Mammon and Illegal Immigration
This week my friend and brother in Christ, Nick Alejo, has been visiting me. The Alejos were some of my best friends in Elgin, IL. His mother, Toribia, earned her US citizenship while I was there, and the ladies at church threw her a party to commemorate the moment. I offered to jump out of a cake dressed up like Uncle Sam with sparklers in each hand, singing "America the Beautiful," but they didn't take me up on it.
Nick asked me what I thought about the recent controversy regarding illegal immigration. To be honest, no issue puts my political beliefs and my Christian walk more at odds with each other than this issue. Politically, I think it is outrageous that neither major party has the courage to confront this problem in a way that truly puts US security first. Our southern border is a sieve, and who is to say among the thousands who pour across it each month how many terrorists are included? And what message does it send to my friends the Alejos when the major parties are trying to pass laws which give leniency to those who did not patiently play by the rules? Why even bother following the law?
If I were president (and to the nation's great comfort I am not), I would take US troops and place them on the Mexican side of the border to assist our neighbor to the south in keeping order. I would severely penalize any business which hired illegals. And I would make sure that our taxpayers are not left footing the bill for any services used by illegals by insisting that the Mexican government chip in (or else lose all trade rights).
By the way, those who favor globalization promised us that trade agreements such as NAFTA would solve the problem of illegal immigration by creating a prosperous working class in Mexico. That is but one example of how the theories of globalization never seem to work in practice - for anyone but big business.
And it is big business which is at the root of the illegal immigration problem. By exploiting illegals who will work off the books for much less, businesses can increase their profits. Even Forbes magazine has highlighted the shameless way in which businesses use illegals for their own gain. Illegals not only provide a workforce; they also provide 12-22 million new consumers that business are more than happy to cater to according to Business Week. And until our culture ceases to worship at the altar of Mammon, I see no end to this problem. That is, until a terror cell which entered our country illegally pulls off a major attack. Then, I am afraid there could be a backlash against all immigrants.
So that is my political position. But my commitment to Christ trumps all of these concerns. For those who accept the call to "go and make disciples of all the nations" (Matthew 28:19) the job is even easier now that the world is coming to us. There is a huge need for those who can speak Spanish all over the country to reach those souls who have come into our nation. As a citizen of a heavenly kingdom (Philippians 3:20), I am the alien and sojourner after all (1 Peter 2:11), and my goal is to help as many other as possible, of every nation, tribe and tongue, make it to the home country (Revelation 7:9-10).
Nick asked me what I thought about the recent controversy regarding illegal immigration. To be honest, no issue puts my political beliefs and my Christian walk more at odds with each other than this issue. Politically, I think it is outrageous that neither major party has the courage to confront this problem in a way that truly puts US security first. Our southern border is a sieve, and who is to say among the thousands who pour across it each month how many terrorists are included? And what message does it send to my friends the Alejos when the major parties are trying to pass laws which give leniency to those who did not patiently play by the rules? Why even bother following the law?
If I were president (and to the nation's great comfort I am not), I would take US troops and place them on the Mexican side of the border to assist our neighbor to the south in keeping order. I would severely penalize any business which hired illegals. And I would make sure that our taxpayers are not left footing the bill for any services used by illegals by insisting that the Mexican government chip in (or else lose all trade rights).
By the way, those who favor globalization promised us that trade agreements such as NAFTA would solve the problem of illegal immigration by creating a prosperous working class in Mexico. That is but one example of how the theories of globalization never seem to work in practice - for anyone but big business.
And it is big business which is at the root of the illegal immigration problem. By exploiting illegals who will work off the books for much less, businesses can increase their profits. Even Forbes magazine has highlighted the shameless way in which businesses use illegals for their own gain. Illegals not only provide a workforce; they also provide 12-22 million new consumers that business are more than happy to cater to according to Business Week. And until our culture ceases to worship at the altar of Mammon, I see no end to this problem. That is, until a terror cell which entered our country illegally pulls off a major attack. Then, I am afraid there could be a backlash against all immigrants.
