A Class on Compassion

IS IGNORING ILLEGALS COMPASSIONATE?

By: Bob Lounsberry (Part I of II)

When you counsel someone to be compassionate, you make an assumption.
It is an assumption of moral superiority. You presume that they are, in fact, not already compassionate. You presume that their position is inherently one that lacks caring and human concern but that your position, on the other hand, is somehow morally superior and enlightened. And that's a pretty arrogant thing to do.

Because in presuming that others disagree with you because of some lack of intellect, understanding or humanity on their part, you run the very large risk of doing exactly what you accuse them of doing. You end up condemning people whose motives you fail to understand.
I'm talking about illegal immigration.

Specifically, I'm talking about the assertion that those who oppose illegal immigration somehow lack compassion, that they fail to see the human element of the issue, that they lose sight of the fact that illegal aliens are children of God, that if they only knew an illegal alien and his family their view on the issue would change.

I think that viewpoint represents both arrogance and ignorance. Specifically, it represents a failure to understand the people who oppose illegal immigration.
So let me explain.

People who oppose illegal immigration don't hate illegal aliens, they love America. And they understand America and its reliance on constitutional order and the rule of law. They know that liberty is rooted in and protected by law. They know that it is the moral duty of all Americans to uphold the law. In fact, they join with Abraham Lincoln in declaring obedience to law our “national religion.”

People who oppose illegal immigration have no objection to immigration, but they can never accept “illegal” as a way of doing things in this country. The Lord said that his house is a “house of order,” and so must the affairs of this nation be. Unchallenged illegality – of any nature – is a threat to our Constitution and – consequently – to our country.

When the laws do not matter, then the Congress that passed them does not matter and the executive who supposedly enforces them does not matter and the courts that interpret them do not matter and our entire Republic does not matter. When the laws do not matter; our Constitution twists in the wind, dangling by a thread.

It is the duty of Americans to defend the Constitution.
It is the duty of Americans to defend the law.
It is the duty of Americans to demand the enforcement of law.

It is traitorous of Americans to countenance, encourage, facilitate, induce or ignore the breaking of law.

People who oppose illegal immigration are not being bad Christians, they are being good Americans.

The law may change, we have a system for that, and the people through their representatives may choose new laws. But until that time, there is no excuse for ignoring, disobeying or skirting current law. Abraham Lincoln, again, in discussing the cursed Dred Scott decision said that though it was a noxious piece of case law, which he would never quit working to overturn, he was duty bound to obey it until it was changed.

That is the duty of any American.