Repairing the breach

Bishop William J. Barber II, founder of Repairers of the Breach, presided over a healing, interfaith service at Greater Grace Temple in Springfield. He said, “When I shared with some people the invitation that had come through clergy to come here to pray and to speak and to stand, I had people contact me and say, ‘Be safe. Don’t go. It’s dangerous.’ No one should be told not to come to an American city because of fear of harm.”

Imam Youssef Elzein offered, “The teaching of Islam tells me that I have to be good to my neighbor, that I have to be good to the Haitian community and to be good to the immigrants, just like I am. I came to this country 40 years ago, and I went through what many of my brothers and sisters in the Haitian community are going through today.”

Added Rabbi Karen Bodney-Halasz, of Temple Israel in Dayton, “In the Torah, the five books of Moses, we are commanded to protect, guard and love the stranger no less than 36 times, because this is not simply a suggestion. It is a moral obligation rooted in empathy and shared history.”

Said Barber, “Do not reject God by rejecting your Haitian neighbor. Take your lies, take your foot, take your oppression, take your distortion off the back of our immigrant brothers and sisters. It’s gone on far too long, and we won’t be silent anymore.”

Read more in the Springfield News Sun and Religion News Service.