Hear What Our Lord Jesus Christ Saith

And the Second Is Like Unto It

The grimly enthusiastic election in Egypt following violent post-revolution demonstrations in Tahrir Square makes one wonder whether we need some such to stir Americans to the polls. In federal elections from 1960 to 2010, the percentage of eligible voters who actually cast a ballot ranged from a high of 63% to a low of 36%. With its protest of extreme greed, Occupy was a move in the right direction, though timed poorly, far too early to be effective or influential. In fact, it wasn’t timed at all, was it, just erupted somehow out of Arab Spring, to be put down without gunfire, evaporate, and folks go home for a beer and mind-numbing television. One presidential aspirant said they should go home and get jobs, an incredibly stupid remark in an economy with over 9% unemployment. 

On the hate side, Illegal Immigrants is being made a campaign issue. A suggestion has been to erect an impenetrable physical barrier at the southern border and station armed troops to enforce. Folks need to remember the Iron Curtain, Berlin Wall, and Cold War when people were willing to risk death to escape Communist countries. Nobody ever died trying to escape the United States of America, this is where people risk life to get in, we need to remember that. It also behooves us to remember that we are one and all a nation of immigrants: generous lovingkindness would become us.

This is not and will not become a political blog, God forbid, but it is most extremely distressing that the administration is vigorously expelling illegal immigrants who are parents of American born children, leaving thousands upon thousands of frightened children in foster care and as wards of the government. Walt Kelly and Pogo again, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” The most hopeful comment from a presidential aspirant to this point is far, far from the demented crowd: that we should not disrupt homes by seeking out and deporting people who are settled in America long years, working, going to church, paying taxes, raising little children who are constitutionally American citizens. One may hope the comment was substantial and not shallow political opportunism of the moment.

Someone else pointed out that illegal immigration is not a political issue but an economic issue of supply and demand: who are these people who are willing to risk their lives to live in America? Who indeed. They are the folks who rake our yards, mow our lawns, clean our homes, take care of our children.

Economic. Naive perhaps but nevertheless and like it or not, for Christians it also is a Second Great Commandment issue.   

TW+