WASHINGTON—The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services granted a waiver that allows a South Carolina children’s ministry to participate in a government-funded foster-care program, even though the agency places children exclusively with Christian families.

The decision drew mixed responses from Christian groups and religious liberty advocates. Some praised it as a victory for the free exercise of religion and ministry to vulnerable children, while others denounced it as government-funded religious discrimination.

Waiver granted to Miracle Hill Ministries

At the request of Gov. Henry McMaster, HHS granted the waiver to Miracle Hill Ministries of Greenville, S.C. Department officials said requiring Miracle Hill to accept non-Christian families would violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act by placing a substantial burden on providers’ sincerely held religious beliefs.

“With young people in need of stable foster homes throughout our state, I am determined to protect each and every one of the child-placing agencies that have been called to help us fill those needs,” McMaster said.

Last year, the South Carolina Department of Social Services determined Miracle Hill’s policy of working exclusively with Christian families placed it in violation of a regulation—established in January 2017—that bars discrimination on the basis of religion by any organization receiving funds from HHS.

Miracle Hill Ministries reportedly had rejected a Jewish woman, Beth Lesser, who applied to be part of its mentoring program.

For nearly a year, Miracle Hill had operated under a provisional license that was due to expire within a few days.

‘Sincere religious exercise would be substantially burdened’

Steven Wagner, principal deputy assistant secretary of HHS Administration for Children and Families, sent a letter to McMaster dated Jan. 23 granting his request for a waiver.

Wagner noted the HHS Office for Civil Rights had reviewed the matter and “specifically found that Miracle Hill’s sincere religious exercise would be substantially burdened by application of the religious nondiscrimination requirement.”

He also noted “at least nine other foster care providers in Miracle Hill’s area appear available to assist potential parents in the event Miracle Hill is unable to partner with certain potential foster parents because of Miracle Hill’s religious beliefs.”

Miracle Hill leaders expressed thanks to McMaster and other elected officials who advocated on their behalf and praised the granting of the waiver.

“We are deeply gratified by this decision, which allows Miracle Hill to keep its license and continue serving nearly 200 foster children and more than 230 foster families,” said Reid Lehman, president and chief executive office of Miracle Hill Ministries. “It’s always been about the license, our right to exist.”

‘Caring for the most vulnerable’

Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, applauded the decision, focusing on ensuring the ability of faith-based foster-care providers to carry out their mission.

“Culture wars shouldn’t stand in the way of those seeking to care for children in need. That’s why I’m pleased to see Gov. McMaster advocating for agencies like Miracle Hill and also for HHS protecting the rights of those who are dedicated to caring for the most vulnerable,” Moore said.

“Far too many children are waiting, right now, either for adoption or foster families. I’m glad to see in this case that burdensome regulations won’t come at the expense of vulnerable children who need loving homes.”

‘Government-funded religious discrimination’

On the other hand, Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, insisted government-funded programs should not exclude otherwise-qualified foster families on the basis of their religion.

“The BJC opposes government-funded religious discrimination. Today’s action signals a dramatic and troubling shift. This waiver shows more concern for the providers than children in need and willing foster parents,” Tyler said.

“While the government often partners with private religious entities in ways that meet pressing social needs, it must do so with respect for boundaries that separate church and state and protect religious liberty for everyone. Government-funded placement programs should not be allowed to exclude qualified foster parents based on religion.”

‘Sets a dangerous nationwide precedent’

Rachel Laser, president and chief executive officer of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, asserted the waiver establishes a bad precedent and discriminates against vulnerable children.

“This is yet another example of the Trump Administration using religion to advance a regressive political agenda that harms others. And this time, the target is not only religious minorities, but also our most vulnerable children—those in need of loving homes. It is unconscionable that this administration would use government funds to discriminate against the very populations our laws are designed to protect,” Laser said.

“While this policy is specific to South Carolina, it sets a dangerous nationwide precedent that elevates the beliefs of government-funded programs over the best interests of the children in their care. Religious freedom is a fundamental American right. It should never be used to justify discrimination.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—As Suzan Johnson Cook, former U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, stood before a class of black theological students, one raised his hand to ask her if it had been challenging to work with atheists and agnostics.

“It’s not about what I believe or what I think you should believe,” responded Johnson Cook, the first African-American and clergyperson in the State Department post. “It’s about (that) you have the right to believe or not believe.”

Gathered around five round tables in a studio of the Newseum, 35 students from religious graduate schools at historically black colleges and universities attended the first session of a four-day intensive class on religious freedom. They were there to learn the lessons and lingo of a field that has traditionally been predominated by white men.

The new pilot course is part of a partnership with the theological school of Virginia Union University and the Religious Freedom Center, a nonpartisan initiative of the Freedom Forum Institute.

The three-year program is funded by a $450,000 grant from the Luce Fund for Theological Education.

Gaining new perspective

Sheila Davis, an African Methodist Episcopal pastor in Baltimore, said Johnson Cook helped her understand religious freedom from a different point of view. That surprised her.

“I thought I had it down pat at this point,” said Davis, who also is a student at Payne Theological Seminary.

Corey D.B. Walker, former dean at Virginia Union’s Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology and a consultant on the project, said the partnership aims to help African-American students learn about the range of views on religious freedom in a religiously diverse and “religious averse” country.

Those perspectives are shaped by everything from declines in traditional Christian church attendance to increasing Muslim populations from the African diaspora to statements by Church of God in Christ Presiding Bishop Charles E. Blake Sr. defending the right to oppose abortion and gay marriage.

“We have to train the next generation of religious leaders to be very fluent in understanding this contested terrain,” said Walker, now a visiting professor at the University of Richmond, in an interview.

African-American role in securing religious freedom

On-site at the Newseum, members of the teaching team cited examples of people of color in the history of religious freedom, including the Ethiopian eunuch in the New Testament Book of Acts, who converted to Christianity, and Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman, who led escaping slaves to freedom.

“She literally took families to a place where they could live more freely, both religiously, physically and mentally,” Angelique Walker-Smith, senior associate for Pan-African and Orthodox Church engagement at Bread for the World, told the students. “So we owe so much to Harriet Tubman for being a champion for religious freedom of our people.”

At a launch event for the project, which featured black scholars discussing race and the “politics of belonging,” course organizer Sabrina Dent recited the names of the four girls killed in the 1963 bombing at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala.

“They represent the innocent children who are impacted by racially motivated terrorism that impacts the religious liberty of African-Americans,” said Dent, a graduate of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology and former fellow of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty.

