HOW CAN WE SAY OUR FATHER?
How can we say Our Father? How can we say 'Who Art in Heaven'? How can we say 'Hallowed be Thy Name'? How can we say 'Thy kingdom come'? How dare we say 'Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven'? Dare we say 'Give us this day our daily bread'? Can we say 'and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us'? Who can say 'and lead us not into temptation'? What temerity lets us say 'but deliver us from evil'? Dare we say 'Amen'? I think not. Cliff Baxter, Australian Journalist
...when we allow other Children of God to be placed behind razor wire.
...when we allow asylum seekers to be placed in a living Hell.
...when we regard our land as too hallowed to admit the persecuted, the desperate, the tortured.
...when our 'kings' are selfishness, blindness, materialism and apathy to refugees.
...when we defy the divine will by refusing mercy to those seeking asylum, thus driving them to the point of self-mutilation and even suicide.
...when we give our refugee brothers and sisters stones while we shut our eyes to our exploitation and warlike response to the poorer countries.
...when we detain all who cross our borders without papers as trespassers regardless of their tragic circumstances.
...when asylum-seekers we have imprisoned are cursed as 'queue-jumpers' or 'illegal immigrants' or 'security risks' or 'potential terrorists' and are tempted to sew their lips together or slash their wrists.
...when we commit such evils against helpless people, driving some to madness?
...to a disgraceful policy of detention that makes its victims cry to the heavens for mercy and justice.
