Pope Francis and Patrick Crusius
A Horrific Confluence Yesterday That Reveals Where We Are Today
Two stories broke Monday that I invite you to hold in tension:
Pope Francis died in Rome.
And Patrick Crusius was sentenced for mass murder in El Paso.
You’ve probably heard about Francis. You’ve certainly heard the horror of the El Paso Walmart shooting.
But you might have missed the confluence that Crusius, who committed cold blooded murder to stop a fictitious migrant hoard, was sentenced the very same day Pope Francis, champion of compassion toward actual migrants and refugees, died.
Pay attention, dear friends, to God’s message in these disparate events.
These events lay before us the stark choice for us between the MAGA version of Christian Nationalism….and the Christianity of everyone else. And they serve as an horrific reminder of where bad leadership can lead.
Pope Francis is remembered as a champion of migrants and refugees, and often during his papacy, he witnessed to his Christian faith through his support of them.
Patrick Crusius is remembered as a deeply disturbed young man who drove more than nine hours from here in North Texas to El Paso and gunned down innocent Latino El Pasoans and Mexicans, for the “crime” of “shopping while Brown” at a local Walmart.
The Texas Tribune notes Crusius is “the deadliest U.S. mass shooter to have to answer for his crimes in a courtroom.” (Meaning: every mass shooter with larger death tolls either died either by suicide or at the hands of law enforcement.)
Crusius believed, wrongly, that the United States was being invaded by a foreign hoard. And he believed this because, among many others people, President Trump told him this was so.
Don’t believe me?
Think that’s a liberal talking point?
Then listen to Patrick Crusius’ own defense attorney yesterday, who said:
“Patrick believed he was acting in the direction of the president at the time, seeing it as his duty to stop the invasion because that’s what he believed the president was telling him.”
The Danger of Presidential Gaslighting
Friends, ever since the first presidency of Donald Trump, I have been calling out the gaslighting and harmful rhetoric of President Trump toward immigrants. I’ve reminded you such language is harmful and corrosive. Not just because Trump is a leader, Yes, that too. But also because of how such rhetoric harms how ordinary Americans see each other.
Patrick Crusius didn’t murder twenty three migrants. But he did murder twenty-three innocent Walmart shoppers (wounding 22 others…) just going about their day, like you and I do, every day.
And on the very date of his sentencing for this horrific crime, Pope Francis died.
You can’t make the stuff up. All you can do is pay attention.
The Witness of Pope Francis
There is no contemporary Pope —perhaps no more widely known thought-leader of any kind— who has more clearly manifested the Bible’s message of compassion, love, and justice for refugees and migrants in our recent cultural memory than Pope Francis.
The moment of Francis’ papacy I most recall is how, in 2013, he washed the feet of Muslim migrants. That particular day, Pope Francis not only washed the feet of Muslims, but also some Hindus as well.
When he did this, early in his papacy, it was clear he intended this as a message to Europe’s nations, regarding their harsh treatment of migrants and refugees.
In other years, also on Maundy Thursday, Pope Francis also washed the feet of women. This, sadly, was controversial to some. In still other years, Francis washed the feet of disabled persons.
And every time, it was clear the Pope was drawing attention to some specifically “Otherized” group…and calling the world to love and serve them, rather than shun them.
For those unfamiliar, “foot washing” is a part of the Gospel of John, and traditionally a part of Christian’s “Maundy Thursday” observance of Lent. In John’s Gospel, this ceremonial “foot washing” plays an important role, similar to the “Last Supper” in the other Gospels.
I am told that on at least one occasion, when Pope Francis was asked about washing the feet of non-Catholics, he responded by saying something like:
“I didn’t wash their feet because they were Catholic. I washed their feet because I am.”
This perfectly incapsulates of what is right about Francis’ form of Christianity, and what is wrong with the MAGA form of Christian Nationalism that eventually infected Patrick Crusius.
We United Methodists have similar views as the Pope’s of our calling to show compassion and empathy to migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers: BECAUSE our faith compels us to.
When Jesus kneels down, picks up a towel and basin, and heads for the feet of his Disciples, several of them recoil.
He is “Their Master.”
They are “The Servants.”
It’s a reversal of the social hierarchy for Jesus to wash their feet.
But Jesus pushes back, and after he’s dried off their feet, Jesus says this to them:
“Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.”
So, yes, it’s about foot washing. But, it’s about more than this act.
Jesus wanted them, and us, to remember that it’s about an attitude of servant ministry. And attitude of understanding God’s call, plain in the scripture, that we must treat migrants, refugees, and foreigners with decency, love, and respect.
