WANTED WOMEN: Faith, Lies & The War on Terror: The Lives of Ayaan Hirsi Ali & Aafia Siddiqui, by Deborah Scroggins – Harper/HarperCollinsPublishers New York, NY Copyright © 2012 by Deborah Scroggins.

 A review by Bill Dahl

A Legitimate Pulitzer Prize Candidate:

When I received my copy for review – the title and cover made me skeptical…but…I started reading…then – I couldn’t out it down.

This book is unique and profoundly distinctive in so many ways. The following are noteworthy:

a) Deborah Scroggins spent 6 years on this project.

b) Initially, I viewed the structure of the book as a gamble – alternating chapters for Ayaan Hirsi Ali & Aafia Siddiqui – I came to absolutely adore it.

c) The author had never interviewed either woman directly during the research and writing of the book. Yet, the tertiary sources Scroggins plied to obtain the pertinent material are both comprehensive and intimate – providing the reader with the ability to become acutely familiar with each subject.

d) You can’t write a book like this without placing your personal safety and welfare in jeopardy (no matter what the author says).

This work has it all: religion, women’s rights, equality, terrorists, murder, birth, faith development, human development, intrigue, political intrigue, Somalia, the war on terror, the disconnect between the west and the rest, family relations, refugees, terrorism, suicide bombings, contradiction, lies, deception, death, Africa, immigration, racism, Guantanamo, secret CIA prisons, abductions, prejudice, divorce, intolerance, relationships, misunderstanding, certainty, fundamentalism, Judaism, Pakistan, charisma, injustice, finance, bodyguards, assassinations, court proceedings, mental health issues, separation, The U.S., extremism, the media, anarchy, survival, irrationality, mystery, children, misperception, military engagement, war, genocide, foreign policy, Iran, Iraq, the oppressed, poverty, affluence, the pursuit of personal achievement, strategic international relations, CIA, FBI, ISI, Taliban, Al-Qaeda, Daniel Pearl – and running for your life…whatever that may mean.

In the absence of such an incredibly gifted investigative journalist/author (Deborah Scroggins) – this book might have easily become a mediocre mess. I garnered a deep appreciation for both the writing and storytelling skill of Scroggins, as well as the unimaginable perseverance she aptly displays – crafting a page-turning, insightful examination of the intersection where the issues I enumerate above collide…in the lives of real people…today. She lets the story speak for itself (if there really is such a thing). The voice Scroggins equips the two central characters with is a feast for the reader.  The manner in which she shares this story is so terribly poignant and powerful yet, unequivocally uniquely creative – causes the reader to become curious, engaged, concerned, educated, perplexed, angry — to ponder deeply — and arrive at a place where one understands just how much difficult work we have yet to accomplish — in directly addressing the innumerable challenges, contradictions and life shaping/threatening conditions WANTED WOMEN: Faith, Lies & The War on Terror: The Lives of Ayaan Hirsi Ali & Aafia Siddiqui so cogently illuminates.

Today, as a species, in our current historical epoch, homo-sapiens (that’d be us) – particularly those who are sufficiently fortunate to be free from worry about survival on a daily basis – also seem to have acquired another peculiar tendency this book illuminated for me. It’s epistemological self-righteousness – We humans have an infernal capacity to come to believe what we think we know is both adequate and sufficient. As Princeton research psychologist and Nobel Prize winner Dan Kahneman has said in his most recent book, Thinking, Fast and Slow – we develop the tendency to think What You See Is All There Is. Kahneman writes: “At work here is that powerful WYSIATI rule: You cannot help dealing with the limited information you have as if it were all there is to know. You build the best possible story from the information available to you, and if it is a good story, you believe it.”[i] Kahneman refers to this as “pretended knowledge” – a phenomenon very apparent in the lives of both Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Aafia Siddiqui…and our world.

As any superlative literary work of non-fiction requires Deborah Scroggins’ WANTED WOMEN: Faith, Lies & The War on Terror: The Lives of Ayaan Hirsi Ali & Aafia Siddiqui leaves the reader with the veil epistemological modesty firmly affixed to ones’ heart and soul. Yet, the work clearly defines the challenges ahead, prompting the essential dialog required to re-think our current beliefs, policies, practices and past approaches to the ongoing, unresolved issues so vividly and persuasively illuminated by this book. There’s vastly more import to this work than your what you see is all there is mechanism might suggest.

Like I said…a legitimate Pulitzer Prize candidate. Believe it!

“What’s that?”

Each time I drive to or from San Diego, CA on Interstate 5 with a first time visitor to the area, they always exclaim, “What’s that?” They are pointing out the window to an upcoming sign posted distinctly at the side of the freeway. These bright yellow signs contain the contrasting dark image of an adult, holding hands with two children, one on each side. They are running.

“What’s that?” is indicative of the level of awareness and involvement of the Christian community regarding our existing immigration policy that systematically oppresses God’s children. The purpose of this expose is to change the posture of the Christian community in the U.S. from a position of “What’s that?” to “That’s what!”

The Call:

As I read my Bible, I am continually reassured by the penchant of our God to see what is going on down here, and His ability to direct His attention to the voices that seem to be drowned out by the chatter of man.

In Exodus Chapter 3, God appears to Moses out of a heartfelt concern for the plight of His people.  ”I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey – the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.[i]

Public policy that oppressed a certain segment of God’s children had become acceptable practice by the people of Egypt. It is interesting to note how often the Bible illustrates that which becomes ‘acceptable public policy’ in the eyes of man, is actually a distinct abomination in the sight of our God.

Today in the United States, we are modern day witnesses and participants in supporting a public policy that currently oppresses millions of God’s children. Pundits have even boldly advanced the following argument, as written in Exodus: 8Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt. 9″Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become much too numerous for us. 10Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.” [ii] In other words, rather than viewing the oppression of His people as something the Christian must act against, many of us have become caught up in the “threat argument” that these aliens pose to us, tacitly supporting the oppression of existing public policy, contrary to the heart of God. Other Christians simply stand around with their hands in their pockets, whistling in an attempt to ignore the situation.

Something must change. Scripture clearly indicates that God is not going to change His heart with regard to the oppression of His people. Public policy won’t change until the Christian community comes together to provide the voice for the muffled cries of His children. These cries are currently drowned out by the media manufactured, secular agenda of mainstream priorities in the U.S. that invade our ears, eyes and minds on a daily basis.

Unfortunately, as it was for Moses, such is our lot today. It is through our obedient compliance to His Word that things will change. Yet, we must be the ones’ to heed His call. It is a call to become involved in the fray where victims of oppression are created by public policy that creates and condones “man’s inhumanity to man,” as characterized in the following by Francis Schaeffer:

“If it is true that evil is evil, that God hates it to the point of the cross, and that there is a moral law fixed in what God is in Himself, then Christians should be the first into the field against what is wrong—including man’s inhumanity to man.”[iii]

The Mexodus:

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Hispanics have outnumbered African Americans residing in the U.S. since of July 1, 2002.[iv] This is a 58% increase in the figure reported for the 1990 census. Less than 60% of all Mexican-Americans hold a U.S. passport.[v] Hispanic families are reported to average more than three children per family while the remainder of U.S. families average under two. According to one author, “Anyway you look at it, the future of the United States is a Hispanic one. The Latino wave is unstoppable.”[vi]

Every 100 minutes, an illegal immigrant from Mexico or Latin America successfully crosses the border into United States. The issue of oppression is rampant within The Mexodus: The plight of millions of Mexican citizens fleeing to the United States motivated solely by the hope of a better life. This reality is created by the improbability and hopelessness of providing their families with a better future, escaping the certainty of subsistence level poverty in their country of origin. This is our modern day Exodus I am referring to as The Mexodus.

Through June 30, 2004, there have been a reported 880,000 arrests of illegal immigrants attempting to cross the U.S./Mexican border (versus 932,000 “total illegal entrants” at all 317 U.S. entry points and borders in fiscal 2003.[vii] (Period October 1, 2002 to September 30, 2003). The “estimate” is that 2 – 3 times as many persons successfully cross the border than are caught. Depending upon whose numbers you choose to select, there are an estimated 9-15 million undocumented Mexican citizens presently residing in the United States.[viii]

Chillegals:

One critically important dimension of the Mexodus issue is the well-being of the children of illegal Mexican immigrants living in the U.S.. I will refer these innocent children here as ‘Chillegals.’ Most of these children began their journey to our country as infants, wrapped in blankets, and coddled in the arms of their parents as they made their way across the border. As infants and children, they did not give their consent to the decision of their parents. In fact, they were victimized by their parents. Victimization is defined as “adversity resulting from being made a victim.”

Most Christians would agree that prostitution, the use of illegal drugs and illicit gambling are crimes. Although “crimes” in the legal sense of the word and proscribed by Scripture, our society has labeled these acts as “victimless crimes” because “nobody other than those consenting to the act are harmed.”  I think we can all agree that this “victimless” stuff is nonsense can’t we? When it comes to victimless crimes, we know that prostitution, drug abuse and gambling cause harm to others, well beyond those involved “in the act.” All “victimless crimes” contain the element of “one consenting adult engaging in illicit behavior.”

