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Interreligious Cooperation to Provide Justice to Undocumented People: A Christian-Buddhist Engagement in Offering Hospitality to “Strangers”

Ilsup Ahn 1

1North Park University

Candidate

ABSTRACT

For the past several years, there has been a huge political fluctuation regarding the nation’s response to rising U.S. immigration crisis. Since Donald Trump assumed Presidential Office on January 20th, 2017, this political turmoil has gotten even more controversial. For instance, President Trump signed an executive order (“Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States”) on January 27, 2017, which was then halted by a federal judge, James Robart. On March 6, 2017, Trump signed a new and improved executive order, blocking citizens of six Muslim-majority countries (Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, and Sudan) from entering the U.S. for 90 days. President Trump’s executive orders on immigration also include other controversial plans such as building a border wall, deporting more people, and cracking down on sanctuary cities. The political turmoil on the legal status of the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program is the most recent crisis in the U.S. in early 2018. The purpose of this paper is to engage in an interfaith dialogue and cooperation between Christianity and Buddhism concerning the current political devolvement with a view to promoting a broad-based political coalition, which I call “lifeworld politics.” I argue in this paper that Christian and Buddhist communities should appropriate the forgiveness model of hospitality when they approach the current immigration crisis out of their shared belief in the solidarity with others. The specific goal of lifeworld politics is to provide an interreligious support in the spirit of hospitality to those who have long been waiting for immigration reform.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.