by William Trollinger 

Image of Pierre Damas Bel via CNN.

On June 25 of this year the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government could end Temporary Protected Status for citizens of Haiti, thus allowing the government to deport them despite the reality that it is not safe for them to return. The result for Haitian families in Springfield has been rampant fear, the application of ankle monitors, and the possibility of deportation to a place that is frighteningly dangerous. More than this, “Haitians have lost their jobs, with employers forced to fire them . . . With no income, it’s almost impossible to pay for housing and food, and they are afraid to come to the grocery store.”

And then there is the heartbreaking story of Pierre Damas Bel. As a student at Springfield High School he was on the soccer team, and was a happy member of the U.S. military-sponsored JROTC program. Off he went to Wright State University, where he was planning to study neuroscience. 

But in late July ICE forced him to wear an ankle monitor. He now could not play soccer, and some of his university classmates began to bully him. He posted the following on Instagram: 

I came to this country to pursue my education. I didn’t come here to commit a crime or hurt anyone. Yet now I’m walking through the streets of the United States with a GPS monitor on my leg, carrying a feeling of shame and humiliation that I never imagined I would experience. I came here to study, to build my future, and to live a better (life), not to be treated like [a] criminal. So now, how am I supposed [to] play college sports with a GPS monitor on my leg?

Soon thereafter, he killed himself by stepping in front of a truck on I-70.

In response, Springfield’s Central Christian Church pastor Carl Ruby called on ICE to quit issuing ankle monitors: “Pierre died as a result of policy. And it’s our immigration policy that took his life.” Ruby and other faith leaders – including Haitian Support Center’s Viles Dorsainvil – have continued their work in behalf of their immigrant neighbors and parishioners in Springfield. As Ruby has proclaimed, “I think there needs to a revival in the American church of a prophetic spirit, of a willingness to call out evil even if it may cost us.”

Amen.

And here’s what I had to say about Carl Ruby in 2024:

As most Americans know, it has been a hellish two weeks in Springfield, Ohio. And they have Donald Trump and J. D. Vance to blame. Despite all factual evidence to the contrary, the Republican presidential/vice-presidential candidates have continued to repeat the lies – started on Facebook and amplified by the KKK and other Far Right groups – that Haitian immigrants are stealing and eating the dogs, cats, and other animals of “legitimate” Springfield residents. 

The result has been a Haitian community on edge, and a spate of bomb threats, forcing the closure of schools, hospitals, and government offices. Despite all this, Trump and Vance are doubling down on their false claims; appallingly, Vance says it does not matter if these stories are actually true, as they help make his political point. And he has expanded his invented story of immigrants eating pets to include the nearby city of Dayton.

But there is also some heartwarming news. Many non-Haitian residents have made it a point to show their support by, for example, patronizing Haitian-run restaurants. More than this, “many of Springfield’s churches are giving support by way of English classes, correcting misinformation, and displaying solidarity” with their Haitian brothers and sisters. One of the leaders in this effort is Carl Ruby, pastor of Springfield’s Central Christian Church, a church that states on its website that “the Bible is very clear that God loves immigrants and refugees, and expects us to as well.”  Ruby has welcomed Haitian community leaders to Central Christian – telling them that “We love you [and] we are glad you’re here” – and has called on Trump and Vance to stop the pet-eating stories (while also imploring President Biden to send resources to his embattled city).

More than any other Springfield faith leader, Ruby has been thrust into the national spotlight for his efforts. But what most news reports leave out is that Ruby has been working with immigrants in Springfield not for two weeks, but for twelve years. More than this, he started this work after having been summarily forced out of an administrative position at a nearby fundamentalist university, forced out for being the sort of Christian leader he has proven himself to be in Springfield, forced out for being the sort of Christian who, as a former trustee at that fundamentalist school put it, actually cares for “people on the margins.”

And for the rest of the story, here’s what I wrote about Carl in 2018:

Evangelical colleges are always having to prove – to parents, donors, and evangelical leaders such as James Dobson or Ken Ham – that they are, to quote Adam Laats, “guardians and teachers of a necessarily vague dream of eternal and unchanging orthodoxy.” Sometimes the only way for an evangelical school to reassure doubters is to purge its ranks of supposedly “unsafe” faculty and administrators. 

As we describe in Righting America at the Creation Museum, this is precisely what happened at Cedarville University between 2012-2014. One of those forced out of Cedarville was Carl Ruby, vice president for student life. His departure was a shock to many students, one of whom told The New York Times that Ruby “made Cedarville feel more like Heaven. If you thought someone would be untouchable, it would be Carl.” But as a former Cedarville trustee noted in the same article, Ruby was pushed out because conservative trustees “were threatened by Carl’s . . . ministry to people struggling with gender identification [i.e., LGBTQ students], [and] how he ministers to people on the margins.”

As we noted in our book, Ruby was but one of 43 administrators, faculty, and staff members who departed Cedarville between the fall of 2012 and the summer of 2014, “some of whom [having been] forced out (having signed nondisclosure statements) while others quit and moved on to less hostile professional and religious climes.” This does not include the exodus of 15 members of the Board of Trustees, many of whom left in displeasure over the fundamentalist crackdown. 

In our book, that is where the Cedarville tale ends. But it turns out there is more to the story. Take, for example, Carl Ruby.

Departing Cedarville, Ruby founded Welcome Springfield (OH) a non-profit organization that serves immigrants while also encouraging community members to sign a “Statement of Support for Immigrants in Clark County” that says in part:

While I recognize and support reasonable steps to ensure our national security, I also stand opposed to all forms of communication and policy that fail to recognize the human dignity and innate value of our global neighbors, especially those fleeing hardship, violence, poverty, and persecution.

While maintaining his position with Welcome Springfield, in the fall of 2014 he accepted the position as pastor of Central Christian Church in Springfield, which describes itself as a church where “we strive to keep Jesus at the center” and where “we care about justice” and “love our neighbors.” 

In Springfield, where there are two mosques, “neighbors” includes Muslims. In an effort to build bridges between the Muslim and Christian communities (and as featured in a CBS Faith in America documentary) in May 2017 Central Christian members attended Friday prayers at one of the mosques and Muslims attended Sunday worship at Central Christian. As Ruby reflected on his Red Letter Christians blog,

I was overwhelmed by the strong sense of human connection. [Emphasis Ruby’s.] The events did not feel like an awkward mingling of strangers who were working hard at being polite and finding things to talk about. It felt like a reunion of longtime friends. There was an eagerness on both sides to connect and to love one another.

On the Central Christian website Ruby does not mention Cedarville or the purge, but he does describe – in winsome and gracious fashion –  the journey he has been on:

I grew up in churches that tended to be pretty conservative. I met many beautiful people and learned lots about scripture, but I also encountered a tendency to neglect certain areas of the gospel such as our mandate to care for the poor and to commit ourselves to issues of social justice. I also experienced a church culture that added many rules and expectations that are not found in scripture . . . God didn’t save us just so that we could go to heaven. He saved us so that we could go to work trying to help bits of heaven to break through into our world through the sacrificial service of the body of Christ.

Life after fundamentalism, indeed. 

Here’s the original 2018 blog post, and the original 2024 blog post. And here’s a link to a powerful Jim Wallis article, "The Parable of Springfield", which includes reference to Carl Ruby.