Dear Christian proponents of Trump’s anti-immigration measures,

The gut-wrenching and horrifying display of human suffering we’re seeing in these migrant/refugee detention centers is staring directly into your eyes, and like the cowards you are, you’re trying as hard as you can to look away while convincing others to do the same.

You should be overwhelmed with guilt over the suffering you have knowingly enabled, and you should collapse beneath such a burden. This would at least indicate that beneath your complicity, there is an underlying desire to reaffirm another person’s dignity.

The people being detained by ICE and CBP are human beings who were meticulously crafted with care in the image of the God you worship, and you’re treating His creation like the gum underneath your shoe. These refugees and migrants are souls that your Lord and savior died for, and you impart towards them the same value you would impart towards termites, tapeworms and leeches.

These people are the naked that you have not clothed. They’re the hungry that you have not fed; the thirsty you have not given a drink to; the strangers that you did not take in.

These are the prisoners who are painted as hardened criminals even as children, and not only have you neglected to visit them, but you also made it against the law for anybody else to do so. Humanitarian groups that are desperately trying to pick up your tangled slack in caring for their fellow human beings are routinely denied entrance into these facilities, and you are okay with that.

Journalists have tried to uncover the truth of what goes on behind closed doors, and any access they have been given has been severely restricted at best. Even when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez toured one of these facilities and spoke of detainees drinking toilet water, you were swift to discredit her because you yourself cannot come to grips with the harsh reality of their subjugation. You have actively fought to have the truth withheld from the public, and you have adamantly combatted meaningful efforts of accountability and oversight.

What would you tell God if he brought you to task for all this?

Would you tell Him that Obama did the same thing, and nobody called him out for it? Would you tell Him they came here by their own volition and broke the law, so justice was served? Would you tell Him that the liberal media has greatly exaggerated the extent of these horrors, and that these were done to make Trump look like a villain? Would you tell Him that abortions were happening, and critics of these atrocities were silent on it?

If you truly believe that God is omnipresent, you would be hard-pressed to argue that He hasn’t seen these camps. So what would you say if He told you that some detainees did, in fact, drink toilet water? What would you say if He affirmed the veracity of the reports of death, sexual assault and humiliation that took place in the facilities?

Do you honestly believe that, “Well, these seemed implausible” would be a sufficient defense? Would you rather be duped into having compassion, or would you rather risk answering to God over a callous denial of another person’s suffering?

You would probably be singing a different tune if God was staring directly into your eyes, but in reality, he’s not. Satan is. This is a profound evil that can only exist in an imperfect world, and you are sitting idly by as he works through some of the most powerful people on the face of this planet to make these abuses happen.

If you’re a Christian, you have a duty to treat the downtrodden like Jesus manifests himself in their existence. You are instructed to let the world see Jesus within you. One of the most fundamental and elementary principles of Christianity is caring for your fellow human being. And you’re blowing it.

I hope the fleeting moment of political expedience is worth it.

Signed,

Garrett Gravley