Dangerous Lies Just Got Personal

It’s scary what’s happening in Texas.

That’s why this month I’m sharing an article I wrote in response to the vicious and dangerous lies that the Texas Attorney General is spreading about the Catholic faith-based Annunciation House and its Executive Director Ruben Garcia. It’s something I’m definitely passionate about because this is personal to me.

So I shared my story with the hope that others will read it and spread the truth. It was published in NCR on February 28th. You can find it here: https://www.ncronline.org/opinion/guest-voices/ive-volunteered-annunciation-house-texas-attorney-general-plain-wrong

_{Ruben Garcia, founder and director of Annunciation House, a network of migrants shelters in El Paso ,Texas, speaks with the media during a news conference, Friday, Feb. 23, 2024. Garcia is reacting to the lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that claims the Annunciation House “appears to be engaged in the business of human smuggling” and is threatening to terminate the nonprofit’s right to operate in Texas. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton)}

But what’s happening in Texas is not unusual. Extremist politicians have infiltrated not only states, but the U.S. Congress, and are creating their own reality, and their own definitions of words like “immigrant,” “Catholic faith-based organization,” and “NGO” (nongovernmental organizations), and trying to force the rest of us to go along with them. Either through lies or laws they enact.

I used to think that practicing one’s faith or beliefs, practicing acts of kindness and mercy, were protected as one of my freedoms in the United States. Not sure I believe that anymore.

Dorothy Day, whose quote I use here, was a convert to Catholicism. She practiced her faith every day, including searching her own heart for her failings and weaknesses. She was humble and selfless. She, too, always put the other first. But she was labeled a socialist and a Communist in her day.

The abuse and twisting of language hasn’t changed. But it’s gotten bolder, more vicious, and more dangerous.

So be on alert. Because it soon migh be unlawful to be kind and compassionate towards the marginalized, the homeless, the immigrant, and the refugee. Some states, like Texas, are certainly working hard at making it so.