Eastertide
May 24, 2017
Scripture Reading: Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35
Father of orphans and protector of widows
is God in his holy habitation.
God gives the desolate a home to live in;
he leads out the prisoners to prosperity,
but the rebellious live in a parched land.
–Psalm 68:5-6
I could not find a count of the number of orphaned children, where both parents are dead, in the USA. Relatives assume the care for most. In the years I worked in child welfare, we never received custody of a child whose parents were both deceased. I only recall one, where the mother knew she was near death with cancer who relinquished custody of her four children to the state because she had no family to help her. She kept them as long as she was physically able. Well mannered, smart kids, they were all quickly placed for adoption, not together though. I always regretted that. The system is better at keeping children together now than it was fifty years ago. There are millions of orphans in third world countries, and they are the targets of much global missions work.
The care of orphans was in the earliest Hebrew law (Deuteronomy 14:28-29) and continued to be assigned to the governing authorities whether it was the religious leaders in the early years or later the kings. Children are important for many reasons and particularly because they are all our futures. Thus, I find myself in total shock at the callous way some Oklahoma state legislators and national leaders consider children. We here in Oklahoma are grossly under-funding public education. Recent actions considered at the federal level include skimping on school lunch programs and at the state level attempted to pass a law that would turn children receiving English as second language classes over to ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to get them tossed out of school to cut the cost of education.
Forty-three out of the 300 or so children in the school near my church receive backpacks of food provided by the local food bank each week to take home to eat over the weekend. The school lunch program is most likely their only source of food. Ninety-seven percent of all the students at that school participate in the free or reduced-cost food program. Many ESL students are citizens and all children taken into custody would be traumatized. It is not going to happen. I guess someone did not do their research when considering this action. In June 1982, the Supreme Court issued Plyler v. Doe, a landmark decision holding that states cannot constitutionally deny students a free public education on account of their immigration status*. It did its job of driving fear into all immigrants and feeding the emptiness of those who fear them.
I wonder from where such thinking comes? Have our lives become so desolate that we can no longer care for the least of these. Are we those rebellious people the Psalmist describes living in a parched land? How do we regenerate, if we are?
Prayer: Lord, let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. (Amos 5:24) Make our parched land a nurturing oasis for all. Amen
*https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/plyler-v-doe-public-education-immigrant-students
