Saturday, July 10, 2010

No Forgiveness, No Mercy

While I've never given a care about Kansas politics, a political ad I just saw on TV shocked me. The candidate, Jerry Moran, is a Republican, a member of the party that constantly panders to and counts on the vote of the Religious Right, yet his message is most un-Christianly. He's criticizing his opponent for supporting amnesty (aka mercy, forgiveness) for undocumented immigrants. Take note of the sharp barb on the wire fence at the end of the video clip:

Now, I never presume to know the mind of God, outside of what is written, so I can speak with confidence and references about the religious perspective of the above political ad.

Here's God on the subject of immigrants:

Leviticus 19:33-34 When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

Exodus 22:21 Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt.


Exodus 23:9 Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt.

Deuteronomy 10:19 And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt.

Here's Jesus on forgiveness and mercy:

Matthew 5:7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Matthew 6:14-15 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

So you see, we don't need to wonder about how God wants us to treat immigrants, regardless of how they came to be in their new land. And we don't need to wonder about how Jesus feels about Amnesty. It's written in plain English, above.

The "NO AMNESTY" crowd would rather see families torn apart, they'd rather see children who were born American citizens deported to the other side of a border where drug war violence and poverty is rampant, they would like to deny health care to sick children whose parents came to our country the only way they could, they want to deny education to children who grew up in the United States, albeit without the proper paperwork. If the Religious Right, the mainstay of the Republican Party, doesn't speak out against "NO AMNESTY", then they need to start calling themselves the Religious Wrong, because their God and their Savior are very clear on the matter. I guess we will find out after the primary election votes have been counted.

And maybe someday politicians will be willing to take on the root of the "immigration problem," i.e., NAFTA-induced economic disparity and the futile War on Drugs, that cause human beings to flee their homelands in search of the American Dream the only way that's realistically possible for them.

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