Students took notes on laptops and notebooks as they learned about “countries of particular concern”—the State Department’s designation for the most egregious religious freedom violators—and brainstormed ways they could apply  the principles they were learning in their congregations and communities.

Consider other religious traditions

Itihari Toure, institutional effectiveness director at the Interdenominational Theological Center, cited the example of “Project Blitz,” an initiative by the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation that wants to see “In God We Trust” displayed in public buildings.

“Some of us—not calling names—might say: ‘I don’t see anything wrong with that. God’s good,’” said Toure, who teaches at a consortium of African-American seminaries in Atlanta. “But that’s one group’s tradition. And what happens when you begin to impose one group’s tradition on everybody?”

As a metaphor for advancing religious liberty, she started a class discussion of different cups—from a handcrafted wooden one to delicate china to a shot glass—she had placed on a ritual table near the front of the room.

“When we think about this notion of religious freedom and we think about the cups of life, what cups are on the tables that we set?” she asked. “Are we open enough, are we willing enough to consider some cups that may not have been a part of our lived experience?”

The class originally was slated to visit the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, but it was closed due to the partial government shutdown. Instead, the group visited the “Slave Bible” exhibit at the Museum of the Bible. Lecturers from the African-American museum and the Baptist Joint Committee also were scheduled to address them.

Tisa Wenger, whose 2017 book Religious Freedom: The Contested History of an American Ideal was cited several times during the first session, said she thinks the class is unprecedented.

“It’s certainly exciting and I think broadens out the conversation on religious freedom in productive ways,” the associate professor at Yale Divinity School told Religion News Service in an email.

By the end of their first day together, the Christian and Muslim students, who must complete online assignments and a final project, had already begun strategizing on ways they could make their own congregations more open to people with different beliefs and traditions.

Tashara Void, a student at the Interdenominational Theological Center, said she’s thinking of ways to make the “monocultural” atmosphere of her African Methodist Episcopal congregation more multicultural.

Void also is considering applying to the Baptist Joint Committee and White House fellow programs to continue to advocate for religious freedom.

“We have to live among each other,” she said of people of different traditions. “So we might as well learn how to get along with each other and, at the very least, just respect one another.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—When the 116th Congress was sworn in Jan. 3, it became one of the most religiously diverse delegations in American history, with more than a few lawmakers taking the oath of office while placing their hands on books other than the Christian Bible.

Still, according to a new survey from Pew Research, the incoming class of legislators is predominantly Christian—even more so than the country itself.

“While the number of self-identified Christians in Congress has ticked down, Christians as a whole—and especially Protestants and Catholics—are still overrepresented in proportion to their share in the general public,” researchers wrote. “Indeed, the religious makeup of the new, 116th Congress is very different from that of the United States population.”

Includes 72 Baptists

The number of Christians in Congress is dipping slightly compared with the 115th session, dropping from 90.7 percent to 88.2 percent. By contrast, 71 percent of U.S. adults identify as Christians. Pew’s Christian category includes Catholics, Protestants, Mormons, Orthodox Christians, Christian Scientists and other faith groups.

Most Christians in Congress are Protestant, including 72 Baptists, 42 Methodists and 26 members each for Presbyterians, Lutherans and Anglicans/Episcopalians. Catholics make up 30.5 percent with 163 members, and Mormons claim 1.9 percent with 10 members. Five members of Congress are Orthodox Christian.

Researchers noted the proportion of Catholic lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives has shifted toward the Democratic Party in recent years.

In the 114th Congress (2015-2017), Catholic Democrats and Catholic Republicans were spread roughly equally in the House (68 versus 69), a trend that continued into the 115th (74 Catholic House Democrats versus 70 Catholic Republicans). But the new Congress has 31 more Catholic Democrats than Catholic Republicans in the House (86 versus 55).

Diversity mostly limited to one party

Meanwhile, the influx of non-Christian members in Congress is almost entirely among Democrats or independents who caucus with Democrats.

According to Pew, 61 of the 281 Democrats or independents are non-Christian. In addition to 32 Jewish members, all Muslims (three), Hindus (three), Buddhists (two) and Unitarian Universalists (two) in Congress caucus with Democrats.

One Democrat—Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona—identifies as religiously unaffiliated. Eighteen “refused to specify” their religion, according to Pew. Among the general public, 23 percent identify as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular.”

Only two of the 253 Republican members in the 116th Congress—Reps. Lee Zeldin of New York and David Kustoff of Tennessee—identify as something other than Christian; both are Jewish.

Pew did not include a representative from North Carolina’s 9th District, where election results have not been certified in the wake of electoral fraud allegations.

Many minority faith groups saw their representation increase this year after a wave of Democratic victories in the 2018 midterm elections.

The number of Jews jumped from 30 to 34, Muslims rose from two to three, and Unitarian Universalists ticked upward from one to two.

Hindus continue to claim three members of Congress, all of whom are returning from the 115th Congress.

Christian Scientists, on the other hand, lost both their members.

As for differences between the House and Senate, researchers pointed to one group in particular: Presbyterians make up 13 percent of the Senate, but only 3 percent of the House.

Looking for evidence of America’s increasing religious diversity? Keep an eye on Democrats Tulsi Gabbard and Rashida Tlaib. Gabbard, a Hawaii Hindu and a potential 2020 presidential contender, is a returning member of Congress who has used a Bhagavad Gita while taking the oath of office in the past. Meanwhile, Tlaib, a Michigan Muslim who will become the first Palestinian-American woman in Congress, plans to place her hand atop Thomas Jefferson’s personal copy of the Quran.

Finally, despite the media fervor surrounding the election of prominent Republican—and Mormon—Mitt Romney to represent Utah in the Senate, Pew researchers noted the percentage of federal lawmakers affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is declining.

“The 116th Congress also has the fewest Mormon members in at least a decade—members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints now number 10, a low over the last six congresses,” they wrote.

Ken Starr spoke with freelance reporter Maina Mwaura for Religion News Service about his faith, his new book on the Clinton investigation, his advice for independent counsel Robert Mueller, his departure from Baylor University and his views on U.S. immigration policy. View it here. (RNS)

TIJUANA,México—Cuando miembros de la caravana de Centro América llegó a la frontera de Estados Unidos/México en  Tijuana, hubo iglesias que abrieron sus puertas para ministrar a los inmigrantes.

No obstante, varias de esas iglesias no cuentan con los recursos para proveer ayuda a largo plazo a aquellos que buscan recibir asilo en Estados Unidos, dijo Bethany Anderson, director de Camino Immigration Services, durante una conferencia coordinada por National Immigration Forum.

“Las iglesias no tienen el presupuesto ni los ahorros para proveer todo lo que se necesita,” Anderson dijo.

Muchas iglesias tienen que decidir si compran comida o artículos de aseo personal, pero no pueden pagar por los dos, ella explicó.

Aun y si las iglesias no tienen los fondos para comprar todo lo que se necesita, Anderson recalcó que las congregaciones se han esforzado en ayudar a los inmigrantes cuando se ha requerido.

“Había una familia con niños pequeños que necesitaba un lugar donde quedarse, y una iglesia abrió sus puertas y compró una litera para ellos”, mencionó Anderson.

Otras organizaciones en Tijuana proveen ayuda adicional, como atención médica y consejo legal, dijo Jon Huckins, co-fundador y director de Global Immersion Project.

Recepción mezclada

La recepción que centroamericanos han recibido de parte de las iglesias en Tijuana ha contrastado con el trato que han recibido en otras partes.

En su camino por México han encontrado a gente protestando—algunos porque creen que el gobierno no está haciendo lo suficiente para dar alojamiento y el cuidado debido a inmigrantes, y otros quienes temen que los inmigrantes tomarán las oportunidades de trabajo y agotarán otros recursos, particularmente si su presencia en México dura más de lo esperado.

Cuando un grupo de inmigrantes de la caravana trató de infringir barreras y cruzar la frontera de Estados Unidos, agentes de la Oficina de Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza de los Estados Unidos usó gas lacrimógeno para esparcirlos.

Los participantes de la conferencia con National Immigration Forum insistieron que la desinformación y el mal entendimiento—en México y en Estados Unidos—han contribuido a las reacciones negativas contra los inmigrantes.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador tomará la presidencia de México el 1º de diciembre. Un reporte del 28 noviembre anunció que el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional de EU había acordado con el presidente electo dejar a las personas que buscan asilo en México hasta que escuchen una decisión de EU.

La ley en EU dice que los que buscan asilo pueden empezar el “Proceso Afirmativo de Asilo” en puerto de entrada, pero también pueden hacerlo después de entrar al país ilegalmente a través del “Proceso de Asilo Defensivo.” Un juez federal de California sostuvo esa provisión la semana pasada.

Clima de confusión

Esos reportes conflictivos—los cuales incluyen los mensajes del presidente Trump en Twitter—han creado un ambiente de confusión acerca del proceso migratorio que se necesita seguir para obtener asilo, dijo Anderson.

Todos los que buscan asilo deben tomar una prueba de “temor creíble” para demostrar su necesidad de asilo, pero el proceso puede ser estresante, ella notó. Una persona que tiene un “temor creíble” de vivir en su país podría no tener el estado mental necesario para lidiar con el confuso proceso para obtener asilo, ella dijo.

Los servicios legales como los que Anderson dirige no pueden preparar a los que buscan asilo con las preguntas, así que los servicios legales que pueden ofrecer son limitados, Anderson remarcó.

Huckins mencionó que él ha preguntado acerca de los inmigrantes que trataron de cruzar la frontera en San Ysidro.

“Ellos se movían por desesperación, y no con un espíritu de invadir,” Huckins dijo. “Ellos siguieron los planes de líderes que actuaron de una manera explotadora.”

Las únicas personas que se beneficiaron después de que se cerrara la frontera y el conflicto que ocurrió, fueron aquellos que menosprecian a los inmigrantes, él añadió.

“Los que pagarán por esto son quienes son más vulnerables y no tienen conocimiento de lo que significa acercarse a una frontera internacional de esa manera.”

Iglesias aprenden de inmigrantes

Iglesias y ministerios que se han preparado para apoyar a los inmigrantes también han expresado su deseo de compartir el evangelio con ellos. Pero, Anderson expresó que muchos inmigrantes tienen una fuerte fe cristiana.

Los inmigrantes “se han ayudado entre sí y caminado como hermanos y hermanas en una fe que los une,” ella dijo. “Estas personas no se conocían cuando empezaron el viaje, pero ahora tienen una mini-comunidad o mini-familia que está centrada en la misma fe.”

Algunos pastores en Tijuana han indicado que las familias centroamericanas se han hecho parte de sus congregaciones—las personas oran juntas y se animan mutuamente, ella dijo.

Después de visitar a una de las iglesias, las interacciones que se podían ver “eran más de compañerismo que de evangelización,” Anderson dijo.

La navidad viene y las iglesias locales en el área están pidiendo todo el apoyo posible.

El viaje de los centroamericanos “va con el camino de fe en el nacimiento del Jesús ‘inmigrante’ al que seguimos,” Huckins dijo.

Aunque las iglesias necesitan de un mayor apoyo y recursos, lo que más necesitan es solidaridad, el dijo, mencionando que su mensaje ha sido: “Necesitamos su presencia aquí con nosotros, y no hay mejor momento que en ésta temporada navideña.”

Un evento binacional el 15 de diciembre incluirá la visita a un albergue para informar más acerca de la caravana y culminará en una iglesia con un servicio similar a una posada, lo cual es una recreación de la búsqueda de José y María por alojamiento en Belén.

“Simbólicamente mostrará el testimonio colectivo que trasciende fronteras y que demuestra que somos la iglesia, y que seguimos a Jesús,” él dijo.

Iglesias en San Diego también abrirán sus puertas para dar alojamiento a los que continuarán su proceso de alojamiento después de cruzar la frontera, Huckins mencionó.

Para la iglesia en Estados Unidos, ésta situación ofrece una oportunidad para aprender del ejemplo de los inmigrantes, Anderson dijo.

Iglesias en México ya han aprendido de esas lecciones, Huckins añadió.

“Muchos hablan de cómo estos inmigrantes han sido los que ministran a estas comunidades,” dijo Huckins. “Ellos son los que han traído el evangelio con su presencia, su fidelidad, sus historias y su compromiso a un Dios que se mueve en y por medio de ellos.”

Esto está despertando a las iglesias en Tijuana, insistió Huckins.

“Tijuana está siendo ministrada por estos inmigrantes de una manera en la que el ministerio es entonces para personas como yo,” el dijo. “Ha sido hermoso ver como esto trae vida.”

When members of a caravan from Central America arrived at the U.S./Mexico border crossing at Tijuana, some churches in the area opened their doors to minister to the immigrants.

However, those churches lack the resources to provide long-term care for asylum-seeking Central Americans, Bethany Anderson, director of Camino Immigration Services, said during a conference call coordinated by the National Immigration Forum.

“They don’t have the budget or the savings to provide everything that is needed,” Anderson said.

Many churches have to choose whether to buy food or toiletries, because they cannot afford both, she explained.

Even if churches lack funds to provide all that is needed, Anderson commended those congregations for stepping up to respond to immigrants’ needs in real time.

“There was a family with young children that needed a place to stay, and this church opened up its doors and bought some bunk beds” for them, she said.

Other organizations in Tijuana are providing additional aid, including medical attention and legal advice, said Jon Huckins, co-founder and director of The Global Immersion Project.

Mixed reception

The reception the Central Americans received from Tijuana churches stood in sharp contrast to what they received from some other quarters.

As they made their way through Mexico, they encountered protestors—some demonstrating because they believed their government was not lodging and caring  for immigrants properly, and others who feared immigrants would take away jobs and drain resources, particularly if their presence in Mexico is longer than originally expected.

When some immigrants in the caravan attempted to breach barriers and cross the border into the United States, Customs and Border Protection officers used tear gas to disperse the crowds.

Participants in the National Immigration Forum conference call insisted miscommunication and misunderstanding—both in Mexico and in the United States—contributed to negative reactions toward the immigrants.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is set to assume office as Mexico’s president Dec. 1. A Nov. 28 news report said a leaked memo from the Department of Homeland Security announced some asylum seekers would remain in Mexico while they wait a decision about their request. But cabinet members of the incoming Mexican president said no decision has been made.

U.S. law says asylum can be requested at a port of entry, but it also can be requested after someone has entered the country illegally. A federal judge in California ruled last week to uphold that provision.

Climate of confusion

Conflicting reports—and Twitter messages by President Trump—have created an environment of confusion surrounding the process immigrants have to follow to request asylum, Anderson said.

All asylum seekers need to take a “credible fear” test to prove their need for asylum, but the process can be stressful, she noted. So, a person who has genuine “credible fear” of living in their homeland may not be in a mental state to enter into the confusing process to receive asylum, she added.

Since immigration legal services like the one Anderson directs cannot coach asylum seekers, the legal advice they are permitted to give is limited, she said.

Huckins noted he had asked follow-up questions of immigrants after some tried to cross the border at San Ysidro.

“They were moving out of desperation, not out of a spirit of invasion,” Huckins said. “They were moving at the calls of leadership who were acting in exploitative ways.”

The only people who benefitted from the border closing and the conflict that occurred were those looking for an excuse not to treat immigrants with goodwill, he added.

“This is coming at the expense of those who are already the most vulnerable and who are naïve to the reality of moving towards our international border in that way,” he said.

Churches learn from immigrants

Churches and ministries that have prepared to provide support for immigrants also have expressed their desire to share the gospel with them. However, Anderson noted many of the immigrants already have a strong Christian faith.

Immigrants “have been welcomed and cared for and walked with as brothers and sisters in the faith that was connecting them with one another,” she said. “These people did not know each other at the start of this journey, but they have kind of formed a mini-community or mini-family, and that was very centered on their shared faith.”

Some pastors of Tijuana churches have indicated families from Central America have become part of their congregations—talking and praying together and encouraging each other, she said.

After visiting one of the churches, the interactions there “felt a lot more like fellowship than it did evangelizing,” Anderson said.

As Christmas approaches, local churches in the area have called for all the support others can give.

The plight of the Central Americans “connects with the faith journey of the birth of the ‘immigrant’ Jesus that we follow,” Huckins said.

While churches need support and resources, the most important thing they have asked for is solidarity, he said, noting their message has been: “We need your presence on the ground with us, and no better moment that right now in this Christmas season.”

A binational event Dec. 15 will include a visit to a shelter to learn about the caravan and will culminate with a church service similar to a Posada, a traditional reenactment of Mary and Joseph’s search for lodging in Bethlehem.

“It’s going to symbolically show a collective witness that transcends borders that we are the church, and we follow this Jesus,” he said.

Churches in San Diego also already opened their doors to provide shelter for asylum seekers who have made it across the border and continue the process to receive asylum, Huckins noted.

For the church in the United States, the current situation offers an opportunity to learn from the faith of the immigrants, Anderson said.

Churches in Mexico already are learning those lessons, Huckins added.

“There has been constant talk about how these migrants are ministering to the local community,” Huckins said. “They are actually bringing the gospel in the form of their presence, their faithfulness, their stories and their commitment to a God who is on the move in and through them.”

That is awakening the church in Tijuana, Huckins insisted.

“Tijuana is being ministered to by these migrants in such a way that maybe the ministry is directed towards people like me,” he said. “That has been a beautiful way to see this come alive.”

WASHINGTON (BP)—The Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the National Association of Evangelicals and allies have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider its landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion.

A spotlight on Roe could come in the Supreme Court’s review of a lower court opinion nullifying a state law that bars discrimination against certain classes of unborn children, such as sex, race and disability, according to a brief filed Nov. 15.

In a friend-of-the-court brief, the ERLC and four other organizations called for the high court to grant the appeal request by the state of Indiana in defense of its 2016 law that prohibits abortion in various categories. The case is Commissioner of the Indiana State Department of Health v. Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky.

The brief also asked the justices to contemplate whether they should overrule the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that invalidated state restrictions on abortion and a 1992 opinion that affirmed Roe.

First abortion case after Kavanaugh’s arrival

The case offers the Supreme Court an early opportunity to rule on a state restriction and revisit its Roe ruling after adding a new justice whom abortion rights advocates fear would be a fifth vote to reverse its controversial decision from 45 years ago. The justices could find Indiana’s law is constitutional without reversing part or all of the Roe opinion.

Brett Kavanaugh—who narrowly received Senate confirmation in October after a bitter battle —replaced Anthony Kennedy, who affirmed Roe in the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey opinion. Nearly all pro-life organizations have given favorable reviews to Kavanaugh’s record as a federal appeals court judge.

ERLC President Russell Moore said he prays the high court will uphold Indiana’s law.

“This country will one day shudder at the thought of a child being snuffed out in the womb simply because that child had an extra chromosome,” Moore said in written comments. “The abortion industry’s defense of abortions based on sex, race and disability exposes their thirst for profit.”

The case involves a 2016 law signed by then-Gov. Mike Pence, now the nation’s vice president, requiring doctors to inform their patients that Indiana does not permit an unborn child to be aborted only because of his or her “race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, or diagnosis or potential diagnosis of the fetus having Down syndrome or any other disability.”

Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky challenged the law, and a federal judge permanently blocked the state from enforcing it. In April, a three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago affirmed the ruling against the law, which also includes a section requiring humane disposal of fetal remains.

‘Compelling interest’ in prohibiting discrimination

The brief filed by the ERLC addresses only the nondiscrimination provisions and urges the Supreme Court to review the Seventh Circuit decision because the justices have yet to rule on the legality of barring discrimination on the basis of sex, race and disability in abortion. States have a “compelling interest” in prohibiting discrimination in such categories, the brief asserts.

The Seventh Circuit decided the Supreme Court’s “abortion precedent, even though that precedent has never directly addressed the issue presented by the statute under review, holds that the abortion right overrides all others,” the brief says. “That grievous error, which allows unborn children to be killed because of their sex or race or disability, should be corrected as soon as possible.”

The brief points to what it describes as the irony of the Seventh Circuit’s interpretation of the 14th Amendment, “which was passed in large part to stamp out racial discrimination, being in conflict with itself. It has ruled that the right to abort, which this Court has found springs implicitly from the 14^th Amendment, always trumps a right against racial discrimination which directly flows from it.”

Regarding Roe, the brief says “the historical and logical deficiencies” of that opinion and the Casey decision that affirmed it while permitting some restrictions on abortion have long been exposed. The Indiana law “provides an appropriate vehicle to consider whether overruling them, in whole or in part, is the better course of action,” the brief asserts.

Rick Claybrook, a Washington, D.C., lawyer who wrote the brief, said the case offers the justices an intersection of two branches of law it has not dealt with before—“the abortion license” as outlined by the high court and “the very strong principles with respect to nondiscrimination on the basis of categories which are inherited, that one can’t do anything about.”

While the justices could reverse the Seventh Circuit without touching Roe and Casey, they also could say: “This law seems to be in tension with other law, so what is causing the tension? Maybe an over-expansive view of the abortion license as we have interpreted it,” Claybrook said in a phone interview. “The court could fix it by cutting back on Roe or Casey.”

Eight states—Arizona, Arkansas, Kansas, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and South Dakota—had sex-selection abortion bans in effect as of Nov. 1, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization allied with the abortion rights movement. Only Arizona has a ban on race-based abortions in effect, while North Dakota is the only state with a prohibition in effect on disability-based abortions. Courts have temporarily or permanently prevented enforcement of bans by other states.

A review published in 2012 reported an 85 percent rate of abortion after a Down syndrome diagnosis in hospital-based studies.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—James Lawson, a minister known for his advocacy of nonviolence in the civil rights era and beyond, has been recommended for a Congressional Gold Medal.

“It is, I think, time for us as a nation to really recognize all that he has done for people in this country and for people in the world,” said Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., at a Nov. 14 reception where he announced legislation to honor the 90-year-old Lawson.

“He’s a shining light at a time where so many of these values are being called into question,” said Khanna.

More than a half dozen members of Congress, including civil rights veteran John Lewis and California Reps. Karen Bass and Barbara Lee, joined Khanna and Lawson at the Cannon House Office Building to support Khanna’s proposal and to praise Lawson for his decades of work. The medal is the highest civilian award given by Congress.

Trained students in nonviolent resistance

Lawson, a United Methodist minister, is renowned for training college students in Nashville, Tenn., in nonviolent protest so they could withstand harsh mistreatment as they defied Jim Crow laws by occupying segregated lunch counters.

Lewis, now a congressman from Georgia, recalled Lawson’s instructions before Lewis had to endure being spat upon and having lit cigarettes put in his hair and down his back.

“Every Tuesday night, this man taught us about the teaching of Gandhi. He inspired us and many of us grew to accept the way of peace, the way of love, to accept the philosophy and the discipline for nonviolence as a way of life,” Lewis said.

“If it hadn’t been for Jim Lawson, I don’t know what would have happened to our country; I don’t know what would have happened to me,” he added.

Decades later, Lawson, who lives in Los Angeles, still teaches students about civil rights.

Calling Lawson “one of the most consequential members of the civil rights movement,” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., credited him with introducing Martin Luther King Jr. to “the whole concept of nonviolence.”

Lawson studied Gandhi’s principles of nonviolence as a missionary in India and after his return became a mentor of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Later he was an adviser to King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Southern field secretary of the Fellowship of Reconciliation.

But his influence is most felt in the education in specific nonviolent techniques that he gave activists who worked in the Freedom Rides and the March on Washington, and the high schoolers who became the first African-Americans to enroll at Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., known as the “Little Rock Nine.”

Nobody did more to ‘fix the flaws’

Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., son of the late segregationist Tennessee Gov. Prentice Cooper, said his father “was on the wrong side of history” and called Lawson “one of the greatest leaders of the 20th century and the 21st century.”

“The history of the South, the history of America, is a deeply flawed history but nobody has done more to fix those flaws than Dr. Lawson,” said Cooper.

Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said Lawson was among those who gathered to mark the 50th anniversary of the sanitation workers’ strike that brought King to Memphis just before his assassination. Lawson preached at Clayborn Temple, the church from which strikers marched in 1968. Despite his age, Lawson insisted on marching with them five decades later.

“He still had that fire,” said Saunders. “He still believed strongly that if we fight and if we make our voices heard every single day in a nonviolent way, then we can win and we can be successful.”

William “Bill” Lucy, a longtime secretary-treasurer of the union, praised Lawson for agreeing to help the strikers as a young pastor at Centenary Methodist Church.

“Without Jim Lawson, we’d be on strike now, 50 years later,” Lucy said.

Lawson thanked the more than two dozen co-sponsors of the legislation for shedding light on a topic that he sees as crucial for a nation that has become more violent than he ever imagined it could be.

“While the gun discussion may be an important discussion, it doesn’t get into the virus that needs to be attacked—the spirit of violence, the language of violence, the thinking of violence, the despising of one another,” he said. “Nonviolence is the force that can save our nation from itself.”

WASHINGTON—An Oklahoma Republican and a Colorado Democrat emphasized the need to build on shared values and common ground as lawmakers wrestle with complex immigration issues.

As part of an effort to encourage bipartisan collaboration on immigration reform, the National Immigration Forum invited Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., and Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., to a Nov. 15 dialogue in Washington, D.C.

The event, “Leading the Way: An American Approach to Immigration,” also featured business leaders, faith leaders, journalists and economic experts.

See people as God sees them

Lankford, former director of student ministry for the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, said his background in ministry gave him a biblical worldview to see the importance of every person.

“Every person is created in the image of God and has value and worth,” Lankford said. “When you see people, hopefully, as God sees people, then it does change your perspective on how you actually deal with issues.”

Lankford said he believes there is more common ground than there are disagreements, but the polarized political climate has kept many people from bridging minor differences.

