Conference Minister's Corner - 11/4/2025
- Rev. Gordon Rankin
- 16 minutes ago
- 3 min read
“Believing that fear makes us safer is heresy.”
As many of you know, I spent last week in Washington DC with 19 of my Conference Minister colleagues. We were there to engage in Advocacy particularly around the issues of immigration and LGBTQ+ inclusion. There was a lot that happened during these few days and I know I will write at least once more about what happened.
For this, I am going to focus on the happenings of last Wednesday, October 29th. That was our main day of action. When we arrived, we didn’t know if we’d be able to visit with any legislative offices given the government shutdown. The UCC Washington DC Office of Public Policy and Advocacy did a wonderful job setting up 18 visits for us (which made for a full day). In addition to our formal visits, we also made some “pop-bys”. For example, I popped by Senator Shaheen’s office and talked with office staff briefly while delivering the post cards and letters that you sent me with. Other colleagues of mine dropped off your cards and letters to Representatives Pappas and Goodlander.
I was in a group with the Reverend Molly Carlson (South Central Conference) and Reverend Bonnie Bates (Penn Northeast Conference) for visits. We spent our time visiting with staff in the offices of Senator Hassan, Senator Cruz, and Senator Cornyn. Given the committee these senators serve on we particularly focused our conversation on seeking support for the Visible Act (which would require immigration enforcement officers to wear identification and to not wear masks) and the Protecting Sensitive Locations Act (which limits immigration action from areas with 1000 feet of hospitals, schools, daycares and places of worship). In some cases, we clearly knew that we were visiting with folks who had different immigration priorities than those we were advocating for. Did our visits make a difference? Well, I’m not believing we changed anyone’s policy stances. However, I am convinced that everyone we visited had an increased sense that the eye’s of the United Church of Christ were on them and that we in the United Church of Christ were willing to speak to what we believe is just in the public square. That left me feeling that the visits were worth it.
Later that afternoon, we held a vigil on the ground of the United Methodist building. The United Methodist is where our UCC Office for Public Policy and Advocacy is housed. It is directly across from the Capital grounds and next door to the Supreme Court. As a part of the vigil, each conference minister told a story from their own setting of how people were being impacted by current immigration and LGBTQ+ policies. It was powerful a time. After each story was told we poured some water into a pitch to represent the tears of our people. When the Vigil concluded, several of us dipped our hand in the water and walked to the Supreme Court, Library of Congress, and the Capital ground to place our wet hands on those structures so that those tears were shared with the wider world.
One of the tasks we all had during our advocacy was to make sure we weren’t just talking politics, but that we were talking theology. The story I told during the vigil was about how fear is being used as a tool for immigration enforcement. I ended my story with this theological statement: “I believe that believing that fear makes us safer is heresy. Fear only makes us more separate.”
As I suggested, I have more I’d like to share, but I am going to stop here for today. But I am going to leave you with link for the video of that Vigil so you can watch if you’d like: