Stated Clerk Gradye Parsons shares his views on immigration and the church's response to it from the United States-Mexico border.
Transcript:
Hello my name is Gradye Parsons. I’m the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, and here I am in Sasabe, Arizona with other colleagues as we are looking at the wall that separates the United States and Mexico and reflecting upon immigration, a concern that’s deep in the hearts of many Presbyterians, and especially in these days as the president has signed a new order and as we are debating this issue as a country. We are also a people who believe that God is God of the whole earth, not just one country or another country. And it’s this common God that also calls us to find ways to make neighbors and sisters and brothers in Christ with our friends across whatever border it may be. Putting up a fence … it just puts up a fence. It doesn’t really stop anything. It doesn’t really create anything except animosity and a sense that you feel like you need to defend the work you put into putting up the fence. So, I hope we can find better ways to relate as a country. I hope we can find better ways as a church to continue to advocate for justice for immigration, for humanization, and for a policy that really acknowledges that all of these are God’s children. Thank you.