Victimmigration:

As it relates to the plight of the millions of Chillegals residing in the U.S., these infants and children never had the capacity to consent or dissent to the actions taken by their parents. Yet, we hold them responsible and oppress them, based upon the immoral treatment afforded them under current public policy. This is Victimmigration: The ongoing oppression of infants and children of illegal Mexican immigrants in the U.S.

We oppress them in the following ways:

• No social security cards
• No drivers licenses
• No air travel
• Limit the opportunities for qualified candidates to pursue higher education.
• No opportunity to work legally
• We prevent them from participating in and contributing to our society…the only home they have ever known.
• We perpetuate oppression: A vicious, immoral, unnecessary cycle.
• We encourage the proliferation of poverty-ravaged subcultures within the U.S.

The Christian Call To Arms:

The Call To Arms for the Christian Community in the United States is to reach out and embrace these infants and children who have become non-consenting victims of U.S. Victimmigration policy. Their innocent voices cannot be heard by bureaucrats and the politicians in power in Washington D.C. Francis Schaeffer encourages us to speak up and act on behalf of the oppressed, as summarized in the following:

“The Christian should be in the front line, fighting the results of man’s cruelty, for we know it is not what God has made. We are able to be angry at the results of man’s cruelty without being angry at God or being angry at what is normal.”[ix]

Consider the following inspiration from our Holy Bible:

Numbers 15: 15The community is to have the same rules for you and for the alien living among you; this is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. You and the alien shall be the same before the LORD: 16The same laws and regulations will apply both to you and to the alien living among you.’ ” [x]

Jeremiah 7: ” 5If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, 6if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, 7then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever. 8But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless. [xi]

Ezekiel 47: 21″You are to distribute this land among yourselves according to the tribes of Israel. 22You are to allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the aliens who have settled among you and who have children. You are to consider them as native-born Israelites; along with you they are to be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. 23In whatever tribe the alien settles, there you are to give him his inheritance,” declares the Sovereign LORD. [xii]

Zechariah 7: 8And the word of the LORD came again to Zechariah: 9″This is what the LORD Almighty says: `Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. 10Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.’ 11″But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and stopped up their ears. 12They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry. 13″ `When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,’ says the LORD Almighty. 14`I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations, where they were strangers. The land was left so desolate behind them that no one could come or go. This is how they made the pleasant land desolate.’ “[xiii]

Conclusion:

It is my prayer that your soul shall hear the voice of our Lord Jesus as He speaks in Luke Chapter 4:

18″The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because he has anointed me

to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

and recovery of sight for the blind,

to release the oppressed,

19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”[xiv]

Our choice is no different today than the one that confronted Moses a few thousand years ago. Will we continue to attempt to reply to Him, as Moses did, saying, 13″O Lord, please send someone else to do it?”[xv] Can we hear him responding to our apathy and feeble attempts to avoid acting upon His commands as He shouts: 11″Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD? 12Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” [xvi]

Our Call to Arms as Christian’s regarding the Victimmigration issue in the United States, is clearly captured in the following words from Jesus Christ that continue to ricochet through the corridors of time:

Mark 10: 13People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. 14When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” 16And He took the children in his arms, put His hands on them and blessed them. [xvii]

As you lift your arms to worship and embrace Jesus, be reminded to bow down and embrace the cause of His Children who have become victims of immoral, modern day public policy in the United States…the children of Victimmigration. This is the Christian Call to Arms.

He won’t “send somebody else” to accomplish His work on this Earth. He’s counting on you. So are His children.

Bow down. Embrace this cause today. Allow your “What’s that?” to become a “That’s what I am called to do as a disciple of Jesus Christ?”

NOTES:

[ii] Exodus 1:8 -10 Excerpted from Compton’s Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

[iii] Francis A. Schaeffer, The God Who Is There, InterVarsity Press Copyright (c) 1968 p. 136

[iv] U.S. Bureau of the Census. June 18, 2003.

[v] The Latino Electorate- 2002 National Survey of Latinos, Pew Hispanic Center/Kaiser Family Foundation, October 2002.

[vi] Ramos, Jorge The Latino Wave, Copyright (c) 2004 by Jorge Ramos, HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. NY, NY p. 238

[vii] Performance and Annual Report – Fiscal Year 2003 – U.S. Customs and Border Protection – U.S. Department of Homeland Security,

[viii] Performance and Annual Report – Fiscal Year 2003 – U.S. Customs and Border Protection – U.S. Department of Homeland Security, p. 68… NOTE: As indicated in a memorandum from the Commissioner of  U.S. Customs and Border Protection in 2003,[viii] the overall accuracy of the numbers reported by Border Patrol and Customs/Immigration Enforcement remain in doubt. The Commissioner states: “Customs had four outstanding material weaknesses at the beginning of FY 2003. Although we are well on our way to resolving a number of these weaknesses, until they are closed the existing deficiencies in the quality and adequacy of data provided by Customs financial accounting and reporting systems prevent me from providing reasonable assurance as of  September 30, 2003, that Customs overall controls and financial management systems were in conformance with standards prescribed by the Comptroller General of the United States.”

[ix] Schaeffer, Francis A. He Is There and He Is Not Silent, Tyndale House Publishers Copyright (c) 1972 by Francis A. Schaeffer  p. 29

[x] Numbers 15:15-16 Excerpted from Compton’s Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

[xi] Jeremiah 7:5-8 Excerpted from Compton’s Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

[xii] Ezekiel 47:21-23 Excerpted from Compton’s Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

[xiii] Zechariah 7: 8-14 Excerpted from Compton’s Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

[xiv]Luke 4:18-19 Excerpted from Compton’s Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

[xv] Exodus 4:13 Excerpted from Compton’s Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[xvi] Exodus 4:11-12 Excerpted from Compton’s Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[xvii] Mark 10: 13-16 Excerpted from Compton’s Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved.

MexGen:

Profiling the Paradox

By Bill Dahl

Dehydration is a Process

Water is something we all take for granted. It’s all over the place. Approximately two thirds of the Earth’s surface is covered with water. If you fail to consume water within a 48-hour period, your body begins to deteriorate. You can die from thirst. Drought threatens human survival.

Water flows downhill. We rely upon the fact that winter snows in the mountains will become spring flows of life sustaining water. It takes time to transform a snowflake in the mountains into a drop of water in your kitchen. If this process is interrupted, we’re all in deep, deep trouble. Wells and reservoirs run dry if the sources and flow of life giving water are not nurtured.

There is no segment in American society where the threat of drought is more apparent than within the Hispanic community. The essential flow of emerging, capable and educated leaders to the reservoirs and wells that sustain the mainstream Hispanic community is being obstructed and diverted. This disruption in the flow of vital Hispanic generational leadership ( hereinafter “MexGen”) is intentional, unconscionable and will serve to impair the effectiveness of the Hispanic contribution to American society for decades to come, if this situation continues unabated.

James P. Smith, Chairman for labor markets and demographic studies at Rand Corp. recently led a panel for the National Academy of Sciences on the economic and tax effects of immigration. He writes, “The successes of previous immigrant generations happened in large part because schools worked for both immigrant children and their native-born classmates. If schools don’t similarly work for today’s immigrants — and there are ample reasons for concern — the success of future generations will be imperiled.”[i] This poignant perspective provides the basis of this article: Profiling the Paradox of MexGen.

Like my mom always told me, “If you’re thirsty, you’re already dehydrated. Dehydration is a process, not an event” Let me explain.

Parched Throats:

MexGen is under siege in mainstream U.S.A. Media reporting would lead us to believe that the combatants in the U.S. culture wars are the left and the right. This may be valid, but the casualties are piling up and they are distinctly MexGen!

The Hispanic population in the U.S. is estimated to be around 40 million people, according to the 2000 U.S. Census. Numerous studies have talked about the difficulty of determining the extent to which the undocumented immigrant is, or is not, included in this total. The 2000 U.S. Census figures have been characterized as “are widely recognized as incomplete.”[ii] Recently, Bear-Stearns suggested, “this figure may be as high as 20 million people.”[iii] For the sake of counting those who have probably not been counted in the 2000 Census, let’s say the Latino population in the U.S. in 2005 is approximately 50 million people, or 17% of the total U.S. population. The majority of U.S. Latinos come from Mexico. More than 35% of all Hispanics are under 18 years of age[iv] (although this number may be distinctly higher if figures for undocumented immigrant students were available). Thus, MexGen is in school, preparing to become the next generation of leaders for an increasingly important segment of American society.

There are twenty some Latino Congressmen, no senators, no Supreme Court justices and one governor. As Jorge Ramos writes, “We are numerous but we lack political representation commensurate with our numbers.”[v]

Becoming thirstier?

Generational Brain Drain

A study completed by the Rand Corporation revealed that, “Our results show that many immigrants and their offspring, especially Hispanics, are losing ground in educational attainment to other immigrant groups and to natives. Immigrants from most places of origin enroll in California’s primary, middle, and high schools at the same rates as natives and are as likely as natives to graduate from high school. This is not true of Mexican and Central American immigrant children, however. Their enrollment rates begin to drop off in middle school and fall progressively further behind during the high school years. By age 20, only 45 percent of Hispanic immigrants have graduated from high school, compared to 90 percent of non-Hispanic immigrants and 88 percent of natives. It appears that instead of dropping out of the school system in the traditional sense, many Hispanic immigrant adolescents never attend school at all—they have come north to find work, not to attend school.”[vi]

In March 2005, the L.A. Times reported the current state of graduation rates in the LAUSD. “The results of a “Harvard University study released this month showed that just 39% of Latinos and 47% of African American students in the district who should have graduated in 2002 managed to do so. Overall, the district’s graduation rate was 45.3%, the report found.”[vii] Only 15% of Latinos and 21% of African Americans who began their freshman year in 1999 graduated with enough of the courses to attend a four-year California university in 2003.[viii]

The results of a study by Pew Hispanic Center released in May 2005 states that “The concentration of Latinos in relatively low-skill occupations contributed to reduced earnings for them for the second year in a row. No other major group of workers has suffered a two-year decline in wages. The vast majority of new jobs for Hispanic workers were in relatively low-skill occupations calling for little other than a high school education. In contrast, non-Hispanic workers secured large increases in employment in higher-skill occupations requiring at least some college education. This polarization contributed to a growing gap in earnings between Hispanic and non-Hispanic workers. The fall in wages for Latinos was greatest among immigrants who arrived in the United States in the past five years. Thus, the new immigrants who are enjoying significant growth in employment are doing so at the expense of lower wages. This trend is, no doubt, exacerbated by their concentration in occupations calling for minimal skills and education. Despite strong demand for immigrant workers, their growing supply and concentration in certain occupations suggests that the newest arrivals are competing with each other in the labor market to their own detriment.”[ix]

If, in reading the above, you get the distinct feeling that “brain drain” has a trickle-down effect on the impact the 18 and under Hispanic generation (MexGen) may or may not be able to make in American society, you’re right. You don’t have to possess a PhD in generational sociology to figure this one out.

I agree with the author Dr. Charles Handy when he writes, “We grow more food than we need but cannot feed the starving. We can unravel the mysteries of the galaxies but not of our own families. To call it a paradox, however, is only to label it, not to deal with it. We have to find ways to make sense of the paradoxes, to use them to shape a better destiny.”[x]

It’s time to travel the route of the current trickle and determine what is causing this brain drain. I firmly believe that we must stop the daunting prospects of the forecast for a Hispanic generational leadership drought at the source. It’s time to heed the words of Rand’s James P. Smith when he writes, “Special efforts should be undertaken to encourage high school graduation and college attendance within the Hispanic community and to discover ways to enhance the educational achievement of Hispanics.”

What must be done now, to “shape a better destiny?”

The MexGen Profile

Yvette and Maria (not their real names although this is a real story) live in the same community in Santa Ana, CA with their families. Their families don’t own homes. They rent apartments. The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government published a report in August 2004 entitled “An Update on Urban Hardship.” Santa Ana, CA was ranked as the #1 big city in America where it is toughest to make ends meet.[xi] Yvette has 7 sisters and one brother. Maria has two brothers and three sisters. They’re both 17, attractive, bright, hard working and fun loving. They work part-time jobs in a fast-food restaurant together. They help others in their community doing volunteer work.

They have received the entirety of their public education in the Santa Ana School District. Later this month, they will both graduate from a local high school with honors. This is an amazing feat when you appreciate the fact that almost 6 out of 10 adults in Santa Ana, CA over the age of 25 have less than a high school education.[xii] Both Yvette and Maria will graduate in the top 4% of their graduating class (in the top 20 students out of a graduating class of nearly 400). Both have earned college credits while in high school. They have each received numerous academic awards. Neither has ever received any sort of formal disciplinary action inside or outside of school. They are, in every sense of the term, model citizens.

Maria has worked very hard to earn acceptance to UC-Davis where she will begin her college studies in the fall of 2005. She intends to become a veterinarian. She’s ecstatic. Yvette has been accepted to UC-Irvine. She loves math and intends to apply her aptitude in a career that requires the same. These two young women represent the best of the best that MexGen has to offer. All together, each of these young women have pledged allegiance to the flag of the United States of America over 2,000 times.

That’s where the similarities end.

Taking Our Foot Off the Hose

A journey to the bottleneck of the trickle is not unlike any other, one step at a time. However, before we dash off, we should probably take a look at our present posture. If you’re wondering why MexGen is not blossoming in the U.S. at a pace that other groups of NextGen young adults are, we should probably begin the inquiry by examining the hose in our hand. If there is a trickle coming out and the water valve is wide-open, let’s examine the most immediate cause: Perhaps, we’re standing on the hose.

Maria was born in the U.S. Yvette was born in Mexico and was carried across the border in the arms of her mother when she was five years old. She had no idea where she was going. She didn’t possess the ability to argue, understand, discuss or stay behind in Mexico. Like any child, she followed the lead of her parents.

Yes, she has a phony social security card that allows her to work part-time at a fast food restaurant. She drives the family car without a license. She has no medical or auto insurance. Her three younger sisters were all born in the U.S.

She bought into what every generation in America has been told, “work hard in school, excel, get good grades, stay out of trouble, become involved in serving your community and everything will work out just fine for you.” At present, she does not qualify for federal financial aid for college due to her undocumented status. There’s no way her family can afford even in-state tuition at UC-Irvine.

Yvette is now considering postponing her entrance into college. Her father does not work due to the debilitating effects of a stroke. Her mom sews in a sweatshop. Mom and dad are not bilingual. The family is seriously considering moving to Washington State where it is cheaper to live. Her older, undocumented brother lives and works there now. Whether they move to Washington or stay in Santa Ana, Yvette feels that she needs to be there for her three younger sisters who are excelling in school, and bolster the family’s income by continuing to work at minimum wage.

The flow of hope in her life has become a trickle. Who’s standing on the hose?

Summary:

With tears in her eyes, a trembling voice, and a facial expression reflecting deep, disillusioned, torment, Yvette says, “Even though I have done everything I can to demonstrate that I am a person of character, ready and willing to contribute to the future of America, I now feel like I’m on the outside looking in. How can this be happening? It’s not fair.” It is a life-changing experience to sit with a victim whose soul has been raped of hope. As I sat there, I realized that I was being provided with a glimpse of the soul of MexGen.

As we have throughout the history of the United States, we are presently confronted with a tremendous opportunity captured in the question, “What must be done now, to shape a better destiny?” It’s time to confront the truth. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “To be honest is to confront the truth. However unpleasant and inconvenient the truth may be, I believe we must expose and face it if we are to achieve a better quality of American life.”[xiii] The soul of this nation is at stake here. Every demographic projection out there indicates that the Hispanic community will become the majority in this nation over the next 50 plus years. As author Leo R. Chavez points out, “Until the larger society imagines undocumented immigrants as part of the community, they will continue to live as outsiders inside American society.”[xiv]

The words of Dr. King uttered some 40 years ago are particularly appropriate in 2005: “There is a certain bitter irony in the picture of his country championing freedom in foreign lands and failing to ensure that freedom to twenty million of its own.”[xv] It is time to confront the truth that current misguided patriotic fervor has infected our discussion of U.S. immigration policy reform to the detriment of this nation’s soul, and our future. The character of the future of this nation is being formed today. It’s time to make amends. It’s time to take the first step in the right direction. Come on Congress! Pass some legislation that provides a path to citizenship for the millions of Yvette’s in MexGen.

We hold the hose of hope in our own hands. My prayer is that we will take our foot off the hose and water the MexGen garden of this nation. We must trust that God shall create a bountiful harvest, which will contribute to the nourishment of the soul of this country for generations to come. Do we trust Him America?

It’s about us America, not them.

NOTES:

---

[i] http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/commentary/la-op-borderschizo1may01,1,3039177.story

[ii]http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:iH7cshuGZU0J:www.steinreport.com/BearStearnsStudy.pdf+%22bear+stearns%22+%22immigration%22&hl=en&start=3

or http://www.steinreport.com/BearStearnsStudy.pdf.

[iii] www.bearstearns.com/bscportal/pdfs/underground.pdf.

[iv] U.S. Bureau of the Census, Census 2000, Washington D.C.

[v] Ramos, Jorge The Latino Wave, HarperCollinsPublishers, NY,NY Copyright © 2004 by Jorge Ramos p.240

[vi] Rand Corp.- Kevin F. McCarthy and Georges Vernez, Immigration in a Changing Economy: California’s Experience. Source:http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR854.1/MR854.1.chap9.pdf.

