Faith leaders in Memphis support Afghan refugees, and each other

0:04One Sunday in December, two congregations in Memphis with very different stories came together under one roof. Several Afghan refugees in their community had recently been detained by federal immigration agents. The president had just halted asylum processing for all immigrants from Afghanistan after two National Guard members were shot, one of them fatally, by a man from Afghanistan. And faith leaders in Memphis had this message for their congregants. Speak up and help your neighbors. There are sisters and brothers in the body of Christ who are legally here, who have done everything that they are supposed to do, and they face the prospect that they may die because of their faith in Jesus if they are sent back to the place from which they have fled.

0:56That's Stephen Cook, the senior pastor of Second Baptist Church. He stood with his fellow Memphis pastor, Lateef Saller, of Christ Community Afghan Church that day. The two have known each other since 2022, when Saller's growing congregation came looking for a meeting space after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan the year before. Saller himself came to the U.S. about a decade ago. He says he was escaping persecution for studying the Bible. They tried to kill me. They started beating me, and I became unconscious. Saller eventually settled in Memphis and established the church that's now facing this moment, but not alone.

1:36Consider this. Two local faith leaders build a relationship navigating a calling and a moment in America.

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2:31It's Consider This from NPR. The Trump administration's deportation surge has affected communities across the country in different ways. Two pastors, Stephen Cook and Lateef Saller, are responding to this moment by teaming up to support the Afghan community in Memphis. We called them to understand more about how their friendship and their collaboration has helped their congregations and each other. I began by asking Saller what happened after the National Guard members were shot in Washington, D.C. It wasn't long, he says, before immigration agents began coming to his door and approaching others in his community.

3:10They came and took my brother-in-law with all his family and two kids, nine years and five years old. All the word is known that the Christian people cannot leave, especially in this time in Afghanistan. If they go back, the penalty is dead. We disappointed when we see what's happening here. My kids see that their cousins are took by ICE, and they heard that. Now they are scared, and I help my neighbor. My neighbors are scared. How are you and the rest of the congregation dealing with the uncertainty you're facing right now, given everything that's going on? They feel depression, get trauma, and they're scared.

3:56They worry about their future. At the same time, I'm so, so happy for the churches, especially Second Baptist Church. They step in and they raise their voice and they speak out about the problem they have. And I'm really thankful for the church here in Memphis. Pastor Cook, how has your congregation been responding? What can you do? We have reached out to elected officials at every level of government, locally, statewide, nationally, and we've really tried to tell the story. It is wrong. It is cruel for a family where a father is taking his sons to school on a December morning for him to be surrounded by and apprehended by ICE agents, for his children to be taken into custody, and then for him to be told that if his wife would come and arrive at the detention facility here in Memphis, that she could take the children home with her only for her not to be given the children, but instead for her to be taken into custody.

5:08This has not been a matter of political party alignment so much as it has been a matter of conscience and a sense of calling and conviction that these are vulnerable neighbors. The Bible is very, very clear about the fact that we are to love God and to love our neighbors. And there's this consistent thread that's woven into the fabric of Hebrew and Christian scriptures that calls us to be especially mindful of the immigrants who are in our midst. Pastor Saller, you touched on this earlier, but what would deportation to Afghanistan mean for members of your church? Yeah, it's so clear if the deportation happened.

5:56they will die. They are in great danger because most of them when they came to USA they share their faith openly. They share what they believe. Most of them they share back to their own family about their faith. And even if there is not from the government or from the Taliban but they will be in danger from their own family. Are people in your church are they afraid to go out right now? Has there been any need for help from Pastor Cook's church just getting by day to day? A few of the Afghan family, they still need help to drive them to the grocery and also they need help to support them financially because some of them, they cannot work here.

6:44And that's why they depend on the other believers. On the day-to-day basis, I stay in regular contact with Pastor Salar and from other organizations in our community who are trying to coalesce around ways that we can speak up and raise awareness of what is happening. When you do get together, your two churches, what's it like? How do you come together? I think one of the beautiful things that we have been able to share together on numerous occasions have been times where we're around the tables with one another and sharing in food and fellowship. It is a beautiful sight to have our Afghan friends join us at Second Baptist and to share meals together where they will bring food that is not common to most of our American households and where we can help share food with them.

7:49We take our cue from the Jesus that we meet in the Gospels, who was oftentimes sitting down with the people that he was also standing up for. And this is one of the ways that we love being able to share our lives together. When we get together, what Pastor Cook say, you know, food and fellowship, especially Afghans learn a lot about American culture and how they are reaching to people, how they talk to people. And the culture is very important. I can learn many of this from the church, especially from Second Baptist Church and American culture, because we want to adjust to this country. We want to know about America.

8:40We want to know about this culture, about this country's culture. I'm sure you're both well aware of the situation in Minneapolis where immigration agents have shot and killed two protesters in recent weeks. What's on your minds as you watch that situation play out? this is deeply, deeply disturbing. And this is a moment where, as a nation, we have to be attentive to the fact that we cannot go without naming. This is a grave moral failure on our part that this is where we have come to be collectively. And my heart breaks for the realities that we're seeing played out. And this is part of what we are trying to do in our own community is to walk alongside in as many tangible and practical ways as we can.

9:49I was tremendously proud of the youth from our congregation at Second Baptist who, upon learning of the needs that exist in the Afghan church, there is an annual fundraiser in community ministry that our youth sponsor, and they took a portion of the proceeds from that in order to pay for the legal expenses for one of the detained Afghans. And the response in those kinds of practical ways has been something that is very encouraging. How do you imagine life in America looking? What do you hope and what do you envision? Something I see in America that this is God's blessing over America. And many American people do not see that.

10:44because we came from the different country. We came from the persecution life that we arrived here, praying for this country, that God saved this country, that people, this is approved from this country to all over the world, that people can see the hands of God here. This is what I pray for America. What should I know about Pastor Cook and the way that he leads his congregation? He has like a fatherly heart And we can see Jesus living him And the way he smiled And the way he had And every Afghan knows that How much he has love for the lost Pastor Cook, I'll put the same question to you What should I know about Pastor Seller?

11:39This is a man who loves God and he loves his people and he has endured circumstances and has come through suffering and persecution that is utterly unimaginable to the vast majority of Americans. And when I see the way that he so humbly and faithfully tends to and cares for and protects the people who are in his congregation, I see the kind of pastor that I would love to be when I grow up. Thank you. Pastor Seller, Pastor Cook, thanks so much for your time. Thank you. Very grateful for your willingness to hear our story. Thank you. This episode was produced by Catherine Fink. It was edited by Sarah Robbins.

12:37Our executive producer is Sammy Yenigan.

12:44It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Sarah McCammon.