For example, the issue of U.S. policy toward refugees had not been a divisive issue until recently, Lankford noted, and he sees more potential for consensus if parties are willing to work together.

“I do not run into people who see this as a partisan issue when you talk about the humanity of it,” he said.

Build bridges

It should not be surprising when individuals have different perspectives, but not all disagreements center on matters of principle, Bennet said.

“If we continue to build bridges between people of different political parties and walks of life, ultimately we will succeed,” he said.

Unfortunately, President Trump has contributed to partisan division and made it difficult for lawmakers to seek consensus solutions on issues of immigration and border security, Bennet said.

“He is politicizing the wall” rather than allowing legislators to find mutually agreed-upon solutions, he asserted.

“Every day, [Trump] says the Democrats are for open borders, that is false,” Bennet said, noting honest differences of opinion over whether a physical barrier or a technological solution offers a better approach to border security.

While expressing agreement with concerns about the president’s communication style, Lankford credited Trump with efforts to include more people than expected in the citizenship proposal for individuals in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

“The proposal he put out last February included citizenship for 1.8 million people,” Lankford said. “It was for all of those who were not just in DACA, but also who were DACA eligible. It was a larger group than what President Obama had put forward.”

‘Adhere to our core moral values’

In July, Lankford and Bennet joined in a bipartisan statement on immigration with about two dozen other senators opposing family separation of immigrants at the U.S. border. In a letter to the president, the senators urged the administration to work with the faith community in efforts to reunite families.

“While we represent constituents from all faiths and political backgrounds, we have all heard one consistent message—the United States government should not separate children from their families except in extreme circumstances. As we work to find a permanent solution, we urge the administration to use all available resources currently at its disposal to reunite families as soon as possible,” the letter stated.

“We remain committed to working together to fix our broken immigration system. Enforcement of our immigration laws should be a high priority, but we must also adhere to our core moral values as Americans.”

Disconnect between pulpits and pews

The political division over immigration issues is reflected in churches, said Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research.

“We began to see a disconnect between the sentiments of Protestant pastors and laity,” McConnell said.

LifeWay Research surveys have shown six out of 10 Protestant pastors (58 percent) say they favor immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship for people who are in the country illegally.

When people talk about immigration, they tend only to think about those who come to the U.S. illegally, McConnell added. However, when the conversation turns to immigrants who have entered the country legally, most people express admiration toward them, he added.

“The heart of the Christian faith is to remove our transgressions, and that is through Jesus Christ,” he said. “But in our country today, if you are undocumented, in most cases, there is not a path or a way to achieve legal status.”

As much as Christians may want immigration to be resolved, the church has not pressed elected officials to create a path toward legal status, he said. Instead, immigrants who lack valid documentation are trapped in an underclass and an unjust system, he explained.

Some may fear there are not enough resources, and if immigrants—more specifically illegal immigrants—use those resources, then citizens will have to go without, McConnell said.

Laws help to make society function better, and many people find comfort in that, he continued. So, when they hear of a person who broke a law, they understandably feel threatened, saying, “Here’s someone who broke a law,’ instead of continuing the conversation to talk about the person,” McConnell said.

“I can’t get past Deuteronomy 10, where God in a section talking about justice actually switches the verb and says, ‘I love the resident alien who lives among you,’ and then bids that his people do the same,” McConnell said.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—The Trump administration issued new rules it says will “provide conscience protections for Americans who have a religious or moral objection to health insurance that covers contraception methods.”

The final rules follow interim regulations issued a little more than a year ago by the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and Treasury that aimed to protect Americans with such objections from paying for health insurance that provided birth control. The departments claim a “small fraction” of the nation’s 165 million women will be affected.

The rules counter the efforts by the Obama administration to provide access to free contraception through a provision of the Affordable Care Act. Those efforts were opposed by many critics of the previous administration who now provide a base of support for the current one.

“The first of today’s final rules provides an exemption from the contraceptive coverage mandate to entities that object to services covered by the mandate on the basis of sincerely held religious beliefs,” HHS said in a news release issued Nov. 7.

“The second final rule provides protections to nonprofit organizations and small businesses that have non-religious moral convictions opposing services covered by the mandate.”

On the National Day of Prayer in May 2017, President Trump signed an executive order that said the government would address “conscience-based objections” to the health care mandate. The order, which drew mixed reviews, called for the departments issuing the rules to consider taking the actions they took Wednesday.

Little Sisters of the Poor welcome change

The leader of Little Sisters of the Poor, one of the religious groups that opposed the mandate, welcomed the administration’s new regulations.

“Today, we are so grateful that the federal government has provided a way for us to continue to serve the elderly poor and stay true to our Catholic faith,” Loraine Marie Maguire said in a reaction tweeted by Becket, the law firm that has defended her religious order in court.

“We pray that lawsuits by the state governments that attempt to prevent this will soon be over and that we can finally serve the elderly poor in peace.”

The administration noted the new rules do not provide exemptions for governmental agencies or for publicly traded businesses.

The announcement, issued the day after the midterm elections, noted government programs that provide subsidized or free contraceptive coverage to poor women, such as through community health centers, are not included in the exemptions.

But the exemptions do apply to several other groups that may object to the contraception mandate.

“The religious and moral exemptions provided by these rules also apply to institutions of education, issuers, and individuals,” HHS said.

The new rules do not prohibit employers from covering contraceptives, HHS said.

The departments making the announcement estimated that the exemptions will affect “no more than approximately 200 employers with religious or moral objections.” A fact sheet estimates the exemptions may affect about 6,400 women and “in no case will they impact more than 127,000 women, which the Departments suggest is far more than will actually be impacted.”

The announcement said tens of millions of people are already exempted from the contraception mandate because it does not apply to plans insured through grandfathered coverage that existed prior to the law.

The rules will take effect 60 days after they are published in the Federal Register.

Mixed reaction

Americans United for Separation of Church and State said the administration’s actions enable employers, including universities, to deny religious freedom as well as access to contraception coverage.

“This administration is weaponizing ‘religious freedom’ to justify hurting the millions of women who depend on contraception for their health and equality,” said Americans United President and CEO Rachel Laser. “Bosses shouldn’t get to impose their religious beliefs on their employees, nor should universities on their students.”

Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission called the exemptions “the long-awaited conclusion to the crucial achievement of preserving religious liberty from an unlawful government overreach.”

“The contraceptive mandate, and subsequent four-year delay after the Supreme Court’s ruling, revealed the audacity of a state that believed it could annex the human conscience by asking citizens to choose between obedience to God and compliance with the regulatory state,” Moore said. “I am thankful this effort finally ends with religious and moral exemptions issued by the administration.”

