February 1, 2017
Dear Concordia Community:
The executive order issued on January 27 concerning the immigration of refugees and the entry of other citizens from select nations has generated confusion, anxiety, and protest within and beyond the United States.* I write to you to say that the mission and commitments of Concordia College bring a vital perspective to this moment and call us to act with courage and with hope.
Our most immediate attention must be to those who may be directly affected by the order. No Concordia student has yet been denied U.S. entry or reentry by these restrictions. Yet given uncertainties about these measures and others that may follow, colleges and universities across the U.S. are advising their international students, faculty, and staff carefully to consider whether travel outside the country at this time is worth the risk. Concordia College shares this stance and urges all members of our international community to be well informed and to weigh considerations of border crossing with due diligence. While the College cannot provide legal counsel about exit from and reentry into the United States, Global Learning staff members are ready to listen, guide, and advocate for our students from abroad.
I turn now to what our college brings to this moment. Mission first: We are a global liberal arts college of the church whose purpose is to influence the affairs of the world by sending into society thoughtful and informed men and women dedicated to the Christian life. Martin Luther made clear what that life must be: “to serve and benefit others in everything, . . . having nothing else in view except the need and advantage of the neighbor” (The Freedom of a Christian). When Jesus asks, who was neighbor to the man left hurt by the side of the road, the answer is, “The one who showed mercy.” At this moment, love of neighbor calls us to seek the well-being of every member of this community, including those who enrich our college from other nations and different spiritual traditions. We stand together, with neighbors near and far away, and on this day, affirm our care for our Muslim students, faculty, and staff. Such is the work of faith in action.
From Concordia’s mission comes our commitment to become responsibly engaged in the world. The invitation to BREW defines the course of study each student follows here, guided by our faculty and staff. We understand the need to become thoughtful and informed, recognizing our capacity for right action and for folly that can make us unjust. We see that our elected leaders are entrusted with a complex task: to secure both our safety and each person’s unalienable rights. Those leaders must have our prayers, our respect for the offices they hold, and our active engagement in support and in dissent. At this moment, our commitments call us to defend the free interchange of peoples and ideas essential for true learning. In honest advocacy and debate, we must sustain that interchange. Such is the work of citizenship.
Mission and commitment lead to habits of mind and heart. And so, as a college founded by immigrants, we know that people new in culture and custom bring wondrous gifts of experience and insight—and change their community for the better. And we discovered long since that the chance to leave campus and study in places far away and unfamiliar can inspire students to dream a world of shared knowledge and resources. This August, seeking to live out our mission and commitments more fully, we launched the initiative for greater inclusiveness in those who live, learn, and work here. We know that open communities open minds. At this moment, we are called to proclaim the fundamental virtue of a community diverse in background and understanding.
We are called to live our name: Concordia, hearts together. At this moment, when nation and world feel so torn, when denunciation across bitter divisions appears to hold sway, we have gifts in our mission, and in one another: Love of neighbor, love of freedom, love of the beauty and strength of different people devoted to the common good. There is a way through. Let there be debate. Let there be honesty and mutual care. We lift up the dignity of every soul.
William Craft
President
*Most controversial have been the indefinite ban on Syrian refugees, the four-month suspension from entrances of refugees from any nation, and the three-month suspension of entrance by citizens of seven Muslim-majority nations. For the full text of the order, please follow this link.