Every time I drive to Atlanta, I encounter the succinct encapsulation of the ways that some have merged patriotism and Christianity into Christian fascism, a worldview that puts nation and individual above one’s call to lover God with their while being and their neighbor as themselves. As I speed down the highway, I gaze ahead, and on my right, I see a 3,200 square feet (40 x 80) America flag blowing in the wind atop a 130 foot tall pole. When I look to my left, towards the other side of the highway, I see a massive megachurch with three enormous crosses facing the highway. Thus, I move between the dual symbols of patriotism and Christianity that have birthed an unholy concoction that some try to pass off as Christianity.

Not even a mile past the flag and the crosses, I again look to the left and see a row of warehouses on a service road, a row that stretches at least to the next exity about three miles down the highway. These warehouses are all in use, but on the other side of that service road, just out of view from the highway, another warehouse sits unused at the moment. Recently, though, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) bought the warehouse for $68 million to turn it into a ICE processing/detention facility for 1,500 people. They claim it will be a temporary space for individuals as to be transferred, then, to the 10,000 person facility in Social Circle, a facility that, as seen from the floor plans, looks really reminiscent of The Brookes image of the cross section of a slave ship in 1789.

Recently, I took a drive by the proposed facility, and it sits less than a mile from the church by the highway, a megachurch that has two campuses, one close to the facility and one in another town. While local clergy have protested the facility, I do not think that leadership from that church has participated. Thinking about the proxmity of this megachurch, within eye site of the facility, I can’t help but ask myself a few questions. First, I ask myself, “Do these congregants know about the proposed facility?” That, of course, is the key question, because if they do not know about the facility, and I would be hard pressed to believe that they don’t, then I have other questions that need to be answered, like why aren’t they paying attention to what is happening in their community?

Along with the first question, I ask, “How can these individuals, knowing about such a facility in close proximity to where they worship on Sunday morning, not stand opposed to it?” I could, of course, quote bible verses all day, from Leviticus 19:34 to Matthew 25 and many in between, but that wouldn’t do anything. I could point to the red letter words in the bible, hoping to pull on their better angels, but I know, from experience and history, that doesn’t necessarily work. I’m reminded of the church goers who, after leaving Sunday service, the week after Easter, who took trains south from Atlanta to attend the lynching of Samuel Thomas Wilkes. I recall enslavers using the bible to justify their treatment of enslaved individuals. I recall the cries of Romans 13. I recall all of this and know that the cruelty, whether one wants to admit or not, has taken root long before this moment.

Along with the church, I also pass two schools within about a two-mile radius of the proposed facility. I pass these shcools knowing that they community where this facility will be has a large Hispanic and immigrant population, which includes kids. What do these students think about the facility? About its purpose? Do they know? I would assume they know. What do their teachers think, the ones who are there to help them learn to become citizens and fuction within society? Do the teachers who teach the Hispanic students help and assist those students on the one hand and then on the other support a facility meant to target those same students? What is the psychological impact on all of the students? Faculty? Staff? How can individuals function and learn knowing that others, less than a mile from them, are suffering in inhuman conditions? (The city pointed out that the facility did not have the sewage capacity for 1,5000 people, so we already know what the conditions will be like.)

Wait, there’s more. Driving two and a half miles from the ICE facility, I came across the Atlanta Falcons practice facility where they old their preseason workouts. At this time, the team and ownership hasn’t made any comment about the proposed facility. Now, just as I have questions for the megachurch, I have questions for an NFL team that has a facility within proximity to a ICE detention facility. What are their thoughts on the facility? Will they change their location due to the facility and what it may bring about? Will they comment on the facility? Or, like the megachurch, will they not say anything and go along to get along?

Driving by the proposed facility and seeing the surrounding environment, these are things I thought about. As I passed the Falcons practice facility and the church, I though about Martin Luther King Jr. when he said, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” The NFL has positioned itself, over the past few years, at least through optics, as caring about social justice issues, even though that appears to be merely mirror dressing. However, their silence about such a facility close to one of their teams’ facilities speaks volumes. More importantly, the church’s silence is deafening because, if, as they proclaim, they adhere to the word of God, then they should speak out.

A few weeks ago, I wrote an open letter to my representitive, who has praised this facility. I have not, as of this moment, heard back from Andrew Clyde. Instead, I am bombarded by his emails about how great the economy is and how the war in Iran is a good thing and how the facility will bring about jobs and prosperity. Clyde, who cowered during Januray 6, refuses to hold in-person town halls, settling instead to go where he’s liked and hosting what appear to be invite-only phone town halls. I am on his mailing list and have never received an invitation. He is all for this facility, while many in the community express outrage at its proposed presence.

Individuals in the community are fighting against this facility, and they will not be silent. The board of comissoners voted on a 180 day moritorium on such facilities, but that doesn’t do much. Public pressure and awareness move the needle. One cannot, especially in this moment, say, “I didn’t know,” or “If I knew I would have done something.” Ignorance and silence are complacency because they are a choice, just like everything else. These facilities, which will house people, are not in out of the way places, they are right off the highway, in full view of traffic as some individuals drive by to work to school to lunch while other sit inside cells in inhumane conditions because they sought a better life or merely because they “fit the profile.”