First let’s lay down some foundations of doctrine:
- God is righteous (Rev 4:8). He sets standards consistent with his character. Fundamental to those are the instructions to love God with everything we have, and to love others like we love ourselves (Matt 22:37).
- The rule of law is something that believers should uphold.
- God appears to have delegated our national leaders with the responsibility to write and enforce laws for the good of their citizens: with one big caveat – go back and re-read the first bullet.
- This is not a party issue, it is a moral issue.
- We can all agree that the policies and processes on immigration are broken. If legal immigration processes were functional, illegal immigration would not be a viable option. It seems obvious that allocating $5 billion toward paying clerks to stamp legal immigration applications would go a long way toward solving the problem.
- It is entirely reasonable to want to control who enters the country legally, however, there is little rational discussion about the type of people we want and don’t want:
o
Criminals and terrorists are clearly unwelcome. But how do we do this intelligently? How do we identify the good from the bad? How do we keep them out?
o
People with skills are desirable – but which
skills?
o
People who are prepared to do the work that
citizens do not want to do should be welcome.
As a university professor I cannot recruit US graduate students – they
all want to rush out and start living the American dream. Without good research our ability to innovate
will die. What about fruit pickers and
farm laborers who are the only ones prepared to do the work? Without them we will starve.
o
How many immigrants are beneficial? The fact
that the economy absorbs as many illegals as it does, seems to indicate that
the current arbitrary quotas are woefully low.
o
What about the refugees, the sick, poor, abused and
desperate? Will they recover and become
productive given the opportunity? Probably. Do we have a duty to protect them from
oppression? Indeed we do, the bible is
vocal about condemning those who practice or merely permit oppression (Is 10:1).
o
What about the people that are already here? Putting hysteria and rhetoric aside, it seems
that it would be advantageous to find a way to legalize them,: they are already
learning the language, adopting the culture, serving in the military, getting
educated, engaged in a local community, housed, and paying taxes. Throwing them out would be a social catastrophe. Reasonable methods of punishing them for the
crime of entering illegally should be debated, rationally.
As someone who picked up my family
and hauled them here from the other side of the planet, I can attest to the
disruption and pain associated with this move.
It was not trivial, and we were blessed to have a job (I was headhunted),
a sponsor and the hand of God in allowing it to occur legally. No one wakes up one morning and thinks “Lets haul
the kids into insecurity to go break the law in the US for fun.” Caravans of desperate refugees from central
America are not coming to party. Yes,
there may be some terrorists hiding among them, hence the need for the $5billion
to pay people to identify and stop them, quickly. The true refugees should not be separated from
their kids for years because there are insufficient resources to review their
cases in a reasonable time. The system
should not be paralyzed by paranoia. Contrary
to the propaganda – not every immigrant is hell bent on raping and pillaging.
It is often stated, and worth
repeating – we don’t have to go back many generations to find the immigrant
ancestors of our current leadership. Their
smug self-righteousness is misplaced and deeply offensive. I remember hearing a senator proclaim
that non-citizens should not be permitted to vote on school PTO issues if they
could not be bothered to become citizens.
This still makes my blood boil because when his government finally
“bothered” to process my citizenship application after 11 years of ineptitude,
my kids were out of school. I cannot
overstate this: legal immigration into the USA was the most degrading,
insulting, expensive, painful, humiliating process I have ever endured. I invite every senator and representative to
subject themselves to it before they speak again on this topic if they are to
have any credibility.
The USA is a contradiction. There is a lot of money. But it is in the hands of very few. However, there is still the perception that anyone who works hard and is
lucky will live a comfortable life, and to some extent that is true. Our biggest advantage is that freedom is
still treasured. That is why people seek
to come here. How, then, is freedom
reconciled with isolationism? If we build
a cage around ourselves, who are the ones that are trapped: those inside or
those outside the cage?
How then should the Christian
church be talking about this:
- With grace (Col 4:6) – I am appalled at how often I hear believers ridiculing people who do not toe the line of their favorite news channel. This does not draw non-believers to Christ, but rather brands us all as hypocritical and unloving. Our mission is to declare the gospel – not our fear of the “other”.
- Avoid being swayed by fear or greed. Being abusive to others to protect your pension is not loving, nor evidence of faith. We are being played for fools by the rallying cry for the god “security”. YAHWEH is our security (Ps 20:7).
- Party manifestos should not be guiding our decisions, actions and
pronouncements.
Both US parties are deeply flawed and neither represents Christ. Our guidance and authority are from scripture
– alone (2 Tim 3:16).
- Let us debate with a preparedness to listen. Media has enabled us to only listen to the people we already agree with, hence entrenching our prejudices. 140-character sound bites preclude thoughtful discussion. The person with the loudest voice in my head wins. What if they are wrong?
- Let us remember our priorities:
- God first (Ex 20:3). This is non-negotiable if you claim to be a believer. Trust him (Matt 6:25ff).
- Love other people, as you love yourself. This may be costly.
- then the nation – this is where the rule of law, security, and economy finally kick in.
