Human Decency

Growing up on a farm has implications. Because it wasn’t one of those huge “industrial farms” owned by corporations who never experience what farming is like, I learned some things about hard work that have stuck with me to this very day.

My mother often said that the garden my father panted for our family could “feed Berkeley County.” Berkeley County, by the way, is the largest county in South Carolina, and according to its own advertising, is larger than the state of Rhode Island. Summer days of picking green beans, butter beans, cucumbers, and tomatoes, and other vegetables made me think she was right!

Fast forward a few decades and I find myself living outside the context of those formative days of my life. My lot in Tyrone is too shady to grow too many vegetables, but I give it a try anyway. There’s nothing like fresh, home grown vegetables!

I have discovered that I like to cook and for the past several years I have made more than a few big pots of homemade vegetable soup. Every time I make such soup, I go by the local Publix or Kroger supermarket and buy “fresh vegetables.” They aren’t quite what I grew up with – but pretty close. They are far better for soup making than the frozen or canned varieties.

The simple fact that I can buy fresh vegetables in the middle of winter means that people somewhere are doing the hard work of farming – planting, cultivating, harvesting – that I grew up in the middle of but don’t depend on now for daily bread. But what I know is that the fresh squash, zucchini, tomatoes, turnips, and other vegetables that I put in my soup did not magically appear on the beautifully displayed vegetable sections of a modern supermarket. 

Migrant workers bless my life. I don’t want to give up my day job to become a farm worker. But I also don’t want to not be able to run down to Publix or Kroger and buy fresh vegetables. Growing up on a farm taught me that every “job” or “any work” can be God honoring. No thoughtful Christian will look down on a person whose place in life is in the area of “menial work” and adopt an attitude of superiority because my place in life has “significance.”

The issue of immigration is complicated and I acknowledge that the federal government has a role to play in this area. But for Christians who love to run down to the local grocery store and load up on fresh vegetables to be the loudest anti-immigrant voices in our culture is embarrassing. And, quite frankly, ungodly. The Old Testament prophets Hosea and Amos would have a field day were they alive and on the scene speaking in behalf of God today.

The church needs a prophetic voice that stands in opposition to the powers of this age that reminds us that migrant workers, just like rich and well-placed politicians, are created in the image of God. If you don’t think that has implications – for both sides of that equation – you simply haven’t read Scripture or paid attention to Jesus. 

I love the availability of fresh vegetables. Mere human decency says I should appreciate the hard work of those who make that possible.  My commitment to be a “kingdom person doing kingdom things” means my “prophetic voice” in behalf of hard working immigrants ought to be heard!