Life and Dignity, Persecution and Hope (pro-"migrant" piece with HOT rejoinder by Mrs. Don-o)

In the turbulent early years of the 20th century the Catholic Church seemed to face persecution almost worldwide. In his book on the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church, Triumph (Forum, 2001), H. W. Crocker III writes of one particular country that in 1917 became “the first explicitly socialist, anti-religious, and constitutional revolutionary republic in the world” (p. 395). In the two decades that would follow, the Catholic Church in this country would witness all its property confiscated and nationalized and more than 40,000 Catholics killed and martyred, including 90 priests (equivalent to two-thirds of the Catholic population of East Tennessee and all of its priests and deacons).

Three papal encyclicals would be written between 1926 and 1937 concerning the dire situation in a country where 4,500 priests once served—but by 1935, according to some reports, fewer than 340 would remain to minister to a much persecuted and suffering Catholic population. At the turn of the millennium Pope John Paul II canonized 25 of this nation’s saints and martyrs from this period.

You may be surprised to learn that the country in question is not the Soviet Union but Mexico, and included in the list of those martyred were 70 Knights of Columbus, eight of whom have since been declared saints. Pope Pius XI would include Mexico with the Soviet Union and Spain in describing the “terrible triangle” of terror afflicting the Church at this time in history. But the blood of martyrs is never shed in vain, and much was shed in Mexico.

As one would expect, as a result of persecutions and the resulting civil war (1926-1929), large numbers of Mexicans were uprooted and fled from the terror. Up to one-quarter million people were internally displaced in the 1920s, with an additional half million people emigrating to the United States, sharing in the tragic mystery of the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt in order to escape Herod’s murderous rampage. Although by mid-century the persecution eventually gave way to a reluctant but nonetheless still harsh tolerance of religion, it was not until 1992 that many anti-Catholic restrictions were officially lifted.

With the advent of World War II, the United States turned to Mexico to help fill its vast labor shortages in industry and farming. In the decades that followed, the demand for foreign laborers only increased, especially for temporary and seasonal workers in the Southeast and Southwest. As a result of the economic crisis in Mexico of the 1980s the number of its people living in poverty increased dramatically.

As poverty and migration are so often intimately linked, many people are surprised to learn that one of the largest and most efficient programs for directly reducing global poverty levels is not a specific kind of aid program or global charitable effort but the result of remittances—money that foreign workers send back to their families. According to a 2007 World Bank study, remittances represented almost $170 billion in external financing for needy countries in 2005, a figure that today is likely well in excess of $200 billion.

The reasons for migration are complicated, as a snapshot of Mexico’s past century proves, but solutions are even more complex. Comprehensive immigration reform is as much about fixing a broken immigration system as it is about addressing the “push” factors behind migration—and none of these will be easy to address.

When it is difficult to be the face of Jesus to others, it is often because we first fail to see Jesus in the other person. Perhaps this is why God especially hears the cry of the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner (Exodus 20:20-22) and reminds us to be particularly mindful of their needs.

The widows and orphans of our time are the unborn and the despairing pregnant women whose boyfriends or husbands have abandoned their responsibilities to them. But let us not forget the third figure of this scriptural mandate, in whose history we share. For we too sojourn as foreigners in this life’s pilgrim journey and struggle to learn the one language that is most essential to learn: the language of faith.

Ending with my traditional play upon the words of Pope Paul VI, “If you want peace,” care for the widow, the orphan, and the stranger.

There are multiple angles of attack that could be pursued regarding illegal immigration on the biblical front, so I shall attempt to do so, though not as in-depth as I would perhaps like.

First, let us consider the employer’s role in things:
There is the story of Jesus and The Question of Taxes [Matthew 22:15-22 NIV]:

15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk.
16 And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men.
17 Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”
18 But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?
19 Show Me the tax money.” So they brought Him a denarius.
20 And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?”
21 They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
22 When they had heard these words, they marveled, and left Him and went their way.

Here we are clearly shown that it is right to pay taxes; however, a little context may be appropriate: in that day and age the Tax Collectors were corrupt [surprise, surprise] and would often add to the taxes you owed and pocket the difference. Note that in His response Jesus did not condone that sort of dishonest theft; in other words, He did not say: “Render unto Caesar that which you are told must be rendered.” Instead we see a clear delineation of paying a legitimate debt [to the Government] which is owed.

Also, in condemnation of the aforementioned tax collectors there are the following:
Deuteronomy 25:13-16
13 “You shall not have in your bag differing weights, a heavy and a light.
14 You shall not have in your house differing measures, a large and a small.
15 You shall have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure, that your days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
16 For all who do such things, all who behave unrighteously, are an abomination to the Lord your God.
AND
Proverbs 11:1
1 Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord, But a just weight is His delight.

But this does not condemn those tax collectors alone, it also condemns those who would cheat the system [by altering the amount that is being measured to calculate taxes].

Now, is it unjust to think that someone employing illegal immigrants would abuse them? It is far more likely because the illegal immigrants fear to take up their issues with the law due to their lack of legal [up]standing; this can only open the door to abuses, such as are listed here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2510698/posts

As I gave the original poster, so I give here; James 5:1-6 says:
1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you!
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.
3 Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days.
4 Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.
5 You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.
6 You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.

As you can see, the failure to pay one’s employees their full wage is a condemnation in, and of, itself.

Now, let us consider the honest citizen and legal alien:
As was stated above, God abhors unjust measuring; how then, can it be acceptable to render unequal legal rulings between the legal residents and the illegal? In the 14TH Century, John Wycliff put it this way: “How should God approve that you rob Peter, and give this robbery to Paul in the name of Christ?” [The origin, perhaps, of the saying “Rob Peter to pay Paul.”]

