Last week I started seeing people wearing safety pins on their lapels. I heard a lot of explanations but I didn’t wear one, myself, because it seemed to me an empty, toothless gesture.

Then, with a little reading, I learned that this practice began in England. Thousands of refugees were fleeing a horrible war in their home countries and some of them came to England.

Some of the British people helped them, but others laughed at their plight, threatened them, threw things at them and even spat on them because they were different.

Those who were willing to help began wearing safety pins on their lapels so the refugees could identify them as safe people. It was a quick and easy way to say to those who felt vulnerable and threatened, I am a safe person. If you are afraid or worried or lost, I’ll go with you.

Eventually, the safety pin project made it to the U.S. Some people, a minority, used the safety pin incorrectly as a sign of political protest. But for the vast majority who wear it, it is not political — it is meant to identify them as a safe person.

It is a signal to LGBTQ people, ethnic minority people, poor people, immigrants, and anyone who feels marginalized, that I am a safe person. They can approach me. They can ask me for help if they need it and I will take their side. I will listen. I will not judge. I will not condemn.

The safety pin is neither jewelry nor protest. It is a way of communicating to others the love that Jesus asked us to share. So now I wear a one on my lapel.

Dean Feldmeyer

Wilmington