The Pope’s final Easter message contained this salient word:
“What a great thirst for death, for killing, we witness each day in the many conflicts raging in different parts of our world! How much violence we see, often even within families, directed at women and children! How much contempt is stirred up at times towards the vulnerable, the marginalized, and migrants!”
The Pope, and we United Methodists, see the Bible as clearly teaching that we should not treat migrants and immigrants as second class citizens. We should not Otherize them, or keep them in cages, or send them off without due process of law.
And as for the law, the most clear Biblical mandate is: Treat the immigrant the same as native born…because we were once immigrants as well.
As is well known, Vice President Vance also visited the Pope this weekend. It’s said the administration’s staff and the Pope’s staff had heated exchanges over Trumps new policy of deporting migrants without “due process.”
It’s not known what they said in private. But when asked about Trump’s possible plans back in February, Pope Francis said:
“If true, this will be a disgrace… This is not the way to solve things.”
And he was right then.
It IS a disgrace.
It is a horror.
MAGA Christianity and the Rule of Law
Even now, some MAGA Christians are callously cheering the death of Francis.
But I would sincerely like to know their reaction to Patrick Crusius’ sentencing, and the fact that he was radicalized online, and weaponized by Trump’s anti-migrant rhetoric.
I will say that events over the weekend, here in North Texas, have re-ignited my own desire to speak out, and act out, in support of migrants. Specifically, the shocking “extrajudicial” deportations of people from the United States to Salvadoran prisons.
We are a nation of laws.
We are supposed to be a nation of “due process.”
And the fact that migrants can be rounded up and not just shipped off to some foreign country, but also literally to a foreign prison, stands against both the witness of Jesus’ Gospel message, and the due process of the United States Constitution.
Further, it’s clear through media reporting that some of the persons swept up in these actions are completely innocent of the allegation of being gang members, having gang tattoos, or even having a criminal record of any kind.
The Drama of Good Friday 2024
On Friday, an historic drama unfolded, as we in North Texans heard rumors that ICE was moving migrants from a Northwest Texas detention center to the airport, for a possible flight out of the country.
With a twist right out of some Hollywood thriller, the Supreme Court issued a midnight ruling (extraordinary timing, for them…) and the buses turned around, passing the airport exit, and headed back to West Texas.
I am grateful the SCOTUS intervened to allow all due process to be considered, so that (for now) no additional innocent persons will be sent to prisons in the name of the American people.
Let me very clearly say again: To stand against Trump’s actions, to support this pause, is not to be pro-criminal, pro-gang member, or anti-MAGA…
It’s to be PRO DUE PROCESS.
More than a decade ago, our government performed “renditions” of alleged terrorists to “black site” prisons during the Iraq/Afghanistan Wars. Many of us were concerned about this at the time. Some of those detained were later determined to be innocent of any terrorist connections, whatsoever. The “intelligence” gleaned from them was often corrupted or incorrect.
But now, that same Otherizing ethos, once used against people in other countries, has been set loose like a cancer on the streets of America.
I call it a “cancer” because that’s exactly what it is.
It’s morally wrong. And legally wrong, too.
And I offer this knee-buckling analysis from the US Holocaust Museum….
Friends, if we send prisoners to foreign prisons, without due process, it’s not just “kinda like” a “Concentration Camp.” It’s exactly like one. The lack of due process is exactly what distinguishes such a camp from a regular prison.
This is where we are.
This is really happening in the United States of America, right now.
Legal policies like this can only happen when several other steps in the Otherizing process have already happened…
When Trump calls Mexicans “rapists”…
When he falsely claims, again and again, that the United States is being “invaded”…When he denigrates judges who insist on due process…
Eventually, enough folks start to believe this rhetoric. And the rest of us just get tired fighting back. But there is a clear societal cost to all of this.
The legitimate fear in the hearts of all law abiding Latino citizens.
The dissolution and denigration of social ties between neighbors, law enforcement, and the public.
The shockingly high numbers of Americans who now see “nothing wrong” with just shipping folks out of the country, without due process.
The “permission” this gives to the unstable among us, such as Patrick Crusius.
We are not made safer by any of this.
American has not become “great” because of these actions. America has in fact become far weaker, more divided, and even more susceptible to further fascist government policy.
Please, in the name of God, remember the horrors of El Paso, and the hateful rhetoric that emboldened that horrific act. But more than this, remember the thru line between Pope Francis, the teaching of Jesus, the witness of the Holy Bible, and the calling of Christians today.
The Bible calls us to love, respect, and show compassion for, immigrants: because we were once immigrants too.
God calls us to do these things, not because all immigrants and migrants are good or perfect Christians; but because we are trying our best to be better ones.
God help our country, friends.
God help us all.