{"id":1421,"date":"2014-10-29T08:43:11","date_gmt":"2014-10-29T13:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/?p=1421"},"modified":"2021-03-09T10:25:06","modified_gmt":"2021-03-09T15:25:06","slug":"immigration-ministry-of-social-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/immigration-ministry-of-social-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Immigration: A Ministry of Social Work"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Immigration is a ministry of social work. Jesus conjoined the commands in Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:8 in response to the question posed by a Scribe: \u201cWhat is the greatest commandment?\u201d The result found in Matthew 22:37-39 is, \u201cYou shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.\u201d This second command is the cornerstone text used by Christians in support of immigration reform.<\/p>\n<p>The immigration issue has been a lightning rod in American politics often invoking vitriolic responses. Some will say the Republican Party failed to win a bid for the White House because their anti-immigration position alienated a growing Hispanic population in this country. But just this week news reports quoted former Governor Jeb Bush of Florida as saying, \u201cThe way I look at this is someone who comes to our country because they couldn\u2019t come legally, they come to our country because their families\u2014the dad who loved their children\u2014was worried that their children didn\u2019t have food on the table. And they wanted to make sure their family was intact, and they crossed the border because they had no other means to work to be able to provide for their family. Yes, they broke the law, but it\u2019s not a felony. It\u2019s an act of love. It\u2019s an act of commitment to your family.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Just as Jesus came among us (Emmanuel) one can only fully understand the lives of migrants by being among them. Through a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.worldmissioninitiative.org\/\">World Mission Initiative<\/a> cross-cultural trip, MDiv, MDiv\/MSW and MA program students at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary have taken a look at the immigration issue up close and personal. In the past, I\u2019ve led a team to Agua Prieta, Mexico, a town just across the border from Douglas, Ariz. The Presbyterian border mission, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fronteradecristo.org\/\">Frontera de Cristo<\/a>, hosted us. For a week, we worshiped and fellowshipped with residents of the town, visited mequiladora factories, lived on a day\u2019s wage of a mequila worker, and shared a meal with migrant workers. Some of them were attempting to cross the border for the first time while others lived in the US for years before deportation. We walked along the pathways in the desert where many have traveled in the cover of darkness escaping the watchful eyes of Border Patrol, listened to the testimonies of clients of C.R.R.E.D.A, a drug and alcohol recovery center, who as part of their recovery fill water buffaloes in the desert for migrants. But perhaps most riveting was the weekly prayer service for the men, women, boys, and girls who lost their lives attempting to cross the border. In good or bad weather, a group of the faithful gather in the parking lot of a McDonalds behind a van full of white hand-made crosses with the names, date of birth, and date of death of the persons found in the desert. If the person could not be identified, the cross would simply say, \u201cNo Identificado.\u201d Each of us with an arm full of crosses, paraded down the Avenue of the Americas and one by one, called out the name of the person on our cross and shouted, \u201cPresente!\u201d as we stood in surrogacy. Afterwards we laid the cross on the curb. The result\u2014a line of more than 100 white crosses dotting the curbside of the Avenue of the Americas lighting the way to the border checkpoint.<\/p>\n<p>One cannot look at the issue of immigration without looking at the cross.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>The Rev. John Welch is a 2002 graduate of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. He earned his MDiv degree, served in parish ministry at <a href=\"http:\/\/bidwellchurch.org\/\">Bidwell United Presbyterian Church<\/a> in Pittsburgh, and is now the Seminary\u2019s vice president of student services.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Immigration is a ministry of social work. Jesus conjoined the commands in Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:8 in response to the question posed by a Scribe: \u201cWhat is the greatest commandment?\u201d The result found in Matthew 22:37-39 is, \u201cYou shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[61],"series":[],"class_list":["post-1421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ministry","category-social-work","tag-mdiv-program-and-social-work"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\r\n<title>Immigration: A Ministry of Social Work<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"John Welch earned his MDiv and served in parish ministry in Pittsburgh. He discusses immigration in light of the Church and the role of social work on it.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/immigration-ministry-of-social-work\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Immigration: A Ministry of Social Work\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"John Welch earned his MDiv and served in parish ministry in Pittsburgh. He discusses immigration in light of the Church and the role of social work on it.\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/immigration-ministry-of-social-work\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pittsburgh Theological Seminary\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-10-29T13:43:11+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-03-09T15:25:06+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Border2.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"239\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ptsblog\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ptsblog\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pts.edu\\\/blog\\\/immigration-ministry-of-social-work\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pts.edu\\\/blog\\\/immigration-ministry-of-social-work\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"ptsblog\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pts.edu\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9e695c34c8e88351c00ef7369001ac5f\"},\"headline\":\"Immigration: A Ministry of Social Work\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-10-29T13:43:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-03-09T15:25:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pts.edu\\\/blog\\\/immigration-ministry-of-social-work\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":654,\"commentCount\":7,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pts.edu\\\/blog\\\/immigration-ministry-of-social-work\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pts.edu\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/10\\\/Border2.