COMMENTARY---I have a dirty little secret to confess.
No, it’s not about gambling or pornography or anything like that, though I am as tempted as the next guy by all of that stuff, and more besides. In fact, the older I get the more I realize that I may be the guy to take the title of “chief of sinners” away from the Apostle Paul.
But those are not my dirty little secrets. My dirty little secret is that I’m not sure where I stand on the immigration issue.
Now, if you were hoping for something juicier, consider that the immigration issue has almost replaced abortion and gay marriage on the agenda of conservatives.
But I’m having trouble getting excited about it, and let me explain why.
To begin with, I’m having trouble finding a clear moral imperative on this issue. Abortion is always wrong. Murder is always wrong. Stealing is always wrong. It is possible that in certain circumstances we as a nation treat those crimes differently. For example, we treat a poor person who steals a loaf of bread differently from the mastermind who blows up Fort Knox and steals the nation’s gold. But in both cases we uphold the rule of law and the principle that stealing, even the poor man’s theft, is wrong.
But the immigration issue is different. Immigration is not wrong, or immoral, in and of itself. We are all immigrants. Indeed, since Adam was banished from the Garden, and since Cain was marked and cursed by “roam to and fro about the earth” we have all been fugitives and pilgrims. In fact, scripture places a very high value on showing hospitality to immigrants and refugees, in part because of this truth that we are all, in our fallen state and to some greater or lesser degree, strangers in the land.
Of course, I do accept the principle that a sovereign nation gets to make its own laws and it can choose to make something illegal. And I also accept the important idea that a sovereign nation must protect its own borders. In fact, in my view, that’s one of the few things that the federal government SHOULD do.
So in these matters, I very much agree with my conservative friends.
But when I hear some of my same conservative friends say we should “ship them all back to Mexico,” I cannot help but hear echoes of my youth. Growing up in the South, I regularly heard racists say that we should “ship all the blacks back to Africa.” And as a father attempting to eke out a living in a tough business myself, I can’t help but feel some admiration for a man who will leave his home, endure physical danger, and work without complaint so he can send a few dollars back home to his family.
I want to show that guy a little grace, a little mercy, a little extra help.
Now, I know that the issue is not that simple. Not all of the illegal aliens are as benign as the hard-working father I described above. But neither are the all crooks and terrorists. I think the complexity of the situation is beginning to break over our Congress. President Bush, on May 15, asked for 5000 national guardsmen to be deployed on our border, and he called on Congress to pass sweeping immigration reform. The troops have been deployed, but we’re still waiting for Congress to get a bill to the President’s desk. To put it plainly, these issues are just not that black and white. They’re not that easy.
I hope we do get one. To help me clarify my thinking on this issue, I spoke this week with Rep. Sue Myrick (R-N.C.), who has been an advocate of a strict law. She’s from the more “hard-line” side of this issue, and she is someone whom I have come to respect. In her home district a drunk illegal immigrant was driving the wrong-way down the interstate and hit an oncoming car, killing a popular local school teacher. So she takes this matter seriously and personally, and I can understand, after talking with her, why we need to enforce our borders and pass laws that are tough with illegals, especially those who come to our country and break the law.
But I also hope that there is grace in the new law. We are a great nation, and we should show great strength. But if we cannot use that greatness to also show great mercy, goodwill, and charity, then what, really, is that greatness good for, either to us or a watching world.
Warren Smith is the publisher of The Charlotte World and of EP News. His weekly television program “Worldviews with Warren Smith” can been every Friday night at 9:30 pm (ET) on the iLifeTV network. (6/20/2006)