[vii] http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dropout26mar26,1,4643939.story

[viii] http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-courses26apr26,1,7990870.story

[ix] http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=45

[x] Handy, Charles The Age of Paradox, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA Copyright © 1994 by Harvard Business School Press, pp. x-xi

[xi] Montiel, Nathan & Wright – An Update on Urban Hardship, Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government – Public Policy Research Arm of SUNY. August 2004. http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:eVPVaFU9tDAJ:www.rockinst.org/publications/urban_studies/UrbanHardshipUpdate.pdf+%22hardship+index%22&hl=en&start=1

[xii] Montiel, Nathan & Wright – An Update on Urban Hardship, Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government – Public Policy Research Arm of SUNY. August 2004. http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:eVPVaFU9tDAJ:www.rockinst.org/publications/urban_studies/UrbanHardshipUpdate.pdf+%22hardship+index%22&hl=en&start=1

[xiii] Scott-King, Coretta The Words of Martin Luther King Jr. NewMarket Press, NY,NY Copyright © 1964by the Nobel Foundation and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. p.89

[xiv] Chavez, Leo R. Shadowed Lives – Undocumented Immigrants in American Society, Copyright © 1992, 1998 by Thomson Learning, Inc. p. 188

[xv] Hoskins, Loette I Have a Dream – The Quotations of Martin Luther King, Jr. Gossett & Dunlap Publishers, Copyright © 1968 by Droke House Publishers, Inc. p.3

Immythgration

or

Myths Mashed in the Midst of the U.S. Immigration Policy Reform Debate

The First Batch:

Everybody has at least one opportunity in life to sample the first batch of cookies your little sister, brother, nephew, niece or neighbor kid cooks up. I can distinctly remember the day my little sister proudly presented me with three cookies that she had created. They were awful! I mean terrible. I could have choked to death if she hadn’t brought me a glass of milk with those darn things.

However, my reaction was probably like yours. I didn’t make a face, scream “YUCK!” or spit the mouthful out in my hand. I smiled politely, made “Yummy” sounds, chewed, swallowed and devoured all three of those damn things. Why? Because I didn’t want the little cook to feel bad.

Little cooks seem to grow up into adult chefs charged with cooking up socio-economic policy in this country. As it relates to the current U.S. immigration policy reform debate, the fare being served up from the state and federal test kitchens all over this country continues to be filled with artificial ingredients that make the entrée distasteful. Let me explain.

Following Instructions:

Why do we have recipes? My grandma had her recipes memorized, until my dad asked her to write them down on paper. My mom had recipe books all over the kitchen. My wife has hers filed away in the cupboard above the refrigerator…she gets most of her recipes on-line today.

We have recipes so someone other than the original person who created the dish is able to replicate the form, flavor and taste. My wife can follow the recipe that my grandma had for chocolate chip cookies with walnuts and produce the same, exact cookie. If my wife alters that recipe in any way, I can tell…immediately. Every once in a while, my wife will alter my mom or grandma’s recipes when she is out of a particular ingredient, decides to alter the proportions of required ingredients, or succumbs to the overwhelming urge to be creative.

Original recipe means original recipe. The only way to replicate original is to follow the original instructions. It is a myth to think that one can alter the original recipe in any way and produce a tasteful, current day replica. The recipe for cooking up present day original recipe U.S. immigration policy is no different. However, what we are presently sampling in this debate is fast-food fare that is filled with myths that alter the flavor of the enduring truths that have formed and sustained the soul of this nation.

Myth # 1 – Everything has changed since 9/11: Bull! My grandma didn’t change her recipe for chocolate chip cookies when Pearl Harbor, World War II, The Korean War, Vietnam, or Woodstock occurred. (She didn’t alter it when we landed a man on the moon). All this nonsense about everything changing since 9/11 is only political fodder to legitimize the fear and outrage agenda of those who want to capture an opportunity in our nation’s history to further preserve what they already have. This is done by redirecting their self-righteous revenge, veiled beneath a misguided sense of patriotic fervor. It is then served up as a new form of truth. This is not truth. It is myth, fabricated for the purposes of changing the original recipe. It is a lie. A quote from Princeton University’s Professor of Philosophy Emeritus Henry G. Frankfurt, captures the essence of this matter in the following: “The liar is inescapably concerned with truth-values. In order to invent a lie at all, he must think he knows what is true. And in order to invent an effective lie, he must design his falsehood under the guidance of that truth.”[i]

The truth about this myth is that there were the same number of undocumented Latino immigrants piloting those hijacked airplanes on 9/11 as the number of weapons of mass destruction the U.S. military uncovered after invading Iraq…Nada. Zero.

The truth of the matter is that when one begins to alter the original recipe of truth, the results are distasteful for all concerned.

Missing Ingredients:

I can remember the day I was helping my grandma bake cookies. They didn’t have timers in those days so grandma always kept a keen eye on the kitchen clock. This particular day, grandma got distracted and forgot when we had placed the batch in the oven. She grabbed her mitten and pulled the tray out of the oven. “Not yet Billy. They’re half baked,” she said.

Myth # 2 – Control the Border and Solve the Problem. Proponents of immigration reform who focus solely on controlling the border with Mexico as the solution to this matter, are serving up solutions that are at best, half-baked. These people would lead us to believe that we should devour their half-baked fare because “it looks like a cookie.” The point is that we need to put this sort of thinking back in the oven to allow the other ingredients in the recipe to fully integrate with each other. There’s nothing worse than a half-baked cookie, no matter how hungry you are for a solution. You don’t take a batch of chocolate chip-walnut cookies out of the oven just because the chocolate chips on the exterior of the cookies look good. Proper baking is an essential ingredient to every successful recipe.

One day, my wife decided to use pecans instead of walnuts in a batch of grandma’s cookies. Her thought was that I would never know the difference. Wrong!

Myth # 3 – Guest Worker Programs Are a Proper Substitute for a Path to Citizenship. Yeah, right! This is akin to substituting pecans for walnuts. The assumption is that undocumented immigrants come to the U.S. solely for the purpose of getting a job. Furthermore, if we provide a way for them to register, we will be better able to control the flow and keep track of their whereabouts. The fact of history is that the hopeless migrate to that land that is hopeful. Undocumented immigrants desire far more than just a job. They want to be participants in this society and enhance the hope for a brighter future for their families. By the way, the federal government wants you to believe that a guest worker program (pecan) is a proper substitute for a path to citizenship (walnut). However, when this fare gets served up in this country, we’re all going to recognize the fact that there’s something essential missing here.

Proper Proportions:

One day, Grandma made a mistake. After the first batch had cooled and she had poured two glasses of milk for us, we smiled at one another and grandma nodded, giving me the green light to grab the first warm cookie. She did the same. It took grandma all of ten seconds to figure out that there was something wrong. The vanilla was stale. She looked at me and said, “Well Billy, it’s back to square one.” With that, she tossed the first batch of cookies on the sheet and the entire bowl of cookie dough in the garbage. The vanilla we had used had been in grandma’s cupboard far too long. She gave me the empty chip package and a few bucks to go to the store and get a new bottle.

Myth # 4 – They will go back – I am amused at the recipes for U.S. immigration reform that suggest the undocumented immigrants presently in the U.S. will simply return to their country of origin, as long as we create policy here that maintains their existence as less flavorful than it can be. There is absolutely no factual basis for such a claim. There’s no way that you can pluck the vanilla out that is already baked in the recipe. The vast majority of undocumented immigrants who reside in the U.S. are here to stay. Face it. Perhaps we should focus on the truth that our responsibility is to create a more fruitful nation by virtue of their addition to our national recipe. Their addition should be viewed as refreshing, essential ingredient rather than an element that makes the whole batch bad. That’s how the U.S. treated my grandma when she came here via Ellis Island. Maybe we should stick with the original recipe?

Myth # 5 – Ignore Them and They’ll Go Away – Grandma taught me that if you make a less than satisfactory batch of cookies, the best thing to do is start over rather than cook up the whole batch and hope enough people stomach the bad batch to make your effort worthwhile. Recipes for U.S. immigration policy reform must be mindful of the same. Bad, piecemeal policy does not contribute to a palatable solution for all concerned. Besides, it damages the reputation of the cook. Ignoring the need for a comprehensive solution is the only recipe for a tasteful, enduring solution.

Myth # 6 – Round em up and send em back – This is a position taken by the neo-con Center for Immigration Studies in a May 2005 report.[ii] Imagine me and my grandma attempting to extract the vanilla in the dough and bring it back to the store for a refund. It’s ridiculous. There’s no way you can do this. Particularly when you’re talking about human beings and a moral approach to this matter. The recipe for the soul of this nation is comprised of a multiplicity of ingredients that have been passed down from generation to generation. There are shameful periods of history in this country when we have attempted to discard certain ingredients; the Japanese-American internment camps in WWII, segregation, the right to vote and dissent during Vietnam and Watergate. Let’s not repeat the same, historical, shameful mistakes of this country that many would like to forget. Let’s step up to our responsibility that we have left this essential ingredient in the cupboard far too long. It’s not the vanilla’s fault.

