Two hundred and seventy years ago this very week, an eighteen-year-old German immigrant stepped off a ship at the Port of Philadelphia.
His birth name, best we can tell, was “Christoffel Volkhardt.” (Or something like it…).

He was my 4th Great Grandfather, and he is the progenitor of every human being with the name “Folkerth.”
(“Christoffel” was anglicized to “Christopher;” and “Volkhardt” to “Folkerth.”)

The first picture here is believed to be his very signature as he disembarked from a ship called “The Brothers,” stepping on to American soil for the very first time.

He vanishes a bit from the records for some years, and there is a theory that perhaps —at his young age, traveling to America by himself— he was an indentured servant for some years.

Christopher Folkerth eventually has five sons and a daughter, and ALL the sons make their way to Central Ohio, just Northwest of present-day Dayton.
To this day, you will find “Folkerth Road,” on the edge of Greenville. Ohio. I have a picture of the street sign, somewhere…but I cannot find it…but today, I’ll post the map for reasons that will shortly become clear.

The Folkerths mostly were farmers. Here’s a picture of my Dad as a very small child, standing of the fence looking at a Folkerth cow in the pasture, very likely somewhere just south of Greenville. (I’ve never been clear whether he’s laughing or crying here…)

You get the sense that they did well, but that they had hard, immigrant lives. One ancestor, John Folkerth (my 3rd great grand-uncle) is considered the “first mayor of Dayton Ohio.” Here is a picture of his stern face, too.

I tell you this family history because I have been watching with some interest, the story of Haitian immigrants, in the little town of Springfield, Ohio.

Springfield, Ohio as you can see from the map above, is about as far from Dayton to the Northeast-as Greenville, Ohio is to the Northwest.

And so, I have thoughts…

These Haitian immigrants are living the very same American Dream my Folkerth-ancestors did…in the very same greater Dayton area. Perhaps one of their 3rd great-grandchildren will grow to live in the city of Dallas, and feel as privileged and part of the American Dream as I do writing these words.

In my mind, these Haitians are the modern-day examples of my own family…
Folkerths WERE to Greenville, what
Haitians ARE to Springfield.

And all of it is the literal embodiment of the American Dream, playing out in two places, an hour apart, just North of Dayton.

I won’t recount here, but I know you know that there are a lot of horrendous and racist stories being told about these more newly arrived Haitian immigrants. These are clear and blatant racists tropes, designed to scare the hard-working White ancestors of my own family, and all their current friends. They are designed to drive a racial wedge between two distinct groups of present-day Ohioans —hard working White immigrant-decendants, and current-day Haitian immigrants.

The fear, according to news reports, has been ridiculous.
Bomb threats.
Extra police are patrolling the streets.
The Proud Boys and the KKK have shown up to support the White folks, not that most of them asked for their support.

Anytime the Proud Boys and KKK show up, you can bet good money somebody somewhere is trying to play on the fears of White people, and stir racial fear among immigrants. I trust most people understand that.

But I know a little about Haiti, too.

In the 1990s, I was privileged to travel to Haiti five times, on medical missions with my church. The church I served at the time (HPUMC, in Dallas), had established an eye clinic in the small town of Petit-Guave, Haiti. I have worked with hard working Haitians in their *own* country, and have been blessed to know Haitian doctors, nurses, pastors, and ordinary folks.

Haiti, as you no doubt know, is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. I have seen that poverty, first hand. But I have also seen the indomitable spirit of Haitians. I’ve seen their joy and love. I’ve said many times, the singing of Haitian Methodists, in their open air Petit-Guave church, as we all sweated in 100% humidity, is one of the most heavenly sounds I’ve ever heard in my life. I have grown to love, and greatly respect, Haitians.

I left that church in the year 2000. But a decade later, the meaning of Jesus’ teaching, “Greater love has no one than they lay down their lives for their friends” became horrifically true for the mission team of that year.

During the major Haitian earthquake of 2010, one of the HPUMC mission team members died as the beloved clinic building collapsed on top of them. The rest of the team was badly hurt, and likely survived only due to an an angel with earth moving equipment. They lived through several horrific days, before being evacuated back to the US.

So, yes, I know American Christians who have sweated, bled, and even died…in the service of the Haitian people. And following that very earthquake, all of America opened our arms to the people of Haiti. Some of those immigrants and refugees made their way to Springfield, Ohio, where they have been joined by successive waves.

