WASHINGTON (RNS) — Over the sounds of construction machinery dismantling inauguration-related viewing stands and other structures in front of the White House, faith-based advocates for refugees worked to make their voices heard Tuesday (Feb. 4) in Lafayette Square.
“ Gracious God, we gather on this day so that we might bear witness to your love for all people,” prayed Bishop William Gohl Jr., of the Delaware-Maryland Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, “and that you would help us to be the moral conscience and voice of this nation again, reminding each one of us that we are immigrants who have found our way to this place.”
The crowd of about 100 was protesting President Donald Trump’s suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, which vets refugees for entry into the United States and works with refugee resettlement agencies, the majority of them faith-based, to support those refugees for the first 90 days.
Some who had protested on behalf of refugees at the beginning of Trump’s first term said they were experiencing a sense of dejá vu. “I’m encouraged, while at the same time discouraged, to see that some of our signs have returned,” the Rev. Sharon Stanley …