Editor’s note: This article was submitted for publication Fall 2018. This is a late upload.
By: Rev. David Wilson Rogers
Last Sunday as most Americans wrapped up a long weekend of food, family and football, parts of the so-called migrant caravan that has been gradually moving north through Mexico with the intent of declaring Asylum at the U.S. border, tried to cross the border and were deterred by Mexican authorities and U.S. tear gas. As the news of the violence at the San Ysidro crossing between San Diego and Tijuana spread, tempers flared and a firestorm of outrage erupted across social media.
Some national news organizations focused on the illegal actions of the migrants in storming the border crossing and attempting to force their way into America and followers were quick to denounce the migrants for their obvious criminal behavior. Other national news organizations focused on America’s use of chemical weapons against innocent women and children and followers were quick to denounce the inhumanity of U.S. authorities for using such cruel and punitive measures.
In the days following this human catastrophe, social media and news outlets exploded with angry and hateful tirades that supported President Trump in his hard-line border security policies and denounced President Trump for flagrantly violating human rights and American values in the malicious tear gas attack. As the internet and news media argument heated up, angry Americans on both sides of the debate rallied around their own cause and viciously denounced the opposing side. Each side used presumed facts—sometimes true facts and sometimes only opinionated beliefs with little grounding in truth—to rally around the presumptions of why the other side was so wrong and should burn in Hell for what happened at the Border.
Yet, amid all the back-and-forth debate, one reality remains. Neither perspective reflects authentic Christian witness!
Christianity must uphold the Biblical principles of welcoming the stranger and caring for those in need. Regardless of what some may believe, many in this caravan deserve asylum. American law provides a means for seeking asylum and pathways to citizenship and that pathway was denied in San Ysidro. Christianity also understands the importance of the rule of law and the necessity of doing things correctly. In storming the border, this was violated. Christian witness also demands truth. In the case of the San Ysidro crossing and much of the news and social media banter that has followed, all of these sacred principles were violated. Christianity also demands that all who profess Christ must uphold human dignity and this whole event clearly violates that central principle of Christian faith!
We have destroyed Christian integrity as both sides have reduced other human beings—people created in God’s image and called good—to political weapons in a hate-filled political debate on what the ethnic, cultural, and partisan landscape of this nation must resemble.
Discord and disagreement over American Immigration Policy is nothing new in the United States. Every American President has struggled with the controversial aspects of presiding over policies that determine who comes in and who stays out of America. In many instances, those debates have turned violent. Christian witness, however, demands a different approach. San Ysidro is a call to just, reasonable, and compassionate immigration reform and an end to the political climate that dehumanizes whole populations without just cause and places racial prejudice and hatred over God’s love for all humanity.