GuideStone Financial welcomes “the new rules and appreciates this administration’s desire to protect religious organizations from having to choose between their deeply held convictions or crippling penalties,” said Timothy Head, the SBC entity’s executive officer for denominational and public relations services.

GuideStone and two of the ministries it represents already had gained a final, favorable verdict in court. In July, a federal judge in Oklahoma issued a judgment in favor of GuideStone and its plaintiffs—Truett McConnell University, a Georgia Baptist institution, and Reaching Souls International, an Oklahoma mission-sending entity.

With additional reporting by Baptist Press.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—A new survey shows a sharp racial and religious divide over whether President Trump’s actions encourage white supremacist organizations.

Three-quarters of black Protestants say Trump’s behavior and decisions are emboldening white supremacists while slightly more than a quarter of white evangelicals agree with that view. Overall, more than half of Americans—54 percent—say this is the case.

The findings, released Oct. 29, are part of Public Religion Research Institute’s 2018 American Values Survey, which addressed views on issues such as the presidency, the #MeToo movement, immigration and police brutality.

The survey comes days after a massacre at a Pittsburgh synagogue by a gunman with apparent anti-immigrant animus and a racially motivated shooting in which a white gunman killed two black people at a Kroger supermarket in Jeffersontown, Ky., after trying unsuccessfully to enter a predominantly black church.

Meanwhile, the Defense Department readies for a migrant caravan’s approach toward the U.S.-Mexico border that the president has called an “invasion.”

White evangelicals are outliers

The research institute found majorities of the religiously unaffiliated (69 percent), Hispanic Catholics (68 percent), non-Christians (64 percent) and Hispanic Protestants (63 percent) say the president is encouraging white supremacists, compared with fewer than half of white mainline Protestants and white Catholics (43 percent each). Evangelicals—and, to a lesser degree, white Catholics—voted for Trump by wide margins in 2016 and many continue to support him.

Robert P. Jones, chief executive officer of the Public Religion Research Institute, said white evangelicals also are outliers in their views about whether Trump has damaged the dignity of the presidency with his speech and behavior, with two-thirds or more of every other major religious group in the country saying he has.

“White evangelicals stand alone: They’re a little bit divided but most of them say, no, he has not damaged the dignity of the presidency,” Jones said at a Brookings Institution event at which he discussed the survey’s results.

Majorities of religious groups—with the exception of white evangelical Protestants—also reported having unfavorable views of the president. In contrast, slightly more than two-thirds of white evangelicals (68 percent) said they have a favorable view of the president.University of Pennsylvania political scientist Michele Margolis said the findings reflect the political persuasion of the respondents and the way race and politics are so often linked.

“When you say black Protestant and white evangelical you’re also saying overwhelming Democrat, overwhelmingly Republican, and therefore it’s not surprising that those are the results you see,” said Margolis, author of From Politics to the Pews: How Partisanship and the Political Environment Shape Religious Identity.

Researchers found gaps in opinion about whether recent killings of African-American men by police are part of a broader pattern of police treatment of blacks or isolated incidents. Fifty-three percent of Americans said they fit a broad pattern while 45 percent said they were isolated.

But 71 percent of white evangelicals said such killings were isolated matters, compared with 15 percent of black Protestants. Catholics and white mainline Protestants fell somewhere in between: 63 percent of white Catholics, 59 percent of white mainline Protestants and 43 percent of Hispanic Catholics called such incidents isolated.

Theologically akin, politically divergent

Jones, author of The End of White Christian America, said he is often surprised by the way white evangelicals and African-American Protestants end up at polar opposites on surveys.

“These two groups actually share a lot in terms of their theological beliefs, their beliefs in the Bible, and it really is the lens of race that kind of refracts those theological commitments and behaviors into really near-opposite directions on questions around race,” he said.

Asked if immigrants threaten or strengthen American society, 60 percent of respondents overall said, in general, newcomers strengthen the U.S., while 37 percent said they threaten American values and customs. White evangelicals were the only major religious group in which a majority (57 percent) said immigrants pose a threat.

The survey also touched on views of those within and outside religious communities about the #MeToo movement. Overall, 62 percent of Americans said congregations are not successfully responding to the issue of sexual assault and harassment. White evangelicals were again the outlier among religion-related groups in the survey. Sixty percent said congregations are handling the issue “somewhat or very well.”

Majorities of others—from 82 percent of religiously unaffiliated Americans to 55 percent of white Catholics—said churches and religious organizations are doing a poor job on those matters.

While men and women in the same religious tradition often had similar views on #MeToo-related subjects, Catholic women were much more likely than Catholic men (66 percent versus 48 percent) to give houses of worship a poor score.

In assessing the #MeToo movement, 48 percent of white mainline Protestants, white Catholics and Americans overall said it had helped address sexual assault and harassment in the workplace. Less than a third (29 percent) of white evangelicals said the movement had helped with those issues and 31 percent said it had led to unfair treatment of men. More than half (52 percent) of black Protestants said the movement had been helpful and 10 percent said it led to unfair treatment of men.

The overall survey of a random sample of 2,509 adults had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points. The margin of error for religious groups surveyed ranged from plus or minus 5.9 percentage points for the unaffiliated to 13.2 percentage points for Hispanic Protestants.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—In May, Roberto Rauda, an undocumented immigrant, went to a New London, Conn., courthouse to pay a fine for carrying an open container of beer. Instead he was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in a routine sweep and ended up in the Bristol County House of Corrections in North Dartmouth, Mass.

Rauda, 37, came to New York from El Salvador as a teen and several years ago found work in construction and at a lobster processing plant in Connecticut. He was released in September, after members of the New London advocacy group Unidos Sin Fronteras paid his legal fees and $3,500 bail.

Sitting in his lawyer’s living room, Rauda grimly recalled conditions at the Massachusetts facility, such as cramped and uncomfortable sleeping arrangements and inedible food.

Yet his face softened as he recounted how prayer helped him endure.

“We had a Catholic priest who came every two weeks, and we would get together in a room to pray and sing hymns,” Rauda said through a translator. “I was scared I wouldn’t get out, that my wife would be left alone, and I prayed to God that she would be all right.”

For detainees like Rauda, comfort from clergy and faith in God often are the only glimmers of hope in a climate of deep despair.

But for many of the more than 39,000 undocumented immigrants locked up on any given day in ICE detention centers nationally—the highest number in history—visits from clergy, access to religious material, and opportunities to engage in religious worship can be infrequent, inconsistent and in some cases absent altogether.