So that is my political position. But my commitment to Christ trumps all of these concerns. For those who accept the call to "go and make disciples of all the nations" (Matthew 28:19) the job is even easier now that the world is coming to us. There is a huge need for those who can speak Spanish all over the country to reach those souls who have come into our nation. As a citizen of a heavenly kingdom (Philippians 3:20), I am the alien and sojourner after all (1 Peter 2:11), and my goal is to help as many other as possible, of every nation, tribe and tongue, make it to the home country (Revelation 7:9-10).
posted by Shane at 8:46 PM
6 Comments:
Gotta disagree with you on NAFTA. It woked as it was theorized. The main reason it didn't create a Mexican middle class (or hasn't yet) is that we then went free trade with China, who can offer more labor more cheaply. China can also guarantee relatively better security and stability.
The Mexican government and elites under Fox also came to realize they were better off shipping the lower classes to the US than trying to create jobs for them in Mexico.
And it could be argued that your timescale for judging globalization and NAFTA is a bit early in the game. (It's probably too early to judge the American Revolution too.)
As long as more jobs are made available to the poorest people in the world, I'm OK with globalization even if it means slower economic growth for the US (which I don't believe it actually does). Maybe it's because in my eyes as a Christian, all humans are equally valuable and worthy of political and economic rights- so lowering our trade barriers to benefit the truly poor is acceptable to me, even if it means I might make a couple grand less down the road. Just a thought.
(Of course, regulating globalization so that the poor actually benefit as much as possible is key, while keeping in mind that a lousy job is better than no job at all.)
Shane, I agree with you on both counts. On the one it is shameful that our nation has lacked the political will to maintain its borders. It is a sign of historical decadence that points to national suicide. The reality is no real action will be taken, and the issue is effectively lost.
As Christians, however, our concern is for the lost regardless of how they got here. It certainly opens a valuable opportunity to teach those who might not otherwise hear the truth. Many brethren are taking advantage of this, and I am aware of Spanish speaking works in Alabama (multiple places), Florida (Royce Chandler works with a bilingual congregation in Tampa; his son Luke is moving there next month to work there as well) and I recently spoke to a brother in Oregon about a bilingual group in California. I know there are many, many more.
and why should we as Christians be more concerned with the national security of our country here than with the well being of our neighbors to the south? Neither do I believe that one can separate the Biblical commands we have to help the poor (ie Matthew 25) from the message of the gospel ('saving souls'). These are indelibly intertwined, and concern for either the salvation of Mexicans or other potential immigrants here without concern for easing their poverty, or vice versa, would be a distortion of the Christian message.
Hi Brett-
On one level your question raises the difficult larger issue of the relationship between the Christian and the civil government. My brief answer to your question is that if civil government has a right to exist (and it seems to me from Scripture that it does), then enforcing the rule of law is not only wise politically, it is an obligation morally. Further, while I agree that we should be good neighbors, there is a basic issue of justice involved here - should American families have to bear the financial burden of caring for those who come here illegally? I do not believe that is right, either legally or morally.
You're right that the larger question is one of our relationship between Christians and government, but our conclusions will probably always be different. I agree that a government has the right to enforce its laws, and therefore its borders. Of course, from a literal interpretation of those same passages, many tyrannical governments (such as England's relationship to its colonies prior to our Revolution) should also be supported by Christians. I'm not sure we're all too consisten on our interpretation of these passages...
While a nation-state has the right to enforce its rule of law, and therefore its borders, that raises the question of whether the enforcement should be for security purposes or economic purposes- what exactly should the law be?. Is enforcement of a law morally necessary if the law itself is immoral? I agree with keeping terrorists, drug lords, and criminals out. But on what basis do we deny citizenship to hard-working residents of other countries who would like to immigrate?
I am also in agreement that "American families" shouldn't bear any (undue) financial burden for illegal immigrants. But as far as I can tell, the only "burden" on us taxpayers is exactly because these immigrants haven't been legalized. If you allow them citizenship, they will pay just as many taxes as you. In fact, I believe studies have shown that illegal immigrants are more likely to hold jobs than citizens.
So as a Christian, why not support normalization of the illegals status (ie citizenship) to allow them to contribute more fully to our society? Border security is necessary (for safety concerns), but when people are desperately poor, how can we not be in favor of much higher quotas for legal immigration?
Post a Comment
<< Home