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March 27, 2006

What Would Jesus Do?

The Christian Newswire has a press release from Don Swarthout, President of CRAVE (Christians Reviving America's Values), today titled Stop Illegal Aliens--Close Our Borders.

“America is a nation of laws. We cannot continue to allow the laws of our nation to be broken by people who are free loaders, criminals and drug smugglers. We must get a handle on who is coming into our country.”

While I agree that America certainly is a nation of laws (Bush like Nixon before him seems to think he's exempt...). And I certainly don't condone the breaking of our laws by anyone. I am however troubled by a self-proclaimed Christian leader espousing the rejection of "free loaders."

What Would Jesus Do?

41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

46"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life." - Matthew 25:41-46 (NIV) And then there is the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37. Or if Mr. Swarthout doesn't care what Jesus would have done, perhaps he would at least care what the very first "Christians" would do:

32All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. 33With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. 34There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need. - Acts 4:32-35 (NIV)

Considering the fact that the overwhelming majority of migrants (illegal and legal alike) coming across our southern border are Christians, how does Mr. Swarthout justify his patently unChristian attitude towards those fellow believers?

Swarthout continues:

“We also need to wake up to the fact that Islamic Muslims want to come into our nation and to kill us. People keep talking about the peaceful Muslims, but so far I have not met any of Muslims who are peaceful. The Muslims are involved in every war being fought anywhere in the world right now. It is time for America to wake up to the GRAVE DANGER that the Muslim World is presenting to the United States of America and to the world in general,” Swarthout continued.

Ah... Swarthout finally gets down to his real reason. Presumably he views being unChristian to the vast Christian majority coming across our southern border to be a small price to pay in order to stick it to the odd Muslim who might slip across.

With all due respect to Mr. Swarthout, if he hasn't met any Muslim's who are peaceful then I would suggest he actually meet a few Muslims. I had a Morrocan friend when I lived on the outskirts of Geneva Switzerland who was both very peaceful and a Muslim.

To my way of looking at it, this entire press release and indeed the sorely misnamed "Christians Reviving America's Values" group just underscores the folly of mixing religion and politics.

Ironically, the glorious past which Swarthout and like-minded conservatives wax fondly for included things like cruelly burning so-called Witches (ie., nonChristians) to death, brutally enslaving black Africans (most of whom accepted Christianity) and treating women, particularly wives, as mere property to be abused (up to and including death) or not as the Christian man saw fit. Gee... sounds a LOT like the "Islamofascists" that Swarthout et al are so keen on fighting. Which just goes to show that the old truism about human behavior which states that we oppose in others the very traits in ourselves which we can't stand to admit to is grounded in reality.

Posted by Kevin at March 27, 2006 11:14 AM