The Goodness Found in Community
REV. KERRI PARKER COMMENTS FOR PRESS CONFERENCE 1/28/2025. 11 am, Wisconsin State Capitol. “State Legislation Empowering Schools, Places of Worship & Others in Light of Recent Immigration Actions” (Sen Carpenter, Rep Ortiz-Velez, Organizations)
My name is Reverend Kerri Parker. I am an ordained Christian minister and Executive Director of the Wisconsin Council of Churches. I stand here with members of our Board of Directors to assert:
Our unswerving love for those who are living in fear due to recent immigration actions
Our care for their safety, dignity, and well-being
Our commitment to stand with those facing imminent violence
The Wisconsin Council of Churches has worked with and on behalf of immigrants in Wisconsin for many years. Our Statement on Nonviolence commits us to advocating for the dignity and civil rights of all persons and groups and speaking out against expressions of hatred or acts of violence directed against [them] because of their race, nationality, culture, ethnic group, …and more. When legal issues or questions of harm come to the forefront, we promote restorative justice, not retribution.[i]
We live in an age of fear, retribution, and separation. Wisconsin, we can do better. The proposals we are here to support allow sensitive locations where we care for vulnerable people to go about their missions without distraction.
We have many messages from churches supporting those who live in fear because of the color of their skin, their national origin, their immigration status. Our neighbors are seeking help, solidarity, and peace. We desperately need reconciliation, something that will not be achieved by making us more fearful and suspicious of one another, or by adding more violence to an already violent world.
The Christian tradition tells us we are all parts of one body. How, then, are we to abide someone entering our gathering and rending one part of the body from the others? How are we to abide this as part of our body politic, laws, and norms? We cannot. It is unnecessary violence perpetrated upon a place of peace. Wisconsin, we can do better.
A practice of care and accommodation, feeding and clothing, healing and safety has been in place among people of faith for millennia; hospitality is a central piece of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. How, then, are we to allow simple human need to be treated as trespass? We cannot. It is unnecessary violence perpetrated on a place of peace. Wisconsin, we can do better.
The remedy to a world full of brokenness and pain is not to perpetrate more violence. As a community of churches, we assert the goodness to be found in community, and the sacred dignity and worth of each person. We hold ourselves accountable for creating spaces of physical, spiritual, and emotional care; for calling community leaders to their better selves in wielding power and privilege appropriately. I am here with the backing of the Board of Directors of the Wisconsin Council of Churches to assert the need for sensitive locations such as churches to be allowed to go about their missions without fear of disruption by state violence. We pray Wisconsin will show its better self. Regardless, we will continue being who we are.
Watch Rev. Parker’s remarks here.
WCC Board members and WCC Executive Director. Right to left: ELCA Bishop Anne Edison-Albright, Rev. Kerri Parker, Rev. Rachel Bauman, Rev. Dr. D. Jonathan Grieser, and, behind, Rev. Dr. Matthew Sauer.
