Invoking faith and hiding behind Jesus in the immigration debate, and the crisis on our southern border, is disingenuous and hypocritical. While some have taken veiled and not-so-veiled shots at President Trump by using faith to mask their contempt for him under the guise of compassion, they’re completely ignoring what they don’t want to see and ironically putting their own lack of compassion on display.
They lack compassion for, and even refuse recognition of, so many who’ve suffered alarming horrors brought on by unsecured borders that the “faithful” want to leave wide open.
Recently Christian singer and songwriter Nichole Nordeman wrote an open letter in The Washington Post to Franklin Graham calling on him to change President Trump’s mind on immigration policies and “communicate the heart of Christ” to the president. Read: campaign for open borders.
The Washington Post seems to be the passive aggressive outlet of choice for open letters and ads. In 2017, President Trump barely had time to remove his hand from the Bible after taking the oath of office when evangelical leaders, including author Max Lucado, signed an open letter in the paper opposing the president’s temporary travel ban.
Then again last year Lucado, along with Beth Moore and other evangelical leaders, took out another ad in — you guessed it — The Washington Post, invoking their faith to express more immigration concerns. Translation: they want open borders.
Seems like a lot of pomp and circumstance from high profile leaders who could easily score a face-to-face meeting with the president or top adviser or, in Nordeman’s case, with Graham. Makes one wonder if they want to solve the problem or they just want to protest?
If we’re going to invoke the Bible, Proverbs 25:28 says, “A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.” That scripture is literally unfolding before our very eyes.
According to a former Department of Homeland Security agent who worked in the child-trafficking unit, nearly 10,000 kids are smuggled across the border to be sold as sex slaves in the U.S. every year. Where is the outrage and compassion for them?
No open letters for helpless girls who are sold as sex slaves. No ad revenue for the Post either.
In a survey of migrants by Doctors Without Borders nearly one third of women surveyed said they were sexually abused on their way to the United States. Where’s the compassion for these women from our well known followers of Jesus?
Just last week reports surfaced from Mexican authorities that illegal immigrants are trying to buy children from single mothers in Tijuana so they can come to the U.S. This just confirms what U.S. border authorities have been saying: not all illegal immigrants are using their own kids to cross the border. Shocker.
If illegal immigrants know they can’t get into our country, suddenly these children no longer have a target on them. How about a little compassion for these kids?
And what about all the angel moms out there who’ve lost a child at the hands of someone who is in this country illegally? Many of the perpetrators had prior arrests and prior deportations.
Where’s the compassion for these moms whose pain will never go away? Have any of these Christian speakers, singers, or authors — who want to rubber stamp asylum papers — ever had a conversation with an angel mom? What kind of witness is this?
Spoiler alert: not every asylum claim is legit. And let’s be clear, not every person claiming to be a refugee is in fact a refugee.
Let’s not forget that in November 2015 three of the seven people responsible for the most horrific terrorist attack Paris has ever seen, which killed 130 people and wounded another 494 people, are thought to have slipped into the country among refugees. One of those three attackers was the likely ringleader.
This is where the wisdom of Matthew 10:16 comes into play, “be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” As a country we should be governing by wisdom, not by emotion. The first nine chapters of the book of Proverbs, written by King Solomon himself, preach the virtue of wisdom.
What about the flow of guns and drugs coming across our border? The U.S. Border Patrol seized close to 480,000 pounds of drugs on the U.S.-Mexico border in 2018. That’s over 100,000 pounds more than the 370,000 pounds of drugs seized at ports of entry.
While our country is entangled in petty political turf wars our border is getting flooded. Then Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen testified before the House Homeland Security Committee in March that the border had seen an 80% increase in migrants over the previous year.
Unlike in "Field of Dreams," if you don’t build it — or secure it — they will continue to come.
Wisdom tells us if we want to fix the immigration crisis we have to stop laying blame and start doing something. We have a president who’s offering answers and a Congress full of Democrats with nothing but excuses. It’s disgraceful.
If you want to invoke faith, both wisdom and compassion dictate that we must secure our border and reform our asylum laws. For the sake of people both in and out of our country, we must stop trying to govern by emotion and start governing with the rule of law.
Lauren DeBellis Appell is a free-lance writer based in Fairfax, Virginia. A recovering lobbyist and Capitol Hill communications adviser, she is the mom of two girls who are growing up fast in the shadow of the Nation's Capital. A native of Western Pennsylvania she worked for Sen. Rick Santorum, R-PA, in both his D.C. office and on his successful re-election campaign in 2000. She then moved over to the Senate Republican Policy Committee for several years before leaving the Hill to lobby Congress. She's written over 100 columns over the past two years for FoxNews.com, USA Today, The Hill, Investors Business Daily, Real Clear Politics, and The Daily Caller. She keeps it real, the only way she knows. To read more of her reports — Click Here Now.
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