When Humanity is Eroded

A few days ago, one of our lay ministers called me with a story that has lingered heavily in my heart. He was ministering to a young couple with a one-year-old child when immigration authorities stopped them. The young father was arrested. What should have been an ordinary day turned into a moment of deep fear, pain, and uncertainty.

That story disturbed me—not only because of what happened to this family, but because of what it reveals about the fragile state of our shared humanity. When fear takes the place of compassion, and when bureaucracy overshadows mercy, something within the human spirit begins to erode.

This reflection brought to mind one of the darkest periods of human history—Nazi Germany. I do not, in any way, mean to say that we are there yet. But it would be unwise, even dangerous, not to learn from that chapter. Jewish citizens—people who trusted in the security of their homeland—found themselves suddenly required to prove who they were. What they had always taken for granted, their very belonging, became a matter of suspicion. Slowly, their lives were restricted, their freedoms stripped away, and their humanity denied.

As the poet and philosopher George Santayana once said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” History warns us that when fear and prejudice govern policy, suffering follows. As in those days, there were many who believed their government’s actions were right, or at least necessary. Yet blindness and apathy often cloak injustice until it is too late.

We know the difference between good and evil by their fruits. Jesus said, “You will know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16). Actions that produce suffering, pain, abandonment, and abuse are not of God. But those that yield kindness, love, compassion, and peace are the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23).

If we come to a time when people—brown, black, white, Jewish, immigrant, or citizen—must carry papers to prove their right to live freely, then we must admit that something sacred has been lost. That is not safety; that is control. That is not patriotism; that is fear disguised as order. Creating fear is the first step of authoritarianism. 

Let us guard our hearts from the corrosive forces of money and prejudice. Let us be guided instead by the Holy Spirit, who teaches us to produce the fruits of love and justice.

As the poet Maya Angelou once wrote, “History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived; but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.”

May we have the courage to face it—and to live differently.