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Today is the third sermon in
our series on controversial topics. I’ve entitled the series
“Heart to Heart” as an acknowledgment that a major intent of the
series is to initiate civil conversations in our church around
some of the most controversial topics we face in our society
today. I get the first move in that conversation through these
sermons, a sharing from my heart about these topics, but I’m
serious in wanting to hear from your heart as well. “Heart to
Heart” implies that. Also implied in that is an admission I
don’t have all the answers to these topics. If I thought I did
I wouldn’t be interested in hearing from you about the topic,
I’d just tell you what the answer is. But I know better than
that. In fact, I’m quite certain no one has all the answers to
these topics. You might not know that from some of the rhetoric
out there on these issues, but the truth is no one has all the
answers. Which is why we need to hear from one another—to hear
different sides of the issue (really hearing!), ponder
and reflect upon what we hear, engage in more conversations and
more reflection and, hopefully, come to a greater understanding
about the issue and possibly some kind of consensus on the
issue. I don’t have all the answers. You don’t have all the
answers. But perhaps by engaging in civil conversations we can
come to a better understanding about these issues. And
prompting us and leading us in the conduction of those
conversations is the Scriptural theme for this series, 1
Corinthians 13:1-3. I’m not going to read it today, but the sum
of it is, if we do not have love at the core of our thoughts,
words and deeds, then we are nothing and we’re accomplishing
nothing. However passionate you feel about any issue, the
primary passion we ought to feel and be guided by is love.
Without that, whatever you have to say about an issue is merely
noise—a clanging gong and crashing cymbal.
Not having all the answers is
certainly true for our topic for today—immigration. The little
research I’ve been able to do on the topic of immigration has
revealed some of my ignorance on the issue and heightened my
awareness of the complexity of the issue. So, humbly—and very
much tip of the iceberg—some thoughts regarding the issue of
immigration. By the way, I’ve been mentioning our 9:00 Sunday
School Forums along the way in this series. Seeing Gray in a
Black and White World is coming to an end, however, the
forums are continuing.
Upcoming topics include “Palliative Care”
related to hospice care—that begins February 13—“Alternative
Energy” on February 20 and 27 led by Ted Cannon, and a
presentation on the Christian Medical Institute in the Congo
presented by our guest member in residence, Mike Meltzer, who
has participated on several mission trips to that area.
Beginning on March 13 and running for four consecutive Sundays
through April 3, we will explore this very topic of
immigration. Over those four weeks we’ll have several guest
presenters, including a panel of people who have faced the
immigration issue personally—some of those participants
including our own church members. So, today is clearly tip of
the iceberg stuff and I hope you’ll join us for the forums on
immigration…and the forums between now and then.
In approaching these topics
there has been along the way an ongoing sense that in some ways
and to various degrees of application depending upon the topic
there are political or governmental related issues and church
related issues. In a few weeks the separation of Church and
State will be the topic before us, but that is not what I mean.
What I mean is the issue and some of our response to the issue
has political overtones and a separate set of religious
overtones. In other words, the government has a certain role
and responsibility regarding the issue, and the Church has a
different role and responsibility. That may be nowhere more
true than in the topic of immigration. There are things to be
looked at from a government perspective, and things to be looked
at from a Church perspective. Generally, I would say this
regarding the topic of immigration:
1) All of us can agree that something
must be done. What we’re doing now isn’t working. Something
different must be done.
2) Government is limited on what it can
do. Even the very best of government has its focus on what it
must do and its limitations on what it can do.
3) The void that is created by that
limitation is the place where the Church has an important role.
It is, if you will, a separation of Church and State not along
ideological lines, but practical ones. The government can only
do so much. The gap that exists is a place for the Church to
move. So, let me separate those out for a moment.
First, some brief thoughts
about the political or civic side of the issue. To begin with,
we have to admit we are a nation of immigrants. Unless you are
Native American, you are the product of immigration. And while
it is true the issues and impact of immigration are not
universally applicable to all times and places in our history,
it is instructive to remind ourselves of some of that history.
For example, if you are of German descent, you might be
interested to know that how many look at and feel about
immigrants today, none other than Benjamin Franklin felt about
German immigrants during his day. Franklin worried about the
impact of German immigrants on his beloved Pennsylvania and
wrote about it:
“Why should
Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a Colony of Aliens,
who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of
our Anglifying them?”
Franklin worried about their language and even questioned their
intelligence toward learning English and becoming good
citizens. Sound familiar? Familiar also to us are the
attitudes and treatment of Irish immigrants in the 1800’s and,
later, Italian immigrants in the late 1800’s, early 1900’s.
Again, the issues related to that time and place are not totally
applicable to today, but are worth noting. At the very least,
we ought to keep that in mind as we talk about immigration
today.
One issue that seems universally applicable to
immigration regardless of time and place are the compelling
reasons leading to someone seeking to immigrate: poverty, famine
and persecution. It was famine that drove the tribe of Jacob to
Egypt. Persecution drove Joseph and Mary to bundle up their
newborn baby, Jesus, and head also to Egypt. Religious
persecution brought thousands to risk the hazardous journey
across the ocean and seek a new life in the new world known as
America. The potato famine in Ireland in the early 1800’s
brought about the great Irish immigration to America. Issues of
poverty in Italy similarly brought the Italian immigrants to
America in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. The issues of
poverty, famine and persecution remain the primary issues today
causing someone to seek to immigrate to the United States.