The Presentation:

Grandma was always proud when she would bring out her neatly arranged platter of cookies after we had finished our family’s Sunday supper together. She always whispered to me, “No matter how you package it, it’s what’s inside that counts Billy.”

Myth # 7– Package it Properly and It Will Sell – Come on America! Haven’t we tired of this myth yet? Let’s make sure that the fare we serve up in the U.S. immigration policy reform effort is one that is based upon tasteful substance, rather than a palatable appearance.

Summary

My grandma’s cookies warmed more hearts and put more smiles on faces in this nation than anything I can think of. Other than our family members, she usually brought them to folks who had been hit by some sort of trauma in life. Oftentimes, the people who enjoyed her fare didn’t even know her. Grandma didn’t know them either.

Grandma cooked up stuff because it was the right thing to do. Every batch was made with the same portions of loving care. Let’s follow grandma’s recipe shall we?

NOTES:

Immi-doption or Immi-bortion

or

Within the Womb of The U.S. Immigration Policy Reform Debate

We’re pregnant America!

“Adoption NOT Abortion” screamed the intensely illuminated red billboard against the black darkness of a Colorado night. Who says you can’t be startled out of a profound state of travel exhaustion while seated in the back of an empty shuttle bus on the way to your hotel?

The shock of it all sent my mind whirling through the relationship between the arguments supporting the right to life v. right to choose debate, and the current national dialogue concerning U.S. immigration policy reform. Yeah, I know. I don’t understand why my brain works like that either. Here’s what I’ve come up with:

Divine creation: Illegal immigrants and any human fetus are Divinely created. The left might disagree with the right on this.

Equal value: Both the fetus and the illegal immigrant are of equal value in the eyes of our Creator. I guess the left and the right may have some trouble with this one.

Legality: Illegal acts create human fetuses and illegal immigrants alike. Some fetuses are created by a criminal act (rape, incest and statutory rape). Undocumented immigrants residing in the U.S. have either crossed our borders illegally, or have illegally extended their stay here beyond the date of their visa expiration. There appears to be a unanimous consensus on this point.

Right to Choose: The question about whether a human being has the right to choose to abort a Divinely created human being, no matter how it was created (legally, or otherwise) is a central issue. The political right would say that there is no choice…the fetus must be treated as a Divinely created child of God. The left takes the position that the womb within which the fetus resides is the party empowered to choose. As it relates to the choice of dealing with the illegal immigrant, it appears the left and right have reversed their respective right to choose positions on this one.

Consent: Pregnancy can occur with, or without consent. Consensual or otherwise, the political right says: “There is no choice. We must embrace the Divinely created.” Those on the left maintain that the owner of the womb possesses the choice. We can all agree illegal immigration is not consensual between the parties. Yet, once again, it appears the left and right have swapped positions again on the consent issue when you substitute an illegal immigrant for a fetus.

The “choice” becomes one of abortion (exterminating the Divinely created), or embracing the pregnant reality with the only choice of compassion that our Creator expects (adoption). Whether the pregnancy is accidental, unplanned, unwanted, inconvenient, costly or burdensome is immaterial to the position supported by the political right. Whether one has been impregnated by a lover, acquaintance or a stranger is also irrelevant for those on the right.

Here’s how it all shakes out in a tabular presentation:

Abortion Immigration

It is a tragedy that the principles that under gird the position of the right and the left on the abortion v. adoption issue are somehow reversed when those same principles are illuminated against the backdrop of the ongoing U.S. immigration policy reform dialogue. We seem to have “flip-flopped.” The present state of the immigration policy reform debate is focused on birth control; preventing any unwanted future pregnancies from occurring. For some reason, the elements that comprise the present policy pill have lost their effectiveness (It really hasn’t worked for years. Don’t tell anybody. Neither party in the U.S. Congress is courageous or dumb enough to take the responsibility for this failure. At this time, I’m not sure we’re currently willing to risk the cost of creating a legitimate solution either). The condom policies we have relied upon for protection are porous.

Birth control issues aside, how long will we continue to be in a state of denial, flip-flopping over the right to life issue for those illegal immigrants residing within our nation’s bulging belly?

We’re pregnant America! It’s too late for chastity belt considerations. The outcome of the present immigration policy reform debate in The U.S. is an opportunity to demonstrate the character of this nation to the world family. Is it the children of the present reality or the parent-nation who must reform? Will we embrace them through adoption or abort them?

How shall we choose?

From a purely historical standpoint, the plight of undocumented Hispanic immigrants residing in the U.S. can be accurately characterized by the term Hispurgatory: A moment in U.S. history when the resident, undocumented Latino immigrant population is caught in a state of legal limbo. Their standard of living is typically well below the official poverty level. Their daily existence is one of endurance and survival. They are motivated by the hope that their service to this country as upstanding, creative, contributing, law abiding residents will be rewarded someday with legitimate, official acceptance by the government of the Promised Land.

For these Latinos, the hope for citizenship in the U.S. is heaven. Visions of better jobs, education, healthcare, housing, protections against discrimination, racism, the ability to be all one can be, to contribute to the United States economy and culture on an equal footing…these are the elements of their hope. The country they departed was, at least, economically oppressive. If the prospects for a better life for their families in their country of origin was without hope, then, that is hell.  Hope led them here. Hope keeps them here. They hope that we will awaken from our self-righteous indignation and accept them formally into this, the Promised Land. Until then, they remain among us, their lives suspended precariously between heaven and hell, in a state of Hispurgatory.

Getting In

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always wanted to speak to somebody who has actually lived in either heaven or hell. I haven’t met either yet (although I’ve met people in both categories that, in my opinion, belong in one or the other). However, I have met a vast number of people who presently reside in Hispurgatory. Let me tell you about one.

Juan (not his real name) lives in Santa Ana, CA. He came to the U.S. when he was 8 years old along with his 3 year old sister in 1991. He can remember the squalor they lived in the Saravia Michoacan region of Mexico, some two hours inland from Guadalajara. The family inhabited a one-room shack. The windows were just uncovered holes in the wall. The room had a dirt floor. There was no plumbing. Juan’s mom stayed home to care for the 5 children. Dad worked from sun up to sundown. The family would wait for dad to get home at night so they could eat dinner together. Most nights, dinner consisted of one tortilla each. Juan recalls the nights, too numerous to count, that his father gave his tortilla to his baby sister who crawled onto dad’s lap at suppertime.

Juan’s mother and father have been married for 30 years. His father entered the U.S. 28 years ago, living with his older brother in Santa Ana, working as a landscaper. Dad sent money to the family in Mexico every month from the U.S. Mom would visit dad in the U.S. once a year or so and shortly thereafter, would give birth to a new child in Mexico.

The first time Juan met his father in-person, he was 8 years old. Mom and dad decided that they wanted their children to have a better future by obtaining an education in the U.S. Dad had returned to Mexico with U.S. birth certificates from Juan’s uncle’s two children that matched the ages for Juan and his 3 year old sister.  Juan distinctly recalls the horrific screams and crying from his other brothers and sisters when they realized they would have to remain with mom in Mexico, rather than accompanying dad, Juan and his baby sister back to the U.S. Dad and mom promised the family that they would all be together in the U.S. within two years. It took four. The coyotes had raised their prices to U.S. $1,500.00 per person and it took the family two extra years to save the ransom.

Today, Juan is 22 years old. He remembers holding his father’s hand as they walked through U.S. customs in Tijuana when he was 8. He recalls his mother carrying his three-year old sister in her arms in front of him. This sister is 17 now. Nobody ever asked Juan or his sister to consent to this action. They were too young to argue with mom or dad. Juan lives with his parents and three sisters in an apartment in Santa Ana. Their rent is $950 per month. Mom continues to care for the children. His dad still works in landscaping where he brings home $320 per week (weather permitting…do the math). They have moved only once within Santa Ana since arriving in the U.S. The motivation to move occurred when Juan’s brother was shot four times while standing on the balcony of their apartment, in a random, drive-by shooting. Juan’s father missed filing for citizenship prior to the 1986 cut-off. Dad has a work-permit today, sponsored by his employer. They don’t have any medical insurance. Juan’s 5-year old sister has suffered from heart problems requiring 2 major surgeries. She needs another one but they just don’t have the money.

The Awakening – Liberty and Justice For All

Juan completed all his education in the Santa Ana school district. He is the first person in his family ever to graduate from high school. During high school, Juan received numerous academic awards as the top student in his class in Spanish, Planning and Compter Graphic Design and an award for perfect high school attendance. (Noteworthy as the drop-out rate for Latinos in Santa Ana high schools is about 50%).  He graduated from high school with honors. He graduated early.

He has never been arrested and doesn’t have a fake Driver’s license, social security card or birth certificate. He takes the bus everywhere he needs to go. He has never driven a car. He has made money distributing flyers, doing odd jobs and babysitting for neighbors and doing some filing a few hours a week at a law office.