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"mdiv program and social work\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Ministry\",\"Social Work\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pts.edu\\\/blog\\\/immigration-ministry-of-social-work\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pts.edu\\\/blog\\\/immigration-ministry-of-social-work\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pts.edu\\\/blog\\\/immigration-ministry-of-social-work\\\/\",\"name\":\"Immigration: A Ministry of Social Work\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pts.edu\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pts.edu\\\/blog\\\/immigration-ministry-of-social-work\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pts.edu\\\/blog\\\/immigration-ministry-of-social-work\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pts.edu\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/10\\\/Border2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-10-29T13:43:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-03-09T15:25:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pts.edu\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9e695c34c8e88351c00ef7369001ac5f\"},\"description\":\"John Welch earned his MDiv and served in parish ministry in Pittsburgh. He discusses immigration in light of the Church and the role of social work on it.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pts.edu\\\/blog\\\/immigration-ministry-of-social-work\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pts.edu\\\/blog\\\/immigration-ministry-of-social-work\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pts.edu\\\/blog\\\/immigration-ministry-of-social-work\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pts.edu\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/10\\\/Border2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pts.edu\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/10\\\/Border2.jpg\",\"width\":300,\"height\":239},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pts.edu\\\/blog\\\/immigration-ministry-of-social-work\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pts.edu\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Immigration: A Ministry of Social Work\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pts.edu\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pts.edu\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Pittsburgh Theological Seminary\",\"description\":\"Grounded in Faith, Formed in Community\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pts.edu\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pts.edu\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9e695c34c8e88351c00ef7369001ac5f\",\"name\":\"ptsblog\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b6530fb1e9ddce422ee48a03a2e5cf3eddac1d5b99f93e9b527390d4e28ad6fe?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b6530fb1e9ddce422ee48a03a2e5cf3eddac1d5b99f93e9b527390d4e28ad6fe?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b6530fb1e9ddce422ee48a03a2e5cf3eddac1d5b99f93e9b527390d4e28ad6fe?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"ptsblog\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pts.edu\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/ptsblog\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\r\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Immigration: A Ministry of Social Work","description":"John Welch earned his MDiv and served in parish ministry in Pittsburgh. He discusses immigration in light of the Church and the role of social work on it.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/immigration-ministry-of-social-work\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Immigration: A Ministry of Social Work","og_description":"John Welch earned his MDiv and served in parish ministry in Pittsburgh. He discusses immigration in light of the Church and the role of social work on it.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/immigration-ministry-of-social-work\/","og_site_name":"Pittsburgh Theological Seminary","article_published_time":"2014-10-29T13:43:11+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-03-09T15:25:06+00:00","og_image":[{"width":300,"height":239,"url":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Border2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"ptsblog","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"ptsblog","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/immigration-ministry-of-social-work\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/immigration-ministry-of-social-work\/"},"author":{"name":"ptsblog","@id":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9e695c34c8e88351c00ef7369001ac5f"},"headline":"Immigration: A Ministry of Social Work","datePublished":"2014-10-29T13:43:11+00:00","dateModified":"2021-03-09T15:25:06+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/immigration-ministry-of-social-work\/"},"wordCount":654,"commentCount":7,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/immigration-ministry-of-social-work\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Border2.jpg","keywords":["mdiv program and social work"],"articleSection":["Ministry","Social Work"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/immigration-ministry-of-social-work\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/immigration-ministry-of-social-work\/","url":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/immigration-ministry-of-social-work\/","name":"Immigration: A Ministry of Social Work","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/immigration-ministry-of-social-work\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/immigration-ministry-of-social-work\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Border2.jpg","datePublished":"2014-10-29T13:43:11+00:00","dateModified":"2021-03-09T15:25:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9e695c34c8e88351c00ef7369001ac5f"},"description":"John Welch earned his MDiv and served in parish ministry in Pittsburgh. He discusses immigration in light of the Church and the role of social work on it.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/immigration-ministry-of-social-work\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/immigration-ministry-of-social-work\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/immigration-ministry-of-social-work\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Border2.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Border2.jpg","width":300,"height":239},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/immigration-ministry-of-social-work\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Immigration: A Ministry of Social Work"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/","name":"Pittsburgh Theological Seminary","description":"Grounded in Faith, Formed in Community","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9e695c34c8e88351c00ef7369001ac5f","name":"ptsblog","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b6530fb1e9ddce422ee48a03a2e5cf3eddac1d5b99f93e9b527390d4e28ad6fe?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b6530fb1e9ddce422ee48a03a2e5cf3eddac1d5b99f93e9b527390d4e28ad6fe?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b6530fb1e9ddce422ee48a03a2e5cf3eddac1d5b99f93e9b527390d4e28ad6fe?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"ptsblog"},"url":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/author\/ptsblog\/"}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Border2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4MvlM-mV","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1421"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6102,"href":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1421\/revisions\/6102"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1421"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=1421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}