The question, of course, and the major controversy
concerns illegal immigration to the United States. And, while
illegal immigration has always been a concern within the
entirety of immigration history, it has become a particular
boiling point today. The reasons for that are complicated, but
two events are central to it. One that you may have forgotten,
or not connected to the problem—certainly I didn’t have it on my
radar screen until doing some research for this sermon—is the
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994. History is
full of actions taken resulting in, at best, unintended
consequences and, at worst, ignored or unspoken consequences.
It was hoped that NAFTA would invigorate Mexico’s sagging
economy. In fact, it appears to have had the opposite effect.
The introduction of large U.S. corporations has effectively
killed small businesses in Mexico. Not unlike the impact of
Wal-Mart in a community, the smaller business being unable to
compete against Wal-Mart. Additionally, most of the U.S.
corporation factories were built in northern Mexico near the
border, devastating the economies of central and southern Mexico
and driving its workforce to the north. Additionally, a large
percentage of the workers in those factories are women hired at
a low wage. Men, desperately seeking work, feel they have no
alternative but to migrate further north into the U.S., crossing
the border illegally. NAFTA has also had a devastating effect
on Mexican agriculture. The importation of cheap U.S. corn—a
major crop in Mexico pre-NAFTA but unable to compete with the
price of U.S. corn, supported by government subsidies—drove
Mexican farmers out of business and looking for work. Which
brought them north. Since NAFTA, the average wage in Mexico has
dropped more than 9% and the poverty level has gone up by 3% and
now represents nearly half the population. At best, those are
unintended consequences to NAFTA. At worse, they were
anticipated but ignored. What is troubling to me is the fact
that coinciding with the implementation of NAFTA was a policy of
tighter border control. Operation Gatekeeper was implemented
later in the same year of NAFTA. Again, at best, a reaction to
the unintended consequence of NAFTA—the driving of Mexican
workers north—and, at worst, in expectation of the consequences
of NAFTA. I truly, truly hope it was the former.
Nonetheless, those are the consequences leading to
an increased pressure for the Mexican worker to come north, even
if it must be illegally. Add to that the second event
exacerbating illegal immigration—9-11. In response to the very
real threat of terrorism in the United States, border security
grew even tighter. The result of all of that has been where
once there was more freedom of movement between Mexico and
America—a Mexican worker would come to the United States, work
in areas such as migrant farm labor, and return home to his
family at the end of the season—the worker, now driven by severe
issues of poverty, must sneak across the border and, rather than
returning home to his family, brings his family with him. That
further complicates the issue of discovery and deportation.
Most of those arrested when it is discovered they’re here
illegally have families and they are separated from their
families.
Now, regardless of how you
feel about the immigration issue, particularly illegal
immigration, I think we can all feel some anguish for people who
find themselves in the desperate situation of poverty and
famine, sensing no alternative but to cross the border into
America in hope of finding work and bringing their families with
them, only to be discovered and separated from them.
The solution on a
political, civic level? I wish I could tell you. I did learn
about a suggested solution I wasn’t aware of—the red card. It’s
certainly not perfect, but it’s intriguing to me. Different
from the green card process—which is pointed toward permanent
residence in the U.S.—the red card is a proposal toward
temporary, work-related residence in the U.S. I don’t have time
to go into it more here—check it out for yourself at
www.redcardsolution.com – but it seeks to provide a possible
solution to the pressures forcing someone to risk their life to
enter the U.S. illegally.
There is much, much, much,
much more to be discussed about this issue. I hope you’ll take
the next step in the conversation by attending the forums March
13 – April 3 and participating in the conversation. But I close
today with this—what I’ve been talking about up ‘til now is
primarily related to civic issues and government. Our
government must evaluate and explore solutions to this problem.
What I want to close with concerns the response of the
Church—which in some ways is unrelated to the government issue.
There are compelling Scriptures regarding the treatment of the
alien or foreigner in our midst. Leviticus 19:33, 34 for
example. Among the whole series of laws contained within
Leviticus, there is this: “When foreigners reside among you
in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigners residing
among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as
yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the LORD your
God.” Psalm 146, in listing all whom the LORD loves and
cares for includes these words: The LORD watches over the
foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow”
(146:9a).
And
the classic and familiar words of Jesus in the 25th
chapter of Matthew ought to give us pause as Jesus describes his
welcome of the righteous into his heavenly kingdom because they
fed him when he was hungry, clothed him when he was naked, gave
him water to drink when he was thirsty, and when the righteous
ask when exactly they did that because they don’t remember
seeing Jesus that way, Jesus responds “When you did it to the
least of these, you did it to me.”
I want to suggest to you
that however you feel about the issue of illegal immigration, we
can agree on these things.
1)
Ask, encourage, demand our government determine a just and
humane way to address immigration. I’m not sure what that looks
like and we may not agree on the solution worth trying, but I
believe we can agree, as brothers and sisters in Christ, that
the solution must not only protect the interests of the United
States and its citizens—which is the role of government—but also
be just and humane.
2)
That the Church fulfill its role as God’s servant in the world
and seek to love and care for the foreigner in our midst;
providing water when we discover them thirsty, clothing when
naked, food when hungry, shelter when they are exposed and
vulnerable. Advocate in a civil way for an appropriate and
humane civil response, and in the meantime love the foreigner in
your midst, the least of these, for that is what God calls us to
do. |