Again, this is unsurprising. Just as those four, strapping Folkerth sons moved together to Greenville, so too it makes intuitive sense that modern-day Haitians would wish to immigrate near one another.

We should remember that this current fear-mongering about Haitians is just the latest in a long slew of anti-immigrant comments from Donald Trump and JD Vance; comments designed to “Otherize” even a wave of immigrants who “did it the right way,” and were welcomed by our government.

Trump has trashed Haitians for years. He was talking about Haitians when he made his infamous “shithole countries” comment. Trump had previously, to the shock of his own staff, suggested that all Haitian immigrants carry AIDS.

The reason Trump/Vance attack Haitians is because they assume they won’t, or can’t, fight back.

It’s the same reason they troll immigration along the southern border as well. The intentionally pick targets they know are communities that can’t, or won’t, push back. So, they believe they can say anything they want, and nobody will stop them.

As I’ve said repeatedly for decades now, there are plenty of problems with the southern border that have been ignored by both political parties. But calling Mexican immigrants rapists isn’t a solution.

And, broadening the immigrant tapestry in my own family, my wife’s ancestors were Mexican Migrants. And here is a picture of them too, picking fruit for Americans. Dennise is descended from THESE hard working Garcia and Puente families.

These Trump/Vance fearmongering statements are actually designed to *prevent* real and substantive change that solves generational immigration system problems. It’s a dodge. It’s a way of shifting blame, and stirring fear of “The Other.”

But! It’s also important to step back and understand how this kind of racialized Otherizing is a part of our human condition, and not just an American story. What Trump/Vance are doing is but a new twist on very old tribal fears.

The Gospel of Luke (Chapter 4) has a story of racialized and tribal fear that mirrors what we are seeing now. It’s the very first time Jesus ever preaches, and features the very first words he’ll ever say.

Jesus is in his own “Greenville, Ohio,” a small town called Nazareth, preaching to the hometown crowd…families and elders he grew up with. And as the sermon starts, things seem to be going well.

The text says: “All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” (Luke 4:22).

But then, Jesus transgresses his own tribe’s cultural and religious boundaries.

Jesus says, to his Jewish friends and family, that the Prophet Elijah was sent to minister with a foreigner in Sidon (Luke 4: 25-26). And then, Jesus reminds them, the Prophet Elisha was sent to heal somebody from Syria, not Israel. (Luke 4: 27)

The implication could not be clearer: God’s servants are called to minister to foreigner and citizen, alike. God’s followers are to live out the Hebrew Scriptures, which says: You shall have one law for the native born and immigrant….because YOU were once immigrants. Jesus is saying this mandate of God still applies today.

Followers of the Holy God are to treat immigrants and foreigners with the same respect they treat themselves

(Again, this simply moral consistency with Jesus’ Great Commandment: Love your neighbor, as yourself…)

Sadly, the reaction of Jesus’ hometown crowd mirrors the racial animus of far too many White people today. Right after Jesus finishes talking about foreigners, the text says:

“When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.” (Luke 4: 28-30)

Please note everything about this story and what it tells us about everyone involved.

It tells us to truly follow God, one must treat immigrants with the respect and love that one treats native-born persons.
It also teaches us that to preach this message can get you killed by rabid mobs of racially fearful people.

And so, the more things change the more they stay the same. I hope I’ve made clear that I am not implicating all of my Ohio relatives in being racist. Far from it. In fact, I trust most of them are as grateful as I am for our Folkerth forbearers.

What I’m trying to say is: For ALL of us, our Tribalism goes deep.
I tend to think it’s perhaps the closest thing to a true “original sin” we humans have.

We proudly tell our own immigrant stories, but we have a natural tendency to fear of “The Other.” This is a fear that can be stoked, manipulated, and used, by politicians, racists, and those seeking to stir division.

Don’t take the bait.
In fact, I’d even suggest that joking about how stupid the racist tropes are, through songs and memes, helps *continue* the controversy, and actually solidifies the tropes, instead of destroying them.

Don’t drive the wedges in-between current day Americans. (Including working class White people and everybody else…)

Know that whether you story is like the Folkerth’s from Greenville, the Garcia’s from Mexico, or the Haitians of Springfield….we are all a part of a long tapestry of immigration that has created, and still creates, this beautiful nation.

Beyond all questions of “fault” for how the current system is broken, who is to blame, or who does or does not want it fixed, God’s commandment to love immigrants as we love our own families still applies to, and convicts, anybody who wants to follow Jesus today.