations ago for our Dutch immigrant forebears. I know that because I’ve heard in the stories these east Africans tell today the same kind of determination and grit and hope and perseverance I’ve heard in the stories of our Dutch ancestors to West Michigan generations ago.
Here’s one example, in Pastor Gilo’s words:
The most difficult challenge we face today is raising up our children in Christian ways, so we don’t lose them to the world. This puts us in an urgent situation to search for Christian programs and activities. However, due to our economic conditions, when most of us survive on minimum wages, it is hard to afford and sponsor successful programs and youth activities on our own. As parents, we would love our kids to keep growing in Christ and interact with fellow Christians around them.
Doesn’t that sound like the kind of people we want in this country, people who care about themselves and others? A few years ago, when Pastor Gilo voiced this challenge, a whole lot of us saw it not as a burden but an opportunity. In fact, we raised more than $11,000 to help send 23 young people from this church to summer camp. Is there anything more American than summer camp?
I can tell you, Mr. Huizenga, what apparently no one else in your party will: how fundamentally wrong the President’s interpretation is, of Somalis, of other East Africans, and of immigrants more generally.
The Minnesota immigrant communities are making contributions that make our neighborhoods and our nation a better place. You could really benefit from meeting these Ethiopian people. These are living, walking embodiment of faithfulness, of devotion to God and to family; hard workers who care for others. These are God’s own people, and to our benefit, they are now Minnesota’s own as well; a vibrant part of the social fabric that is the Minneapolis and Saint Paul area. I’m not much of a photographer, but this picture above may help gives you just a glimpse into their commitment and joy.
I don’t know if you’ll ever read this, and I don’t pretend it will make any difference. In my experience, most of us (and I include myself) avoid naming what really matters because we fear the fallout. What if it hurts someone? What if it changes everything? What if it reveals more than we can handle?
What courageous people like Pastor Gilo and the people I know through him have taught me however, is that no matter the odds, what we say matters. How we say it matters, too, not just to our hearers but to ourselves. In a culture where some of us are telling others of us that they are less valuable because of their origin, we need leaders who are willing to let all people—those who share our backgrounds and those who do not—hear and know that we value and support them no matter who or what they are or what they might become.
“What if we begin living this now?” Not next year. Not after the next election. Not when the economy improves, or polarization declines. Now.
Thanks for listening.
Jeff Japinga
23 Responses
Compelling, gentle, a very fair challenge. We are so far beyond partisanship and political career preservation! This is all about a delusional dictator whose mental illness progresses with every new conquest.
Thanks, Jeff, this is a challenge that, under normal circumstances, would cut the core of a leader’s conscience. Let’s pray that it does. Well said!
Oh, Jeff,
This is precious and life affirming; thank you.
If only Rep. Huizenga would read it and take it to heart.
Praying this heartfelt plea will be heard at a level that makes a difference. I copied this in a format I could send personally to Rep Huizinga and as many other people of influence including our president. I am assuming because there are options to share on social media your permission to do so would be welcomed. Thank you!
Amen!! Thank you, Jeff
So true, thank you Jeff.
Amen.
Such a poignant and moving piece. Thank you, Jeff. Every time I send him a note (that almost always goes un-responded) and read such great ones like yours, I grieve so many things, not the least of which that my voting address is only 2.8 miles south of Hillary Scholten’s (another Dutch immigrant) district.
Thank you for writing this. May it travel far & wide.
Thank you for caring and for modelling such caring to your representative and to all of us.
And, just like that, the Governor of Minnesota decided to not seek reelection. Maybe the “Minnesota-nice” Amy Klobachar can get to the bottom of the Somalian community penchant for fraud.
The author of this essay needs to engage in some reflection: does he know there is a difference between Ethiopian and Somalian immigrant communities? At least, I hope there is a difference…
Or, if you had the power, would you insist that the Grand Rapids community bring in Somalian immigrants just like Minneapolis? Does Hillary Scholten advocate for that? I’d like to know.
https://youtu.be/ub8ZoIrlaoU?si=nSbQLioBrGQNbHEq
And, since we (aren’t) talking about the Somalian “situation “, I thought I would again share this video of a Christian woman giving her testimony to a Congressional committee a number of years ago. Rep. Omar gives an interesting (and somewhat demonic) response, especially in light of the fact that her “community” seems to be robbing taxpayers blind.