To grant the same benefits and privileges of either the Citizen or Legal Alien to the illegal is to give that which is unearned to someone, to the detriment of another; it is morally the same thing as “Robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

{Now, this is not to say that I condone the Courts withholding Justice to wronged illegal immigrants; however, it should NOT be ignored that they *are* law-breakers; that crime should be punished accordingly.}

Let us conclude by considering the government’s role in this:
The United States of America is founded on an ideal; that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by that Creator with rights that are unalienable and irrevokable. This could, in itself, take up a book; but let us suffice it to show the Covenant God made with Noah; Genesis 8:20-9:17 says:
20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
21 And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.
22 “While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease.”
1 So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.
2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand.
3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs.
4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.
5 Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man.
6 “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man.
7 And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; Bring forth abundantly in the earth And multiply in it.”
8 Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying:
9 “And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you,
10 and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth.
11 Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
12 And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:
13 I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.
14 It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud;
15 and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.
16 The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”
17 And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Take particular note of 9:4-6, where God established capital punishment, not as an option but as a *requirement.* This indicates that it is society’s duty to perform this act; we do it through a judicial-system which is a part of the established government, co-equal to the Executive & Legislative branches; if this ultimate punishment is to be applied for this ultimate crime [the wanton destruction of God’s image; murder] then it stands to reason that lesser crimes should also warrant punishments. Indeed, in 1 Corinthians 6:1-3 it says:
If any of you has a dispute with another, dare he take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!

This is written to the Christians! They are to exercise Judgment among one another; furthermore, in this context, it is Paul writing to encourage the punishment of a Believer via Excommunication [for sexual immorality]. So, we see in these two passages [and MANY more, should we look] that there are to be punishments for wrongdoing.

To say that illegal immigrants should be given amnesty, out of hand, is an affront to any who hold Justice in high regard.

I could go on; but this is at 4 pages currently, and I’ve covered enough of the topic on a Christian basis to refute the stance given by the Roman Catholic church on dignity; for what dignity is there in denying Justice to those who are being oppressed?

[Mrs. Don-o, you may or may not wish to ping that big -ol’ list to this; it’s up to you.]

Just a lot of random thoughts and rants on the border issue.

We are farmers, since amnesty in 1986 we have had a hard time finding laborers to pick the crop. Since we are near the Mexican border we used Mexican labor bussed in and back each day.

This year we had so many people that they often only got 1 to 2 hours of work, there were no busses bringing them up from Mexico because there were plenty of Americans and green card holders who needed jobs.

So, so many of those who received citizenship after the 1986 amnesty either went the welfare route or if they were capable went on to bigger and better jobs. From experience I know that they sure don’t stay around to pick crops.

After amnesty and until about halfway through the Clinton administration, immigration was strictly enforced along the border and most who got through went way north or east when in the past they used to stay and work along the border and eventually save enough money to go home permanently.

Clinton decimated the Border Patrol and hogtied them and they were coming faster and faster. To make matters worse, after 9/11 Bush realized that a lot of the bad guys were coming through Canada and pulled thousands of agents from the Mexican border to the Canadian border and that’s when most northerner and easterners turned around one day and noticed that we were being overrun by illegals, they blamed it on Bush but it lies at Clinton’s door and 9/11.

It took most of Bush’s time in office to put enough BP through the academy and get them going and then when they put the National Guard on the border, illegal immigration slowed to a crawl and when the economy fell to pieces many illegals went home.

Now the BP is mostly fighting a drug war rather than an illegal immigrant war, and it is dangerous and dirty. Arizona may have just passed their law but they have been deporting illegals for at least a couple of years after arrests for other illegal things. But now that it has been so widely publicized the illegal drug runners are attempting to cross in New Mexico more than ever.

Our sheriff wants us to be armed and aware and use phones to call for assistance if possible but don’t use radios because the bad guys are listening. That is okay for us but those right along the border don’t have cell phone reception.

Anytime and I mean everytime amnesty is mentioned the Mexicans get desperate to cross the border. Another amnesty would just create a larger welfare burden because that is what so many are actually after and make a laughing stock of the supposed ONE TIME amnesty of 1986.

I’m am not alone in my area in thinking that this “war” that is going on in Mexico is coming here soon. You can’t imagine how awful it is in these border towns. It is anarchy. The few good cops that haven’t been murdered are chasing the drug lords and the petty to extremely felonious criminal has no obstructions. They kill and they intimidate, they kidnap and they murder. Just this weekend there were 4 men kidnapped from a wedding in the U.S. and murdered in Mexico. You can earn $200 American dollars for each person you kill for the drug lords, $200.

In our closest border town the dentist was kidnapped, he hasn’t returned and it has been months but they haven’t found a body so they think he might still be alive. They have killed the mayor and either killed or run off all the police.

Last summer in Casas Grandes they were having a stake race and thousands of people were there to watch, bandits came and demanded all their money and valuables, a few people hesitated and they opened fire and killed 50 people, lives mean nothing to them.

This is a true story it happened to the sister of a friend. This woman was in the hair salon waiting for her turn and another woman who was waiting started talking about how awful the drug lords were and that something should be done about it. There was a man getting a haircut and when he was finished he paid and walked out. By this time the lady who had been complaining was sitting in the chair, this man walked up to the beautician and put a gun to her head and told her to shave the ladies head. She protested but he said it was either that or a bullet to the head. She shaved the woman’s head and he told the woman that she better not say anything again or he would kill her and he made a believer out of her.

These are the caliber of people who have enough money to avoid the Border Patrol. They have enough money to fly in on a Visa and stay. They have no other goal than to spread their filthy drugs and make millions off of misery. And so many of them are already here, amnesty would just make it easier for them to ply both sides of the border.

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