It was reciting the pledge of allegiance one morning for the umpteenth time in high school that Juan realized that something was wrong. “When I said, ‘with liberty and justice for all,’ it dawned on me; all my efforts in school might be for nothing if something doesn’t happen to change my situation. I became confused, angry and depressed. Liberty and justice were for some.” Shortly after this awakening, Juan was unable to join his classmates on a field trip to Ensenada. He couldn’t join a friend and his family on a vacation trip to another state by airplane. He couldn’t take the test to get a permit to drive. He couldn’t get a real job like many of his high school classmates. He was in Hispurgatory.

This spring, Juan will receive his Bachelor’s degree from a four-year university in southern California. Most of the financial support he received for college was donated by a local church, as he does not qualify for federally funded student financial aid programs. Once again, he is graduating with honors. Juan wants to be an elementary school teacher. He completed his student teaching with first graders in a local elementary school. “It’s what I was created to do,” he says. He recently tried to sign-up to take the California teachers exam. They wouldn’t let him. He doesn’t have a social security number.

Now What?

“I want my younger sisters to continue to see me as a role-model.” Juan’s 17 year-old sister has a 3.8 GPA and is ready to graduate from high school. She faces the same challenges as Juan. “I need to be here for her; to encourage her to press on in the face of the hopelessness and confusion of it all. My biggest fears are that I won’t be able to teach here in the U.S., I won’t get the opportunity for citizenship here and that I will be deported. The U.S. Government should allow people like me and my sister to become citizens. We’ve earned. They should allow us to serve in the U.S. military too. I wish Latino celebrities like Jennifer Lopez, Arte Moreno (owner of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim major league baseball team), Ricki Martin, Dahlia and Alex Rodriguez (New York Yankees) would get together and advocate for the resolution of all this. I would, if I were in their position. This is my country.”

Juan is considering the continuing his education, obtaining his Master’s degree. He doesn’t know who would help him out financially. His life, his future are suspended in a state of legal limbo. This is Hispurgatory.

So What?

There are millions of Juan’s in the United States today. As I read my Bible, it is the plight of the Juan’s of the world where the rubber of good news of the Gospel must meet the road.    As theologian Thomas Merton wrote, “We must never overlook the fact that the message of the Bible is above all a message preached to the poor, the burdened, the oppressed, the underprivileged.“(1)

For those living in Hispurgatory in the United States today, they are people occupying space where there seems to be no room. As Merton says: “Into this world, this demented inn, in which there is absolutely no room for Him at all, Christ has come uninvited.  But because He cannot be at home in it, because He is out of place in it, and yet He must be in it. His place is with those others for whom there is no room. His place is with those who do not belong, who are rejected by power because they are regarded as weak, those who are discredited, who are denied the status of persons, tortured, or exterminated.  With those for whom there is no room, Christ is present in this world.” (3)

Yes, we do have a moral crisis in the United States today. Part of this crisis is caused and perpetuated by those who claim the name of Christ, sit on the sidelines, and shout at the Juan’s in this country. “The moral crisis that we are facing in this country is crying out for spiritual leadership.  It offers evangelicals the opportunity to put our faith to work-to roll up our sleeves and become players instead of sitting on the sidelines.”  (3)

“It is time that we demand more of ourselves as Christians.  We are the hands and feet of Jesus Christ, and if the world is going to see, feel, and touch him, it will have to be through us.”(4)  It’s time that the Christian community repents, takes the leadership role and opens the door to the cell of those imprisoned within Hispurgatory in the United States.

Let them in America! It’s God’s grace we are shutting out.

Bibliography & Notes

1  Merton, Thomas.  Seeds, SHAMBHALA, Boston © Copyright 2002 by Robert Inchauti p. 111.

2  Merton, Thomas.  Seeds, SHAMBHALA, Boston © Copyright 2002 by Robert Inchauti p. 137.

3  Perkins, John M.  Restoring At-Risk Communities – Doing It Together & Doing It Right, Baker Books, Grand Rapids, Michigan © Copyright 1995 by John M. Perkins p. 10

4  Perkins, John M.  Restoring At-Risk Communities – Doing It Together & Doing It Right, Baker Books, Grand Rapids, Michigan © Copyright 1995 by John M. Perkins p. 12

U.S. Immigration Policy Issues Remain Up In The Air

‘Hispanimation‘

Movies are a welcome escape for me. When the lights come down and the big screen lights up in front of me, I am transported to an artificial place that provides a respite from the reality of it all. Have you ever noticed the one thing that is certain from one movie theater to the next? No matter where the movie has taken you, when they turn on the lights, everybody’s still in the same seat they were in when the lights went off. This state of suspended animation keeps us in our places and keeps us quiet. It’s unreal!

For the Eduardo and Lola Lopez family, as well as millions of other undocumented Hispanics residing in the U.S., their position in our society remains in a state of Hispanimation: Each night Eduardo dutifully turns out the lights after tucking in his family of six daughters and one son for the night. As he lies down next to Lola, Eduardo drifts off to sleep and dreams of the day when this country will awaken to our responsibility to bestow the dignity, liberty and equality his family has earned by residing in Santa Ana, CA over the past twelve years. As the morning dawns, Eduardo’s dreams are interrupted again. He rises from his bed to see four daughters sleeping in one bunk bed and two daughters and his son sharing the other. Lola rolls onto her side on the mattress they share on the floor. Eduardo closes his eyes for a moment to wipe away the tears with the back of his right hand.  Nothing’s changed. Everybody is in the same position they were in when the lights went off. It’s real!

A New Vocabulary

One thing’s for certain: This is the reality of living the continuing nightmare for millions of undocumented Hispanic immigrants in the U.S. Needless to say, the public policy pundits become quite animated over this issue. The “revision” of U.S. immigration policy by the Bush administration has effectively kept everybody in the same seat. I am convinced that politicians use terms that most people cannot understand for the purposes of a) pretending to understand things they really don’t have a clue about b) if I can’t spell a word you are using to describe a situation, I am going to believe you know better than I what the heck is going on. Politicians are empowered by this. Joe and Sally Citizen become bystanders. c) This creates a scenario whereby people like me become unwittingly excluded from the dialogue altogether, thereby elevating the possibility that we will leave it up to public policy professionals to figure it out for us.

My point is our focus on doing the right thing is obfuscated by the vocabulary that populates U.S. public policy debates regarding immigration reform. Consider a few of the following terms presently in use; “geopolitical tilt, national security considerations, political capital, constituency, multi-national economic integration, systematic policy integration considerations, socio-economic equanimity analysis, supply-side labor dynamics, equanimity, international cooperation, multi-national strategic geo-political encumbrances and, of course, a coalition of the willing.”  Do you really know what these terms mean? If so, in regard to the implications for resolving the present deficiencies in U.S. immigration policy, can you tell me how we can balance our national security concerns with the geo-political economic instability we might create for the Mexican government? Of course you can’t! Guess what? Nobody can. This debate just keeps going round and round and everybody stays in the same seat. It’s all part of Hispanimation: the dialogue is entertaining and maintains your position as an uninvolved bystander; a spectator…just like at the movies.

The problem with all this is that Eduardo, Lola and their family are not characters in a movie. They can’t afford to even go to a movie. We need a new vocabulary to inject into this debate that we common folks can understand. Can you spell Eduardo? Can you pronounce Lola? Can you imagine waking up every morning as determined, heartbroken and hopeful that somehow, someway you can earn enough money today to feed your family tonight? Now imagine that you cannot talk about your plight for fear of being detained and deported back to a country that your children cannot even remember departing? You see, what we are talking about here are human beings whose present status and future as legitimate, honorable citizens of this nation remains suspended in mid air. It’s time to remove our heads from the cloud cover provided by the useless vocabulary of the public policy pundits, and substitute some meaningful language that captures the essence of the issues, and allows us to identify who’s who in the debate. Stay with me. I’m about to turn the lights on. Let me spell it out for you.

‘Hispurgatory‘

From a purely historical standpoint, the plight of undocumented Hispanic immigrants residing in the U.S. can be accurately characterized with the term Hispurgatory: A moment in U.S. history when approximately 10% of the “undocumented” U.S. population is caught in a state of legal limbo. Their standard of living is typically well below the official poverty level. Their daily existence is one of endurance and survival. They are motivated by the hope that their service to this country as upstanding, creative, contributing, law abiding residents will be rewarded someday by legitimate, official acceptance by the government of the Promised Land. The country they departed was, at least, economically oppressive. If the prospects for a better life for their families in their country of origin was without hope, then, that is hell.  They were led by hope to our borders. Our gates are open and unlocked. Hope led them here. Hope keeps them here. They hope that we will awaken from our self-righteous indignation and accept them formally into this Promised Land. Until then, they remain among us in Hispurgatory.

In August 2004, for Eduardo and Lola, their city, Santa Ana, CA has just been ranked the #1 Toughest City in the U.S. to make ends meet. They can’t afford to move. If they did, or miss their rent payment, there are people lined up to inhabit the squalor they call home. They remain in the same seat.