Pastor Fields, by the way, is a graduate of Trinity Christian College. Had Trinity celebrated (much less acknowledged) a graduate like her, maybe, through God’s grace, they would still be around.
Marty, your responsive comments on many essays in RJ blog give much information about your own outlook, which is helpful as I read and consider the words published on this site.
Your if/then (had/maybe) statement about Trinity. . . . I hear in it that you have a belief that if Trinity Christian College did better in some virtue, God would offered grace and extended its institutional life. One thing I like about many Dutch Reformed people is that they tend to be adamant about the idea that God’s grace is not conditional. It is notable you place the phrase “God’s Grace” in the sentence as an outcome to a behavior. Trinity founders drafted in its own constitution, through articles 3 and 10(section 1), an irrevocable commitment to remain Dutch Reformed in its faculty, constituency and student body, or not exist at all. The ethnicity-restricted focus of any Christian school’s founders, and the unsustainable result of that focus over time, is not on God, but on founders with limited scope for imagination about the constituency of the kingdom that is to come.
Pastor Fields was rightly rebuked by Rep. Omar for her decision to describe the Black members of her community as having an innate tendency for teen pregnancy and drug use. Everyone has a choice to read unhealthy behaviors as genetically or culturally innate (a racist reading), or as a non-verbal witness to the presence of unrelieved oppression. Omar is also correct in being frustrated with Christians who lobby against public school use because they blame public schools for increasing harm against children. Public schools can be a visual represenation of a particular community’s challenges, but they are not the source of communal harm. Fields currently argues, as part of her promotion of Chicago Home Educators Summit, that children are safer from sexual assault and sexual abuse when they are kept away from comprehensive education on reproduction, safe sex, and consent. This is a common, and very dangerous, belief and practice in conservative religious communities. Children are more isolated and vulnerable in religious households whose adults fear that their community’s public educators cannot be trusted to help teach wisdom and skills to their young ones.
Both you and the essay author seem to imply that an immigrant community’s rights and welcome in Minnesota, or US in general, should be conditional upon their status as model immigrants or model Christians. Major Major Major Major’s dad lives on as a humorous fictional example of a Minnesota farmer who believes, as many descendants of European immigrants still do, that taxpayer-funded support or funding is socialism or theft from citizens, unless it is provided to white landowners. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1375767-major-major-s-father-was-a-sober-god-fearing-man-whose-idea
I think that the idea of conditional US citizenry support for immigrants, either based on their nation of origin or their general reputation for fitting into a white evangelical American’s idea of religious orthodoxy or secular law-abiding-ness, is an idea that is critiqued by the whole GodWithUs narrative. The Christmas to Epiphany fortnight that finished yesterday relates the good news that Jesus slept in a slop pan in front of shepherds and later toddled around to open presents from foreign magicians. We are invited to walk away from the fake news that only certain people earn or deserve a community’s energies of receiving, hosting, and honoring.
As much as I try, and I really do, I just can’t understand your writing style. Or your logic. I’m sure it’s me…
Thank you, Jeff.
Amen. Great letter. Members of my church in Grand Rapids are also being threatened.
Thanks, Jeff. Good to hear your voice again. Thankful for people like you who aren’t afraid to speak truth.
Thanks, Jeff, for such a forceful letter delivered with such an eirenic spirit. I only wish that Representative Huizenga would take the time to read this. I’m an optimist but, on this one, I’m a pragmatist.
Dehumanization of any group and any one cannot be tolerated. And yet, it is.
Thank you for speaking up.
Do a little research please before just listening to an influencer who is trying to paint a whole Somalian community with one brush . Rather typical of the dynamic that is invading all of politics.
I have been to Ethiopia and have met a few American from Ethiopia. I am amazed at them as a group of Christians. In Ethiopia they cared about others more than themselves. The Ethiopians I met were very poor but lived as kings and queens of our Lord.
This is excellent, Jeff. Thank you.
Jeff, your letter is very well penned and the sharing of your experience, poignant. Thanks for these gifts. Forgive my naive question, did you get a response that was anything beyond a form email?
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