PASTORAL CALLS TO POLITICAL ARENAS Not every pulpit is in a church. For two McCormick alums, their messages have been heard in Chicago’s City Hall and the halls of the U.S. Congress. Chicago Ald. William Hall and former U.S. Representative Bobby Rush credit McCormick with being the place that helped them explore the intersection of faith and the public square. While visiting the U.S. southern border where it neighbors Mexico, Chicago Alderman William Hall (M. Div.’11) saw how people who are seeking safe havens in this country are living. It’s one of many experiences where his o昀케cial work and his pastoral calling converge. “This is the Bible coming to life,” Ald. Hall says. “Jesus and his parents were asylum seekers. This is Jesus’ story in the thousands.” The lead pastor at St. James Community Church on Chicago’s South Side, Ald. Hall saw people at border camps behind barbed wire gates patrolled by border security. It was di昀케cult, he remembers, for him to witness abandoned children and migrant men and women looking for safety—hundreds and even thousands—of miles away from their native country. The presence of migrants who have arrived in Chicago over the past several months is a topic of tension within the city’s political and faith communities. For Ald. Hall, both an elected o昀케cial and a pastor, the in昀氀ux of people from South American countries highlights insu昀케cient immigration policies while also calling for the need to invoke a moral response to help people in search of food, shelter, and a future. “The moral dilemma,” Ald. Hall states, “is how do you treat people with dignity and prioritize safety?” Working to address that dilemma, Ald. Hall calls upon the many global conversations that he had at McCormick to help him navigate this terrain. “Engaging with people from around the world when I was at McCormick helps me see and understand the migrant experience from a more global perspective,” says Ald. Hall. “McCormick gave me a broader lens through which I see the issues in our world. There’s a call to serve the marginalized.” 10 MCCORMICK THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY