By Father Casey
Beneath the constitutional crisis that our country seems to be veering into lies a spiritual crisis. Before we arrived at the brink of eliminating due process or other basic tenants of our democracy, we seemed to misplace the moral compass that had helped us remain on a course (admittedly erratic at times) of freedom and opportunity for all. That’s the only way I can understand how our nation could be doing what it is doing these days: we have forgotten who we are and what we stand for, and most importantly, we’ve forgotten the difference between good and evil.
What our country is doing to Kilmar Abrego Garcia and the many now locked away for life in a gulag in El Salvador; what it is doing to suppress and intimidate foreign students exercising free speech; what it is doing to the myriad millions of starving and sick people whose hope for survival has been virtually eliminated with a stroke of a pen; these are grave sins. Due process and civil rights are not only guaranteed by our Constitution; they are moral obligations demanded by God.
Among the many egregious moral failings of recent months, one of the most appalling is the virtual elimination of the previously bipartisan U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. Virtually no new refugees have arrived since January and funding for resettling refugees who have already arrived has nearly evaporated. For perspective on the scope of this funding cut, Episcopal Migration Ministries, which oversees our denomination’s work resettling refugees, has received more than $50 million annually in federal funds in recent years. Overnight, that disappeared.
That is until the federal government announced a few weeks ago that it would make an exception and admit a group of people it deemed especially deserving of refugee status. You might think it would be any of the thousands of people escaping horrific violence and persecution in their homelands, such as the brave Iraqis and Afghanis who risked their lives to help our nation’s armed forces during our 20-year wars there. No. Instead, the government conferred refugee status upon a group of white Afrikaners from South Africa, and if organizations like EMM wanted to access federal grants they would be required to help these “refugees” resettle in our country.
In response, the leaders of our church decided they could not in good conscience participate. In a letter last week, Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe wrote, “In light of our church’s steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation and our historic ties with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, we are not able to take this step. Accordingly, we have determined that, by the end of the federal fiscal year, we will conclude our refugee resettlement grant agreements with the U.S. federal government.”[1] I commend them for their courage and integrity, even as I lament the loss of this beautiful, biblically-mandated ministry.
I’ve had the privilege of spending a little time in South Africa and learning firsthand about its people and history. I’ve visited Robben Island and seen the primitive conditions in which Black leaders were imprisoned for protesting apartheid. I’ve stood in the damp cell in Pollsmoor Prison where Nelson Mandela was kept in isolation for years. I’ve heard stories firsthand from people who endured the meticulous system of racism practiced in South Africa for most of the 20th century. And I’ve visited the townships around Johannesburg where now, even 30 years after the official end of apartheid, the level of education and income among Black South Africans remains shockingly low.
When the group from Transfiguration met with Archbishop Tutu during our pilgrimage in 2018, he lamented that South Africa still seemed far from becoming the thriving “rainbow nation” that he and fellow leaders had dreamed of during the long anti-apartheid struggle. Yet, even as the country struggles today with corruption and crime, what should never be lost is the extraordinary grace extended by the victims of apartheid to the ones who had inflicted the evil arts of cruelty against them. As Richard Poplak wrote in The New York Times a few days ago, “the forgiveness extended to the white minority at the end of apartheid is one of the most exceptionally human and humane moments of our species’ bloody history.”[2] And yet, in this period of moral amnesia, our government is trying to erase that remarkable moment of reconciliation and replace it with a false narrative of “reverse-racism.”
It is a heartless nation that easily trades evil for good. It is a soulless nation that can’t tell the difference between oppressors and the oppressed. It is a petty nation that withholds justice on a whim. It is a cruel nation that turns away desperate people and ensures their ongoing victimhood.
There may be a constitutional crisis unfolding, but as Christians let us remember the spiritual reality beneath it. The battle for the soul of our society is raging, and when the dust settles, if we want to be standing on the side of Christ, we should know where he will always be found: “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me (Matthew 25:35-36).”
Fr. Casey +
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[1] https://www.episcopalchurch.org/publicaffairs/letter-from-presiding-bishop-sean-rowe-on-episcopal-migration-ministries/
[2] Richard Poplak, “A South African Grift Lands in the Oval Office,” The New York Times, May 22, 2025.