How “Compassion” and “Inclusion”
Become a Near Occasion of Sin
By John Zmirak
March 1, 2015
The
rhetoric surrounding immigration presents a persistent temptation for
Christians to embrace false compassion that violates justice.
Likely Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio, who
two years ago was part of the Senate “Gang of Eight” pushing for a form of
amnesty, has
admitted it was a serious mistake to push for “reform” before securing the
border. It’s now time to get serious about real immigration reform, rather than
the version that passes for clear thinking and compassion among
so many policy makers, pastors and priests.
All human beings are created in God’s image. That doesn’t
mean that we should favor the poor who have immigrated here illegally
over our least fortunate fellow-Americans. American citizens are our
political family. They fight in our country’s wars, pay its taxes and sit
on its juries. Homeless shelters, public schools and hospitals for the poor
across America are overwhelmed and underfunded. Taxes are high and budgets are
bleeding.
In the face of all this, a majority
of Americans favor a much more cautious approach to immigration. They want
our borders
secured and our country’s workplaces staffed with verified,
legal workers. They want visitors who overstay
their visas (such as the 9/11 hijackers) found and deported. In other
words, Americans want to see our country’s just immigration laws enforced. If
we’re serious about solving our immigration crisis in a way that most Americans
will support, why are we avoiding these commonsense actions?
No one in the mainstream of this debate proposes that we
deport eleven million illegal immigrants who have been here for years.
Obviously we need to exercise mercy, but that is what it will be — mercy, not a
requirement of justice. And border security and enforcement must be in place before
we reach any permanent settlement. To grant amnesty otherwise would not only be
unjust to the poorest Americans, it would create a massive run on our borders
and a humanitarian disaster.
Unfortunately, powerful elites in both political parties,
across major media and in leading Christian churches are working hard to
prevent real reform. One of their most
powerful weapons is distorted Christian rhetoric of compassion and social
justice.
The Devil Exploits Our Virtues
I don’t mean to imply that the religious leaders calling for
amnesty are duplicitous. I assume they believe their rhetoric. But the impulse behind the call for
immediate amnesty is an example of virtue distorted.
Dorothy Sayers said, the devil “is much better served by
exploiting our virtues than by appealing to our lower passions; consequently,
it is when the devil looks most noble and reasonable that he is most dangerous.”
We see this law of spiritual warfare in effect throughout
Christian history. Satan fastened on Judas’s prudence — Jesus had made him
treasurer for a reason — and blew it up into stinginess, then greed to the point of betrayal. In subsequent centuries,
the Enemy found some men with a zeal for eternal truth, and goaded them to
persecute Jews, “heretics” and “witches.” He found men who loved the poor, and
convinced some to go a little further and hate the rich. As St. John Paul
II observed in Memory and Identity, some of the worst crimes in Western
history were committed in the name of “liberty, equality, and fraternity” —
secular knockoffs of faith, hope, and charity.
This
same dynamic, albeit in a subtler form, is behind the drive among religious
leaders for amnesty now.
True Compassion
Today
America’s safety and solvency are being threatened by a counterfeit form of
compassion. Real compassion “suffers with” a person in need; it does not
recruit him in a political crusade to transfer the pain to innocent others. The
Good Samaritan did not cheat the innkeeper or steal the Levite’s gold to aid
the victim he’d found on the road. Christ did not tell the rich young man to
seize his neighbors’ wealth and give that to the poor.
Here are some key questions to ask any church
leader who champions amnesty for illegal immigrants:
- Has
your church or charity received money
from federal contracts or grants in the past five years for “helping”
illegal immigrants? If so, how much?
- Does
your church provide
attorneys for immigrants fighting the U.S. government’s attempts to
enforce its laws?
- Does
your church favor IRS
rebates of up to $35,000 to amnestied immigrants who can prove that
they were working in the U.S. through felony identity theft (using stolen
Social Security numbers)? Should these immigrants be exempt from
prosecution for these felonies? If so, why?
- Does
your church “sponsor” legal immigrants entering the country? If so, do you
fulfill your legal promise to prevent such immigrants from becoming a
“public charge”? Or do you refer them to tax-funded welfare programs? How
much have you spent financially supporting such immigrants last year, to
save taxpayers’ having to subsidize them?
The way many of these religious leaders speak and behave,
one would think the Christian tradition condemned the idea of borders,
border security and the application of the rule of law to people who violate
immigration laws. That tradition calls us to a loving concern for all
humanity, yes; but neither the Bible (see relevant verses here) nor the Catechism of the
Catholic Church (see pertinent passages here)
offers any support for the notion of open borders. Instead, Christian churches
have always taught that a citizen owes his country the duty of patriotism,
and that each of us must work for the common good of our given community.
If someone today wants to offer properly Christian aid to an
immigrant, the existing law offers him an ideal way to do that: He may sponsor
a legal immigrant, promise not to allow that immigrant to become a “public
charge,” then honor that promise by providing the migrant financial support
until he gets on his feet. To do all that at one’s own expense is truly to
“welcome the stranger.” As to those who shunt that responsibility onto others,
then “announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do” (Mt 6:2). . . . They
already have their reward
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