Advice to ICE

Maria J. Stephan speaks with Stephen Colbert about the role faith communities can play as communities across the country look to protect their neighbors from ICE

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As one catholic speaking with another Maria J. Stephan and Stephen Cobert explore how non-violent resistance can work in the present moment; they also explore how ICE agents can walk away. Here is the video and a transcript for your pleasure.

SC

Dr. Maria J. Stephan. You Advised the catholic institute for nonviolence. I do my best to Be a catholic. What role, you know. What role to faith Communities play in all of this? I know many catholic bishops and Cardinals have come out to say it’s totally unacceptable. And some Episcopal bishops have said their clergy may need to prepare themselves for a new age of martyrdom to protect people. What role do faith communities play in all of this, or can they?

MS

Faith communities play a powerful role and they are showing up in powerful ways across this country. As you say, they can speak truth to power. They can use their pulpits, their positions, their moral authority to speak out against

The abuses of power that are happening. They can remind us that the greatest commandment is love. They can remind us, they can speak out against the false idolatry of Christian Nationalism, using these different platforms…

SC

You know, many of the people who are in support of this sort of thing, even some of the people who are In    actually cite their Christian faith as a justification for this. What would you say to those people? Is there anything from your experience of faith that you would say to them?

MS

I think i would remind them of our shared humanity in this moment. I would

Remind them of the greatest commandment, to love thy neighbor. I would remind them of Matthew 25. What you do unto the least of the, you do unto me. They have agency in this moment. And they can walk away. They are not in the

Army. They are allowed to quit. I love some of the Things I’ve seen this past year, like all al the frog costumes. The dinosaur costumes. Happened in Chicago too. When the going gets tough, should the tough get silly?

MS

They absolutely should. Joy is resistance, Stephen. And there Is such a powerful role for humor in this moment. Humor breaks through the fear. It inspires courage.

SC

Should you really make jokes about the news, though? Not everything is a joke, maria.

MS

Frog costumes, it has lit people on fire. Young people are inspired. It’s a way for people to show up, to get involved.

SC

Also people don’t look like a threat when they are in a known inflatable frog costume. It drives home the whole thing, like they’ve got guns. I’ve got a little fan on my butt.

Before We go, this is one of the things it’s most interesting to me. People think of nonviolence is nonviolent resistance; they think of the marches of Gandhi, the marches of Dr. King, and other people around the world. My understanding is that nonviolence is, it’s really more of a worldview. How would you describe that to someone who wants to know what it means to live a life of nonviolence?

MS

I think it’s a different way of being with each other. It is love in action. It’s about being human in the face of inhumanity. It’s about resisting injustices, encourages powerful ways. But without harming people. And it’s about building something new. Dr. King referred to it as the beloved community. So how we can treat one another and how we relate to one another in love and in respect for human dignity and building a kind of society where we can all flourish.

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