In 1759, John Wesley visited 1100 French prisoners-of-war held in ridiculously terrible conditions.  Wesley publicly denounced the conditions, quoting Exodus 23:9, “Thou shalt not oppress a stranger; for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.”  He raised funds to provide adequate clothing, which led to the city government providing adequate bedding for the prisoners, which led to people from all over the country pouring in contributions to give these prisoners safer living conditions.

I was a little appalled to recently learn of the Northwest Detention Center (look it up right now!  There’s a Facebook group of the same name with loads of info).  The short story: it’s a privately owned prison for undocumented immigrants being held until they are deported.  The prisoners began a Hunger Strike on Friday, March 7 to protest certain conditions.