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Immigration: Am I my brother's keeper?
Illegal immigrants are flouting U.S. laws, but does affluent America (or Arizona for that matter) have a larger moral or spiritual obligation to help illegal immigrants who are trying to better their lives? What about religious obligations to welcome the stranger? Are we our brother's keeper?
The memory of most Americans is not historically sensitive to the fact that all of us, except those we call "Native Americans," are immigrants, who came illegally into someone else's country and seized it for ourselves. Even the Native Americans we now know were immigrants from Asia, but they were coming to a country, we now estimate 15,000 years ago, which had no other human population. So they were the first settlers.
We also seem not to remember that under President James Polk in the 1840's we went to war against Mexico and took from them vast parts of what was then Mexico that we now call California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
The immigration issue is complicated because American business leaders maximize profits by using undocumented and illegal immigrants in their work force.
Today, there is a sense of being overrun by immigrants, a sense of the burden undocumented aliens are putting on social services, educational and health care resources and a rising xenophobia in a world of exploding populations.
Yes, Christianity calls us to welcome the stranger and to be our brother's keeper, but to do it we need a world-wide approach and a curtailment of the population growth throughout the world. That is not likely to happen, but until it does, anything we do will be like a band aid on a cancer. One thing I know for sure is that the world will never be stable when half of its population is starving and the other half is dieting.
By
John Shelby Spong
|
June 1, 2010; 3:31 PM ET
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Posted by: jenn3 | June 2, 2010 11:40 PM
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We are all hypocrites!!! Tell me one thing – who provides illegals with the jobs? Should I answer or the reply is obvious! Guys, it takes two to Tango! Share your opinion at http://immigration.civiltalks.com/. Your comments count!
Posted by: emma84 | June 2, 2010 10:59 AM
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Mr. Spong doesn't extend his "Christian" charity to poor, homeless fellow US citizens, apparently his "charitable" feelings are towards his own profit motives, investments, etc.. in companies that squeeze more blood profit by dragging down wages and through that, firing and/or refusing to hire US citizens, who happen to be black, brown and white, depriving them of the livelihood needed to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table.
That's what is so pathetic about this sort of ploy used by wolves in sheep's clothing like Mr. Spong. They treat Christ's teachings like so much smoke to obscure the discussion. They don't walk the walk, because they simply don't believe in Christ or his advocacy. Rather like the pathetic display Nancy Pelosi put out there this week, feigning her intent is in Christ's "word", when the woman's real intent is in the profits of fat contributions towards her political and private purse.
When Spong starts addressing the fact that Christ, were He to appear before him, would remind him, that He didn't admonish the wealthy to steal the jobs of their poor neighbors and displace them, so as to increase his profits. If Mr. Spong actually cares about what Christ advocated, He told the rich man to give all his possessions away to the poor. I wonder, has Mr. Spong given away his savings, his job, his home and all his worldly possessions? No, he hasn't. If he can't recognize that poor US citizens and their children are his brothers as well, and he should be speaking out as to their suffering. What illegal aliens need to hear is that when they participate in the dispossession of poor US citizens, they are committing sin. That they need to return to their home countries and work hard for change there, instead of giving in to greed and corruption.