Eduardo is forty eight-years old. After sundown, you can find him scavenging dumpsters behind his apartment looking for cans, bottles and cardboard that he can take to a local recycler. He had a stroke last year brought on by untreated diabetes that raged out of control. He has numbness on his left side preventing him from the ordinary course mobility and stamina most of us take for granted. He cannot afford ongoing medical care. It’s not unusual for him to be without insulin at certain times of the month. He goes without insulin so his family can eat. These are some of the cruel realities of Hispanimation.

The ignorance of Joe and Sally citizen about this issue actually contributes to Hispanimation: keeping everybody in the same seat. What we need are some terms that can be used to identify both the issues in the debate, and those who espouse them. Until U.S. citizens learn to speak the language of authentic immigration reform, the family of Eduardo and Lola Lopez will not have a voice that the U.S. Senate and Congress can hear and understand.

The ‘Intimmigration’Proponents

On one side of the debate are the proponents of intimmigration. Their arguments are filled with themes of legality, protectionism, blaming the individual, fear, misplaced patriotic fervor, self-righteousness, economic considerations and national security concerns. Their focus is to intimidate their agenda upon others through fear laced arguments and innuendo. The following are some terms that characterize the essence of their position and will assist you in identifying who they are by what they say. They are typically the loudest voices, yet are careful to veil their arguments behind more moderate intonation in the mainstream media. These are the voices and viewpoints of Intimmigration that you hear most often, if you listen for them.

Latillegals – “These people are criminals by virtue of their unauthorized border crossing. It’s illegal. The entire immigration policy debate begins and ends with this one fact. Period!”

Hispanicriminals – “These illegals are robbing us blind! Most are disproportionately represented in gangs, drugs and alcohol abuse. They even drive illegally without any insurance coverage. We must do everything in our power to protect ourselves from these people.”

Latimmorals – “Entering this country illegally is immoral. These people are going to infect American society with the influences that contribute to the ongoing moral decay of this nation.”

Hispanationalsecurity – “The potential for terrorists to be among their lot is an absolute certainty. It’s just a matter of time before they attack us. I’m scared to death of these people.”

Latinomas – “Round em up and send em back where they came from! Every last one of em. You know, the internment camps during World War II did provide the country with a sense of comfort by virtue of the fact that we had our arms around the situation. No more!”

Hispaniconomic – “They’re taking our jobs, overwhelming the jails, prisons, healthcare, affordable housing and social welfare institutions that our tax dollars are supporting. This is an outrage! No wonder this country’s economic recovery is retarded.”

Latinomo – “Build the damn wall! From the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. It’s the only way we’re gonna stop the ongoing incursion by these insurgents!”

Hispanitsyourowndamnfault - “Their lot is what they deserve.”

Latinotonmywatch – “Establish a road to residency for these people? It’s not gonna happen on my watch! There isn’t a politician in the country who’s dumb enough to advocate for this. What’s this world coming to anyhow?”

Hispaniconstituency – “Just imagine if we give these people the right to vote. That will be the day when we can all pack up and move to Canada. All hell’s gonna break loose. Our nation will be overrun with foreigners.”

Latillerates – “These people are stupid and lazy. They’re sure to drag our economy down and further the decline of the U.S. in the world from a competitive standpoint. There has always been an underclass in this country that has served a purpose for the majority. They should just accept their position in our society and be grateful we don’t round em up and send em back where they came from.”

The ‘Latinocomprende’

On the other side of the debate are the ‘Latinocomprende’s.’ These are the folks who feign ignorance, a lack of understanding, indifference, ambivalence and apathy. They are also known as the Ambivalatinos.. The following are some of comments you will hear from them and the corresponding new vocabulary that might assist you in identifying who they are by what they say.

Latinapathy – “Who cares! There are vastly more important issues to address in this country. These people can wait.”

Latinoblivious – “Huh? What are you talking about?”

Latinotnow – “Every issue has it’s time and place to be resolved. Let’s get the Iraq situation behind us before we tackle issues like this?

Latinollusion – “I really can’t relate to what you’re talking about. Those people don’t live in my neighborhood.”

Latinonsense – “These people are better off now than ever before. It’s all a bunch of nonsense.”

Latinocommotion – “These people are harmless. Just leave the situation the way it is and everything will work itself out.”

Latinonlooker – “Wow! It’s really tragic. I gotta go. See ya!

Latinotmyproblem – “That’s interesting. Who’s gonna make the playoffs at the end of the season?”

Latinada - “I don’t see any solution to all this. Somebody should figure this out. When they do, they’ll let us know.”

Hispanicignorance – “Golly, I never realized this was occurring in our country.”

Conclusion:

If your sensibilities have been offended by the characterizations in this article, they should be. The vocabulary and voice of oppression and racism are abhorrent. I am able to write an article like this because I’ve heard people speak this way.

Something must change. If you have read this far in this article, I only hope that you recognize what it is that must change. It is you, it is me, it is us. We must change. Until we recognize the essence of the vocabulary that inhabits the dialogue of this debate, we cannot hope to contribute our voices to the chorus that must arise to have the hopes of the families like the Eduardo and Lola Lopez family realized. U.S. immigration policy won’t change until the Joe and Sally Citizens of our nation raise their voices on behalf of the millions of undocumented immigrants residing in our country whose lives remain suspended in a state of Hispanimation.

We are the one’s who are responsible for ridding this country of what one author has characterized as “man’s inhumanity to man.”[i] It is up to us to restore the contradiction that Hispanimation shouts to the world and solidify the reputation of our country as “the land of the free, the home of the brave, with liberty and justice for all.

I conclude with the words of former President Theodore Roosevelt:

“Until we put honor and duty first, and are willing to risk something in order to achieve righteousness both for ourselves and for others, we shall accomplish nothing; and we shall earn and deserve the contempt of the strong nations of mankind.”[ii]

The Eduardo and Lola Lopez family are deeply grateful to you. Speak up. They can’t.

[ii] Allies to Punish Turks Who Murder, New York Times, May 24 1915, p. 1

Millions of Lives Remain Suspended in Mid-Air as the Christian Community Remains on the Sidelines

‘Christianimation‘

Movies are a welcome escape for me. When the lights come down and the big screen lights up in front of me, I am transported to an artificial place that provides a respite from the reality of it all. Have you ever noticed the one thing that is certain from one movie to the next? No matter where the movie has taken you, when they turn on the lights, everybody’s still in the same seat they were in when the lights went off. This state of suspended animation keeps us in our places and keeps us quiet. It’s unreal!

For the Eduardo and Lola Lopez family, as well as millions of other undocumented Hispanics residing in the U.S., their position in our society remains in a state of Hispanimation: Each night Eduardo dutifully turns out the lights after tucking in his family of six daughters and one son for the night. As he lies down next to Lola, Eduardo drifts off to sleep and dreams of the day when this country will awaken to our responsibility to bestow the dignity, liberty and equality his family has earned by residing in Santa Ana, CA over the past twelve years. As the morning dawns, Eduardo’s dreams are interrupted again. He rises from his bed to see four daughters sleeping in one bunk bed, while two daughters and his son share the other. Lola rolls onto her side on the mattress they share on the floor. Eduardo closes his eyes for a moment to wipe away the tears with the back of his right hand.  Nothing’s changed. Everybody is in the same position they were in when the lights went off. It’s real!

The mainstream Christian witness in the U.S. has become vastly too comfortable sitting in their seats, watching the social policy debates rage across our television screens, newspapers and radios. As a group, the U.S. Christian community has delegated their voice to pulpits, special interest groups and media outlets who supposedly represent our interests. We have succumbed to a state of Christianimation: We have become comfortable as armchair spectators in U.S. public policy debates rather than the passionate activists on behalf of the oppressed, impoverished and marginalized in our world, as fully-devoted servants of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Although many social justice issues may garner our intellectual and heartfelt interest, we remain seated, watching the entertainment roll by. We are in a state of Christianimation.

On December 1, 1955 an African American woman named Rosa Parks refused to stand, give up her seat and move to the back of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama. She was arrested and jailed. However, “God comes into the picture even when the church won’t take a stand.”[i] This one act by a marginalized woman provided the catalyst for the Christian community in Montgomery to rise from the seat of tolerating the intolerable, to following a vision only our God could design.

