+A few days ago I was listening to NPR's Up First podcast when they began +to talk about the new policies at ICE ever since Trump came into +office.[1] Now although it is perfectly legitimate +for a country to deport foreigners who commit crimes within its borders, or even +to be selective of what foreigners it lets in to begin with, what caught my +attention regarding this episode was that “[i]mmigration enforcement will now be +able to arrest migrants at sensitive locations like [...] churches.” Here we see +how in spite of all the christian conservative façade of President Trump and the +Republicans, in reality they continue to be nothing more than liberals. Sure, +not the liberals of the last twenty years, but liberals nonetheless. Of course, +it is possible that this form of liberalism is merely intuitive by this point +(not directly willed or thought-out) since liberalism has been creeping into the +depths of our culture for centuries now. Even so, it is important to remember +why churches are to be considered sanctuaries where the Civil Authority has no +jurisdiction. +
+ ++It is part of both Christian and Jewish (and perhaps even pagan) tradition that +the church (or temple) is a place of sanctuary precisely for those who have +transgressed and seek reconciliation by appealing to that Authority above the +Civil Authority and in which we are all united: the Church. The Church plays a +special role here as a representative not only of God, but also of the People of +God (and thus society) as a whole. So when the transgressor enters the church he +does not - as our liberal conservative friends may think - flee from justice and +the repercussions of his actions, but rather he heads straight towards the +highest Judge. In doing so the transgressor both implicitly recognizes his guilt +(that he did something unjust for which justice demands punishment) and actually +puts himself at the mercy of the Church (i.e. society). This act of what is in +essence a confession of guilt - and indeed, in the Catholic/Orthodox tradition +this would go hand-in-hand with an actual Sacramental Confession - would also +constitute an evidence of true repentance of the transgressor, for he seeks the +Church not to flee just punishment, but to reconcile himself to society once +more and beg for mercy. And here we are indeed practically obliged to reduce the +punishment for the crime committed, since part of the purpose of punishment is +precisely this medicinal purpose of reconciliation and correction of the guilty +party[2] which has here already been satisfied by +God's grace in the transgressor himself without the need of society's punishment +to do so. +
+ ++Yet, even so, perhaps the primary purpose of punishment “of redressing the +disorder introduced by the offense”[3] has not be +fulfilled and the criminal has still some punishment left to completely +reconcile himself to society once more. It may be the liberal's fear that the +transgressor may refuse such a punishment; or perhaps he truly does seek the +sanctuary of the church for merely selfish reasons. What is misunderstood here +is the degree to which the transgressor is at the mercy of society by taking +sanctuary in the church. He cannot leave, for then he returns to the +jurisdiction of the Civil Authority, but if he remains he is effectively +imprisoned within the church and completely dependent on the charity of +precisely that community whom he has transgressed for his basic necessities. +
+ ++What this does is to give the transgressor a true Christian way of reconciling +himself to the community instead of the transactional justice that we have +today. Transgressors are given the opportunity to confess their crimes and, in +so doing, demonstrate their repentance and correction: that they truly believe +what they did was evil. Meanwhile, our transactional justice system cannot have +this characteristic, for all transgressions are viewed as debts to be repaid, +either in cash, time in prison, or (in the case of the death penalty) in blood. +Whether or not the transgressor repents and recognizes his sin becomes a +“personal matter,” while justice becomes a matter of cold calculation. Hardly +something that resembles a society transformed by the light of Jesus Christ. +
+ ++It is not, however, only the transgressor who benefits from these sanctuaries, +but indeed also the aggrieved party, victim of his transgression. In the first +place because the victim now has the explicit opportunity to practice one of the +greatest of Christian virtues: mercy. And indeed, through this act of mercy, +mercy itself becomes institutionalized such that society as a whole may become +habituated to it. Secondly, it even serves to bring more closure and healing to +the aggrieved, as in this manner the transgressor has not only recognized his +crime as fact, but as evil. This compared to our transactional system in which +the transgressor perhaps never even admits to the crime, much less to its evil +nature. Instead the aggrieved must content themselves with a calculated +recognition of facts summed up into a debt that is to be “paid back to society +and the aggrieved parties.” +
+ ++Do not misunderstand me, I do not think that NPR is thinking of this when they +criticize the new ICE policy. My humble guess would be (as an avid listener) +that they care little for that which is truly sacred, and only make reference to +it when it suites their ideological motives. Nor, on the contrary, am I saying +that for this reason (or many others like it) a Christian should never support +Trump or the Republican Party; politics is a messy business and we must make due +with what options we have. It is a reminder, rather, to all Christians that no +party or politician of the current regime represents Christian values, but only +that some may be better than others. +
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