Secure Borders in a Christian Context

Image taken from here. 

Jesus commanded us to "love one another." A lot of Christians today talk about having "secure borders" in response to immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers.

Loving one another and having secure borders are not necessarily opposites—but they can be.

Most Christian schools of theology affirm that people have the right to private property. Along with this right comes the notion of having secure borders—whether those are the walls of your private home or the borders of the nation.

However, we can fall into the trap of assuming that the command to love one another and having secure borders are somehow opposites held in tension. It's like we instinctively know that anything that forcefully separates us from our neighbors with locks and armed guards is antithetical to the command to love. But that's only because we don't properly understand "secure borders" in light of the Gospel. They don't have to be opposites when done properly.

Most Christian theology affirms that the right to private property comes with strings attached. It's not open-ended. You have the right to private property so that you can use it for the common good. For example, you can buy a piece of land so you can chop down the trees to make lumber to build a shelter for refugees. Without the right to make decisions about that property, you may not have the agency to fully live out your Christian vocation to "welcome the stranger" (Matthew 25:31-46), for example.

God may respect your freedom to do nothing with that land and lumber while refugees suffer outside in the cold. However, that may be a sin. You certainly have the freedom to sin, but that doesn't make it right.

[I highly recommend Pope John Paul II's Laborum Exercens for a riveting and detailed look at the dignity of work and where I got the ideas of the relation between private property and Christian vocation, especially.]

Americans like to celebrate the notion of freedom. However, Christian freedom is not simply the absence of oppression and restraints. It is the freedom for living out our Christian vocation. In other words, it's not just freedom from a problem, it's the freedom for doing something good. It is in this way that all rights bestowed on us by by Creator are dovetailed with responsibilities. God wants us to have the right to freedom so that we can exercise our responsibility to live out God's commands.

We can have "secure borders" so that we can love one another, offer mercy to refugees and make peace in the world. If the borders do not accomplish that, then they are not of God.

Therefore, all this talk of "secure borders" must be in service to the Greatest Commandment to love one another which Jesus directly tells us should be our chief concern. We can have secure borders not to keep out and abuse vulnerable people but rather to protect people who need to enter for safety. In other words, the purpose of the border is to create a space to allocate resources to help them, not to exclude them. In extreme circumstances the border may be necessary not to exclude refugees but to keep out the ones persecuting them.

Because of the commandment to love, it is our duty to make room for those who are seeking refuge from a long season of running for their lives. Since love if our chief responsibility, the only times we should be talking about exclusions are in very dire, desperate situations. Those may include times when there is simply no room or resources left and when the threat to everyone else is extreme. Obviously we are nowhere near the position to make that claim in the United States:

•     We are the richest nation in the history of human civilization. 
•     We have plenty of open, available land. 
•     We have several decades of experience with undocumented immigrants living in our nation with virtually no national security risk to speak of. Despite the hype, they commit far less violent crime than even native-born citizens.

As you can see from the above list, it is hard (if not downright impossible) for a Christian to justify exclusion at this point in history based on Gospel values.

Besides, a "secure border" does not mean we keep everyone out. It means we reform our immigration system so that people can smoothly come in and out as they need without interference from the government. Part of the reason our border now is insecure is because our current immigration system is too rigid and hostile and fails to respond to current economic and human needs.

But what happens if our secure borders interfere with our ability to love one another and care for the common good? If loving one another and having secure borders ever become opposites, then the Christian responsibility to follow Jesus's Greatest Commandment must come first, as it has a significantly greater standing than the right to have borders. Yes, the Christian tradition affirms the right secure borders, but that right is never absolute and is always secondary to the dignity of the human person, the common good and our exercise of Jesus's Greatest Commandment to love one another.

So what do we do?

Let them in! Offer a warm welcome. And help them get started building and rebuilding their lives here in the U.S.