‘The last time I saw a priest was in El Salvador’

At the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center in Youngstown, Ohio, several detainees told their attorneys they rarely saw clergy. “The last time I saw a priest was when I was in El Salvador,” said one detainee incarcerated at the Youngstown facility, which is operated by CoreCivic, one of the largest private corrections companies in the United States.

A 30-year-old Brazilian asylum-seeker who was transferred to Youngstown from San Antonio said that in Texas, a pastor visited on Sundays.

“But here, they just show us (a) video. I would like to have a pastor come every Sunday. We need this, because it helps us when we’re suffering a lot and don’t know what’s going on,” he said.

Both detainees in Youngstown related these and other details during interviews with a pro bono attorney working for the International Institute of Akron, an immigration legal services and refugee resettlement organization. Lawyers from the organization shared transcripts of these interviews with RNS and asked for anonymity on their clients’ behalf.

CoreCivic Manager of Public Affairs Rodney E. King, in an email, said the correctional center provides for the spiritual needs of detainees. The facility, he said, has “a full-time chaplain, as well as a part-time chaplain.”

He added that there are six active religious service volunteers who currently serve evangelical Christians, Catholics, Muslims, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Sikhs for the U.S. Marshals Service and the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. One of those, the Catholic volunteer, recently was cleared by ICE to minister to detainees, and approvals are pending for a Muslim and a Sikh, King wrote.

But reports from human rights organizations, immigrant advocacy groups and the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general chronicle religious rights concerns at various ICE detention centers. The concerns range from prison guards mocking some faith traditions to the disruption or denial of detainees’ rights to worship.

Religious rights of detainees protected by law

The religious rights of all prisoners in the United States, undocumented or not, are protected under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000.

Additionally, ICE National Detention Standards of 2011 require that detainees “shall have regular opportunities to participate in practices of their religious faiths” and that every facility have a chaplain or religious services coordinator to “recruit external clergy or religious service providers” for detainees whose faiths are not represented by on-site clergy.

The sheer number of detainees can make it difficult, even impossible, for staff chaplains alone to minister to such a needy and multitudinous flock. The Youngstown facility at full capacity houses just over 2,000 prisoners, including as many as 352 detainees.

Raising red flags

Without visiting volunteer clergy, a chaplain could only minister to all inmates for a few seconds a day, or less than two minutes per week, said Dustin White, pastor at Radial Church in Canton, Ohio.

White was among a group of five clergy arrested outside the Youngstown correctional center in August for refusing to leave unless they were allowed to offer religious support to detainees there.

White said he attempted to go through the proper channels of applying to be a visiting clergy, but the process took months before it dead-ended.

For White, who said he philosophically opposes for-profit prisons, applying to become a CoreCivic volunteer was also morally questionable.

“CoreCivic is incompatible with my faith. Visiting clergy have to fill out an application as a CoreCivic volunteer. As a person of faith, that raised a lot of red flags for me,” said White.

The application process is standard at all ICE detention facilities, according to ICE national spokesperson Danielle Bennett, via email correspondence.

“All volunteers, including religious leaders/clergy/laypeople must be approved prior to conducting religious services or counseling,” Bennett wrote. “Additionally, each volunteer must go through a facility orientation and agree to applicable facility rules and procedures.”

Practices vary from one facility to another

For clergy who have gotten access to detention centers, the experience is sometimes jarring, even for those experienced in prison ministry. Southern Baptist minister Alan Cross of Montgomery, Ala., said he was surprised to learn that his contact with detainees when visiting the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Ga., would only be through glass windows or via video screen.

“There is no physical contact. I’ve done jail ministry before and been able to have contact with inmates. This is not how ministry is supposed to be,” Cross said.

Gathering for worship also has been problematic, according to ICE’s inspector general’s office. At Stewart, staff have reportedly delayed or interrupted Muslim prayer times.

At the ICE processing center in Adelanto, Calif., a privately owned facility run by the GEO Group, Christian women gathering to pray, sing or read the Bible were ordered to disperse, according to interviews conducted by Freedom for Immigrants, a nonprofit organization that monitors human and civil rights abuses at 55 of the largest ICE detention centers. The Adelanto facility was also the subject of a Sept. 27 inspector general’s report that chronicled numerous human rights abuses.

“There’s a rule at some of these facilities that groups must be facilitated by an outside volunteer, so if there’s no outside volunteer, there cannot be any group discussions,” said Freedom for Immigrants’ co-founder and executive director, Christina Fialho.

Fialho said clergy visits and the frequency of religious services vary from detention center to detention center.

At the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Wash., another GEO facility, “pastoral visits, worship services and baptisms” as well as Muslim and Sikh services regularly take place, according to Jose-Luis Bonilla, coordinator for volunteer visits at the Seattle office of World Relief, a nonprofit serving refugees and asylum-seekers.

Build relationships with administration

Some clergy have found that the best way to gain access to detention facilities is to foster relationships with wardens or resident chaplains.

Francois Pellissier of the Glenmary Home Missioners in Cincinnati said he was able to spend four days a week from April 2014 until May 2016 at the Stewart Detention Center in Georgia after developing a working relationship with the facility’s former chaplain.

Pellissier said it took patience and determination but he was eventually allowed to minister one-on-one and in groups to detainees of all faiths, including Muslims.

“It was hard to get in at first. The mentality at the door is extremely suspicious with ministers,” said Pellissier.

Delle McCormick, senior pastor at Rincon Congregational Church in Tucson, Ariz., similarly found that it’s possible, once inside, to gain the trust of prison authorities.

“As time went by, the staff really became supportive of the worship service,” said McCormick, who ministered to detained children at a government-contracted shelter in Tucson from 2016 to 2017.

The children, mostly evangelicals from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, arrived in the United States prior to the Trump administration’s policy of separating children from families at the border taking effect.

Singing was a popular activity during worship services, McCormick said. Even some guards, she said, were moved to join in, if only from the sidelines.

“It was contagious. There was one song about making their way through the desert and the perils of the desert, and the kids would sob and just raise the roof. There was a great amount of collective grief and lamentation. It was very powerful,” McCormick recalled.

While moving, the experience of ministering to immigrants in detention can also be demanding, draining and frustrating, especially when trying to navigate the requirements imposed by some detention facilities, say several clergy.

Still, many persist in their mission to comfort detainees, bringing them Bibles, rosary beads and Qurans, but above all, a compassionate ear.

“I can listen to you, I have time for you,” is Pellissier’s message to detainees. “The guards don’t have any time for you, so I am the visitor who comes and pays attention to you and prays with you,” he said.