Father Frank gave us a look inside a sanctuary city: how it gets started and who does the organizing. He described the support that he got from other churches, synagogues and mosques as he asked the city council to come out in support of sanctuary. It made me realize how important the links between religions are when it comes to social change.
The links, of course, aren't always to the benefit of human rights. When I attempted to show a movie about Palestine at another local church, all the priest could say was he would have to ask the local rabbi. Progressive except for Palestine? It took me a year to show the film, which was made by the Episcopal Church! The film is "Steadfast Hope: The Palestinian Quest for Just Peace," if you want to show it in your church.
For sanctuary, however, there were few holdouts in the religious community. I think the debate has altered many people's positions. Human rights should be our ideal, not the following of exclusionary rules about who gets to cross a border.
