Lord Have Mercy
Time to Say Hello
Hi. Hello, Hey y’all. It’s time for a slice of (my) life. It has been a long winter surviving both record warmth—disappointing if you are into skiing or ice fishing—and record cold, complete with blizzards and incredible amounts of snow. While weather raged, I recovered from hip replacement surgery, passing the time by reading novels and watching the Winter Olympics and Para Olympics.
In addition, I have been attempting to keep up with a program called The Year of the Novel with Daniel David Wallace, a notable online writing teacher. Supposedly I will complete the first draft of a novel by the time the year is out. We shall see.
I have made more false starts on this post than I care to remember. I finally realized I was trying to put everything related to my novel project, church history, immigration and family history into one essay. For your sake and mine I’ve decided to break it down into several shorter posts.
Lord Have Mercy
Do daily news reports of wars, bombs, drone and missile strikes, death and destruction eat away at your sense of wellbeing as they do mine? If it weighs heavily on those of us observing from afar, what must it be like for those actually living in one of the multiple conflict zones around the world? Imagine trying to carry on with life if you never know when your home will be blown apart or loved ones will die in random attacks. When the necessities of food and shelter are hard to come by or simply not available. I shudder to think.
Today’s world is awash in immigrants, refugees, and displaced people. According to Pew Research as of mid-2025, there were 280 million people worldwide living outside their country of origin, including 117 million forcibly displaced, with the numbers escalating daily. A million have been displaced in Lebanon alone since February.
Lord have mercy.
Similar circumstances on a smaller scale and with less destructive weapons brought the first Europeans to the New World in the early 1600s. For over 400 years waves of immigrants and refugees from across the globe have clamored to reach our shores, often enduring unbelievable hardship to get here. They came in search of freedom: freedom of religion, freedom from violence and oppression, freedom to build a better life. At first newcomers were welcomed, even encouraged. With a whole continent to explore and populate who could object? Only the Native Americans who were overwhelmed by sheer numbers and pushed aside. However, the degree to which immigrants were welcomed has changed over time as has their ethnicity. The first settlers were English. Then came German, Irish, Italian, Polish, followed by Latin American, Asian, African, Middle Eastern.
The reality is that unless you are Native American, a first-generation immigrant, or a descendent of enslaved people forcefully transported, your ancestors were immigrants. My first known paternal ancestors arrived at the Port of Philadelphia in the early 1700s and settled in the state of Pennsylvania. My maternal ancestors who arrived in 1750 settled in the same area. They were among thousands who came in search of freedom to practice their Anabaptist faith.
Limitations were first placed on emigration with the Naturalization Act of 1790, a mere 14 years after independence. The act provided a pathway to citizenship for “free white people” with good moral character who had been in residence for at least two years. It’s nothing new then, that while by virtue of birth we enjoy the treasured American freedoms, many of us our hesitant to share our good fortune with new arrivals, especially those of different race, language or religion.
Lord have mercy.
The Oxford Dictionary defines mercy as compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm.While I am aware that some limitations on immigration are necessary, I do long for mercy for the immigrants, the refugees, the displaced among us.
The question becomes, what does mercy look like in this context?
It depends, of course, on who you ask. My friends on the political right have vastly different opinions from my friends on the political left. Both see their differences as a matter of reasonable versus irrational, right versus wrong, good versus evil. It seems there is no middle ground. Religious beliefs often fortify political opinions on the left and the right, making the stakes for good and evil even higher.
What is an altruistic, conscientious person to do? The founder of the Christian faith gave the simple—but never easy—answer when he said, “love your neighbor as much as you love yourself,”
Challenged to define neighbor, Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan, who acted as a neighbor by showing mercy to a stranger who was robbed, beaten and left to die. He provided first aid, found a safe place for the victim to stay and paid for his ongoing care. It’s noteworthy that Samaritans and Jews had been religious and political rivals for centuries and Jesus was speaking to a largely Jewish audience. Master teacher that he was, Jesus elicited the correct answer from his questioner, then told him to go and do the same thing. (Luke 10: 29-37). He also instructed his followers to love each other and to love their enemies. It’s not a stretch to apply the same principles to left and right, Republican and Democrat, Christian and Muslim et.al.
Is it possible that both conservatives and liberals can be responsible, thoughtful people, even Christ followers, and acknowledge each other as such? Think of the difference it would make if all 235 million Americans who identify as Christian treated one another with respect and kindness, going the extra mile when needed. Picture the changes in society at large if we the people—all 342 million Americans, extended compassion to each other, to the marginalized, to the rich and powerful, to citizens of warring nations. Imagine!
Lord have mercy on us as you teach us to practice mercy.