A Prayer for Immigrants, Refugees and Asylum Seekers

Photo by USA Today

I was participating in a social media discussion with someone who began his comment with, "I love my immigrant brothers and sisters, but..." He then proceeded to write a couple of extremely long paragraphs about all the ways he wants to exclude them, is suspicious of their motives and wants to deny what they ask for. He complained about what he perceives is their lack of assimilation to his culture and language. He felt he had valid concerns in the context of securing borders.

Where exactly is the love in all this?

Imagine going up to your wife and saying, "I love, you honey, but here's a list of two dozen behaviors of yours I want you to change pronto, thanks." 

You may indeed love your wife, but you are not showing love at that moment in time.

Despite this person's claim of having love for immigrants, he gave no evidence for it. There was no talk whatsoever about how he shows love to these people or even his desire to show love. There was no evidence that he was struggling over how to better demonstrate love for immigrants.

Love is not easy. It takes time, attention and lots and lots of work. It is a goal we should apply ourselves to every day. It is a concern we should bring to prayer. You can't just say "I love them" and shrug your shoulders as some kind of a blow off. Love involves constant work and attention.

A counselor once told me that a loving relationship is one where there are 10 positive things said for every negative thing. Given this, can most Christians say they are acting in a loving way toward immigrants?

If love if your focus, that's where your attention would be. Think about and write about all the ways you can learn to love your neighbor in even better and bigger ways that you did before. When your attention is on all the exceptions, exclusions and disclaimers, that is not a good witness to Christian love.

Perhaps that person has never been shown how to bring these concerns to prayer . . .

A Prayer for 

Immigrants, Refugees and Asylum seekers

I've visited lots of churches of various denominations. Many Christians have strong opinions about immigration, ranging from the most conservative to the most liberal. However, I can't recall many times when the congregation has bowed its head in prayer and brought its concerns to God in an open way simply asking God to provide guidance in light of His Divine Word in the Bible.

Let's do that now:

Loving Father, we give thanks to you for all you have given us:  

The gift of life and the gift of creation around us,

The gift of your son Jesus who shows us how to love as sisters and brothers, and

The sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit in our world and in our lives today.

We acknowledge that all we have is through your grace alone and not by our works.

Lord God, you command us to love one another and you tell us that this command is the command on which all the others hang. 

In your Beatitudes, you tell us to be humble, to be merciful to others, to be peacemakers of your Kingdom "on earth as it is in Heaven" and to look to and prefer the poor. You tell us to hunger and thirst for righteousness and justice.

In the Parable of the Sheep and Goats, you tell us to welcome the stranger, feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked and look after the imprisoned and sick.

We acknowledge the words you have spoken to us and the seriousness of your commands.

Teach us how to do this. 

Your children—our sisters and brothers—come to our door as refugees, immigrants and asylum seekers. Show us how to love more deeply, to welcome more warmly and to grow in tenderness and mercy.  Help us to look after their needs as they undergo their perilous journey longing for peace, safety and wholeness for their families. 

Help us to open our ears to hear their concerns better, 

and open our eyes to see their struggles more clearly,

So we can discern—with your guidance—how to respond as Christian disciples.

God the Father, how can we love refugees more today than we did yesterday? 

Jesus our brother, how can we show mercy to the asylum seeker knocking at our door and be the good neighbor you call us to be?

Through your grace in the Holy Spirit, how can we help cultivate peace in a world torn apart by war, poverty and violence?

Some borders and divisions may be regrettably necessary in this fallen, limited world. Help us to discern that whatever borders and locks we choose will only exist to serve your will and help foster the Kingdom "on earth as it is in heaven."

We pray to be your instruments in this world, giving to others out of thanks for all that you have given us. Without you we would have nothing. You remind us when you say:

Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt (Exodus 23:9).

For the gift of discernment 

     of your will 

          and not ours, we pray.

Amen.

***

Scripture references (unless cited above):

Greatest Commandment: Matthew 22:34-40

Beatitudes: Matthew 5:3-10

The Good Neighbor: Luke 10:25-37

Parable of the Sheep and Goats: Matthew 25:31-46