Open Letter to Senators Burr and Tillis

Dear Senators Burr and Tillis:

As a young person, I was always interested in history. And while many historical events have impacted my understanding of the world, two stand out. The first is the Civil Rights Movement, and particularly the use of fire hoses and police dogs to deter, humiliate, and dehumanize the school children of Birmingham. I know this happened. I’ve seen the pictures, and I’ve read the accounts. But I’ve still never been able to really believe that people could be so cruel. And I’ve never been able to believe that people could once more resort to such atrocities. Any such belief, and any such naivety, ended this week when I saw images of children being separated from their parents at our nation’s southern borders.

There’s a second thing that’s shaped me, too. I am a North Carolinian. And my fourth-grade teacher, Ms. Palmer, and my eighth-grade teacher, Ms. Church, taught us about Esse Quam Videri. I need not remind you it’s our state motto. And ours has been a state of innovation: the Mecklenburg Declaration, the nation’s first public university system, the first in flight, and the birthplace of the lunch counter sit-ins. For more than two hundred years, ours has been a state that “is” rather than “seeming to be.”

Admittedly, we most likely disagree on many political, social, and theological issues. But each of you seem to me to be men of character and substance. And courage, too!

And it seems to me, that you have the opportunity in the coming days to BE men with those attributes.

I implore you to give thought to legislation and action that can put an immediate end to the senseless and cruel separation of families. I implore you not as a pastor, not as a Christian, not even as your constituent. I implore you as one human being to another. No matter our differences, we should share a common goal: working together to provide the basic rights and dignity that should be afforded to all persons. And I also implore you as a parent. Words cannot begin to describe the pain and grief I would feel in such a situation.

Gentlemen, you are North Carolinians. You have the chance to BE courageous leaders. And even better, you have the chance to BE good and decent human beings.

With gratitude for each of you and your service, and with hope for what you will do, and who you will BE,

 

Rev. Bob Stillerman
Pastor, Sardis Baptist Church
Charlotte North Carolina                                                                                                                                                                    20 June, 2018