10 Minutes With … Daniel Smith-Christopher

c. 2007 Religion News Service PORTLAND, Ore. _ Daniel Smith-Christopher came here recently to confess that his heroes have always been coyotes. With apologies to Willie Nelson, Smith-Christopher, a theology professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, says it’s coyotes _ not cowboys _ that he admires. Smith-Christopher is talking about “polleros,” a Spanish […]

c. 2007 Religion News Service

PORTLAND, Ore. _ Daniel Smith-Christopher came here recently to confess that his heroes have always been coyotes.

With apologies to Willie Nelson, Smith-Christopher, a theology professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, says it’s coyotes _ not cowboys _ that he admires.


Smith-Christopher is talking about “polleros,” a Spanish word for those who charge money to smuggle people from Mexico and Central and South America over the U.S. border. Usually, the illegal immigrants are in search of jobs.

In mainstream American culture, coyotes are often depicted as exploiters of the poor. But in the minds of many illegal immigrants, Smith-Christopher says, good coyotes are saviors who take risks to ensure the safety of their human cargo.

They are also the inspiration for Smith-Christopher’s new book, “Jonah, Jesus, and Other Good Coyotes: Speaking Peace to Power in the Bible” (Abingdon, $20, 194 pages). A longtime peace activist, Smith-Christopher talked about the dangers of real and imagined borders and the biblical call for Christians to cross them. His responses have been edited for clarity and space.

Q: What made you think of biblical figures like Jonah and Jesus as “good coyotes”?

A: Pastor Bob Ekblad, who is active in Seattle working with illegal immigrants. He has written a book, “Reading the Bible With the Damned.” He proposes an interesting notion: that Jesus is like a good coyote. He is quite right.

There is a large percentage of the immigrant community who have positive stories to tell about good coyotes, people who crossed borders, took care of them and didn’t leave them until they were safe.

Q: How do you see Jesus as a coyote?

A: From top to bottom, the Gospels describe Jesus as a border violator, from the very first moment when he begins his ministry, speaking in his home synagogue in Luke 4 about God healing and giving blessings to non-Hebrews. With that act of defiance, he characterizes the nature of his ministry _ to violate borders and create a community that is inclusive, to violate old loyalties and cross old borders. It seems to me that Jesus’ ministry ought to always challenge us to rethink our definition of who is in and who is out.


Q: Are there modern good coyotes that you admire?

A: Mahmoud Mohamed Taha (1909-1985), the “African Gandhi.” He is such a shockingly surprising figure to modern Christians, someone who staunchly defended equal rights for Christians in the Sudan and gave his life for his convictions. He was a deeply committed coyote.

Q: Are you speaking of borders strictly in a figurative sense _ between religions, for example? Or are there implications for the crisis over our national borders?

A: I’m using border as a metaphor, but what I do find missing from all the debate about immigration are discussions about the needs of the Mexican people. What do they need? What can we do for them? These are horrendously desperate people who would risk their lives to feed their families. Don’t we have some moral responsibility?

Q: How does all this translate into the life of a modern Christian? What can one person do now?

A: At the end of the book, I have several suggestions. First and foremost, start violating local borders, meeting people, sponsoring events where you invite people you don’t normally run into. March yourself over to a mosque and ask how you can get about knowing each other. Watch the stunned and delighted response you get.

I’m hoping that there will be church basements where coffee will be poured and biscuits offered across the table in the name of violating borders. Don’t worry if your effort is small.


I used to think I had to establish Daniel Smith-Christopher Ministries. But that’s not necessary. Just boil up enough coffee for 30 and be glad if six people show up.

(Nancy Haught writes for The Oregonian in Portland, Ore.)

KRE/RB END HAUGHT650 words

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