We could all have been Alex Pretti

1 John 3:15-16 “Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don’t have eternal life within them. We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.”

Over the last few weeks, we have seen and heard a number of very disturbing interactions between the various agencies of our Department of Homeland Security, (including Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, and Customs and Border Protection) and people who are protesting their actions.

For the last several months, many of these ICE and CBP agents have been acting unlawfully and unconstitutionally in the way they have abducted, detained, and in some cases even killed people of Hispanic origin, simply because of the color of their skin or the accent of their speech.

These abuses have been happening not only to undocumented persons, but also U.S. citizens.

The two most recent and egregious examples are what happened to Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Renee was shot by an ICE agent while trying to drive away from ICE officers, despite the lies of the agency who said she was trying to run over an officer.

But far more straightforward (and harder to lie about) was the situation with Alex Pretti.

On the day of his murder by CBP officers, we all saw (from several different camera angles) a man who stepped in between those officers and a woman they just violently pushed to the ground. In that moment, he did nothing other than hold up a camera to record what was happening, and put his body in front of the woman to protect her from further harm. For that, he was taken to the ground by half a dozen men, beaten, and ultimately shot in an act of sheer hatred and cowardice. But in the face of this tragedy, rather than take responsibility for their actions, the agency has lied about him being a “domestic terrorist” who was on the scene trying to kill ICE officers.

The brazenness of their lies was breathtaking, since we all saw with our own eyes exactly what happened on that day. But in the intervening days, there has been a campaign to malign Alex’s character (I suppose to make his murder a little more palatable). Video footage has been found showing a previous interaction between him and ICE officials where he spit on one of them and kicked the taillight of an ICE vehicle. So should he have spit on an ICE officer who may have personally had nothing to do with any of the agency’s abuses? Of course not. But does that interaction have anything to do with the way he was brutally gunned down on that subsequent day? Absolutely not.

During both of the events regarding Renee and Alex I was on vacation out of the country. I couldn’t believe my eyes as I watched the videos of these encounters. But the second one involving Alex is the one that really hit home for me, because if I had not been on vacation, I likely would have traveled to Minneapolis myself (along with many other clergy from across the country) to protest the shooting of Renee. In fact, I could have been on the very same street that Alex was protesting her death. In fact, if I had seen the same woman being pushed to the ground by ICE (or CBP) agents, and I was standing in the same location, I wholeheartedly believe I would have put my body in between those agents and that woman. If so, I likely wouldn’t be writing this article today.

The story would have been about a pastor named Mark Johnsen who was shot and killed, rather than an ICU nurse for the Veteran’s Administration named Alex Pretti.

So I’d like to take a moment to unpack the scripture verses I began this article with. As many of you may know, Jesus metaphorically equated anger with murder. And in these two verses, the writer of 1 John is stating, “Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart.”

So while the person who pulled the trigger to kill Alex Pretti is a literal murderer, we all need to assess the states of our own individual hearts, which only God and us know.

Even though many people voted for this administration — which is responsible for the actions of its agencies — I believe very few of them would say that they “hate” undocumented immigrants. These people just say things like “We need a strong border” or “They just need to come here legally.” Well, without getting into a long diatribe about immigration reform (which could take up this whole newspaper) I’m asking us all to seriously seek our hearts. Because Jesus said what we do to the least of these, we have done unto Him.

So whether we recognize it or not, if we are OK with our undocumented neighbors (and even our fellow citizens) being unlawfully kidnapped, abused and imprisoned without due process, then we are demonstrating hatred toward them.

But Jesus desires for us to show God’s love toward our neighbors by loving — and treating — them in the same manner as we would desire for ourselves. Jesus gave up his life for us, not just on the cross as many people believe; but he gave up his life every day he lived it, by putting his neighbor’s lives and needs before his own.

May we also “give up” our lives for our neighbors. And may we not have to die to do so.