God has a vision for the mainstream Christian community in the U.S. One author characterizes it as follows: “Let me be very clear about God’s vision:  It is probably not what you expect.  It typically is counterintuitive because God refuses to be limited be his creation.  It is not based on human consensus; his vision will stir intense emotion and debate, causing some people to seek other places through which they can serve him more comfortably while energizing others.  His vision comes at a high cost because it demands significant personal change, fulfilled only with great effort, produces results in the long term, and necessitates teams of people working together rather than individuals doing their thing in isolation.  And his vision is not based on incremental improvement of other’s ideas; his organizing concept for you is fresh and customized to your situation.  Humankind cannot fathom the depths of God; neither can his vision be minimized by our limitations.”[ii]

A New Vocabulary

Rosa Parks injected a new word into the vocabulary of the embryonic stage of the U.S. civil rights movement: “No, I won’t. I’m taking a stand.” Needless to say, the public policy pundits become quite animated over the issue of illegal immigration. The “revision” of U.S. immigration policy by the present administration has effectively kept everybody in the same seat. I am convinced that politicians use terms that most people cannot understand for the purposes of: a) pretending to understand things they really don’t have a clue about b) if we can’t spell a word they’re using to describe a situation, we are going to believe they know better than we do, in terms of what the heck is going on. Politicians are empowered by this. Joe and Sally Christian become bystanders. c) This creates a scenario whereby most Christians become unwittingly excluded from the dialogue altogether, thereby elevating the possibility that we will leave it up to public policy professionals to figure it out for us.

My point is our focus on doing the right thing is obfuscated by the vocabulary that populates U.S. public policy debates regarding immigration, and other social policy issues. Consider a few of the following terms presently in use; “geopolitical tilt, national security considerations, political capital, constituency, multi-national economic integration, systematic policy integration considerations, socio-economic equanimity analysis, supply-side labor dynamics, equanimity, international cooperation, multi-national strategic geo-political encumbrances and, of course, a coalition of the willing.”  Do you really know what these terms mean? If so, in regard to the implications for resolving the present deficiencies in U.S. immigration policy, can you tell me how we can balance our national security concerns with the geo-political economic instability we might create for the Mexican government? Of course you can’t! Guess what? Nobody can. This debate just keeps going round and round and everybody stays in the same seat. It’s all part of Christianimation: the dialogue is entertaining and maintains your position as an uninvolved bystander; a spectator…just like at the movies.

The problem with all this is that Eduardo, Lola and their family are not characters in a movie. They can’t afford to go to a movie. We need a new vocabulary to inject into this debate that the everyday Christian can understand. Can you spell Eduardo? Can you pronounce Lola? Can you imagine waking up every morning as determined, heartbroken and hopeful that somehow, someway you can earn enough money today to feed your family tonight? Now imagine that you cannot talk about your plight for fear of being detained and deported back to a country that your children cannot even remember departing? You see, what we are talking about here are human beings, children of God, whose present status and future as legitimate, honorable citizens of this nation remains suspended in mid air.

It’s time to remove our heads from the cloud cover provided by the useless vocabulary of the public policy pundits. We need to develop and inject some meaningful language that captures the essence of the issues and allows you to identify who’s who in the debate. You can become a Christian who has regained his/her Spirit filled passion to act and advocate on behalf of the poor, the oppressed and the marginalized in this society, and our world. You can become a Christian who enters ‘recovery’ from the disease of Christianimation. Stay with me. I’m about to turn the lights on. Let me spell it out for you.

‘Hispurgatory ‘

From a purely historical standpoint, the plight of undocumented Hispanic immigrants residing in the U.S. can be accurately characterized with the term Hispurgatory: A moment in U.S. history when approximately 5% of the U.S. population is caught in a state of legal limbo. Their standard of living is typically well below the official poverty level. Their daily existence is one of endurance and survival. They are motivated by the hope that their service to this country as upstanding, creative, contributing, law abiding residents will be rewarded someday by legitimate, official acceptance by the government of the Promised Land. The country they departed was, at least, economically oppressive. If the prospects for a better life for their families in their country of origin was without hope, then, that is hell.  They were led by hope to our borders. We left the gates open and unlocked. Hope led them here. Hope keeps them here. They hope that we will awaken from our self-righteous indignation and accept them formally into this Promised Land. Until then, they remain among us in Hispurgatory.

For Eduardo and Lola, their city, Santa Ana, CA has just been ranked the #1 Toughest City in the U.S. to make ends meet.[iii] They can’t afford to move. If they did, or miss their rent payment, there are people lined up to inhabit the squalor they call home. They remain in the same seat.

However, undocumented Hispanic immigrants in the U.S. cannot raise their voices for fear of arrest and deportation. Who shall speak up for them? As one author points out: “There is no theme more deep in American consciousness than that of the transplanted person who comes to participate in the American experiment and who succeeds in the land of the free.”[iv]

The New Testament has some advice for those suffering from Christianimation. In the first chapter of Acts, Jesus has ascended into heaven. His disciples stood motionless. “10They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11″Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky?”[v]

This advice is as pertinent for His disciples today as it was when it was spoken: “Stop gawking at the sky and get on with what I have asked you to do.” We must change our posture.

KABOOM!

Advocating and serving the poor, the oppressed and the marginalized in our society and our world is the overlooked opportunity for mainstream Christianity in the U.S. to rise from the lethargy of Christianimation. We must repent and renew our dedication to move outward from ourselves as the only vessels available to carry the love of Christ to a lost world. As one author says: “Obviously, we cannot be a demonstration to the past; and it can be only partially through our writings and our works that we leave a demonstration to the future, though there should be an accumulative demonstration, rolling up like a snowball through the centuries. But, primarily, every Christian is to be a demonstration at his own point of history and to his own generation.”[vi]

We were made to be accountable to our Creator. He’s asking; “How’s it goin? How ya doin? How’s everybody? What’s goin on? Wassup?” He’s not interested in responses that are full of superficial, impersonal niceties like; “Uh, we dunno, awful, fine I guess, Uh Oh, mediocre, okay, wonderful, awesome and fantastic?” Our God is interested in results. Consider the following from C.S. Lewis:

“Fine feelings, new insights, greater interest in ‘religion’ mean nothing unless they make our actual behaviour better; just as in illness, ‘feeling better’ is not much good if the thermometer shows that your temperature is still going up. In that sense the outer world is quite right to judge Christianity by its results. Christ told us to judge by results…Our careless lives set the outer world talking; and we give them grounds for talking in a way that throws doubt on the truth of Christianity.”[vii]

How do you behave when you know somebody is monitoring your progress by virtue of the results you produce? You cannot graduate from high school or college without accumulating satisfactory grades and credits. You cannot have standings or winners and losers in sport unless somebody keeps score! Christians in the U.S. have wandered from the biblical truth that our results matter and, as Francis Schaeffer says, our Christian behavior is under constant scrutiny:

“It is the idea of the theater; we are on a stage being observed. He (Apostle Paul) says here that the supernatural universe is not far off, and that while the real battle is in the heavenlies, our part is not unimportant at all, because it is being observed by the unseen world. It is like a one-way mirror. We are under observation.” [viii]

In my community, a mega-church has an outreach ministry in a poverty ravaged, gang infested, predominantly Hispanic neighborhood. This church has a reported weekend attendance of around 10,000. On Tuesday’s, Hispanic children between the ages 8 and 12 begin placing their coats on the sidewalk in the “pick-up” area of their neighborhood around 3:00PM in the afternoon. They are reserving their place in line to be placed with a volunteer driver who arrives at 6:00PM to take them to a weekly Kid’s Club activity. On most days, there are more kids walking home with their coats at 6:20PM than there are in the cars with volunteer Christian drivers.

In speaking with one of the volunteer drivers, tears trickle from beneath his sunglasses as he asks: “Don’t they know Jesus is weeping about this? Where is everybody? What are those kids thinking as they grab their coats, hang their heads and return home? Are we really doing something constructive for Christ here or are we shooting Him in the heart? Don’t our people understand that He is watching all this?”

As stated in the quote in the first paragraph of this section, how can the Christian community in American society today respond to the statement that our progress can be characterized as an accumulative demonstration, rolling up like a snowball through the centuries? As individual disciples of Christ, have we lost sight of the importance of the biblical truth that “faith without works is dead?” Have we succumbed to the illusion that the grace, mercy, forgiveness and the love of Christ that provides us with a free pass to eternity in heaven is all that really matters? KABOOM!

This article is designed to provide you with the essential KABOOM! required to turn your attention to the voice of Jesus whispering: “You matter. Your life matters. I have more in store for you as My disciple than you have been led to believe. Follow Me. Allow Me to reveal dimensions of Myself to you that will reinvigorate your thirst for Me, transform you and the world around you. I am the God of More, much More. I need you to serve Me in ways I can teach you, if you’re willing. Come to Me my child. Join Me to personally and more deeply participate in the progress of My kingdom. The harvest is plenty but the workers are few. It is time to awaken and rediscover your willingness to rekindle your love for Me. Together we can participate in the joyous triumph of creating an accumulative demonstration, rolling up like a snowball through the centuries.”

Eduardo is forty eight-years old. After sundown, you can find him scavenging dumpsters behind his apartment looking for cans, bottles and cardboard that he can take to a local recycler. He had a stroke last year brought on by untreated diabetes that raged out of control. He has numbness on his left side preventing him from the ordinary course mobility and stamina most of us take for granted. He cannot afford ongoing medical care. It’s not unusual for him to be without insulin at certain times of the month. He goes without insulin so his family can eat. KABOOM! There are likely hundreds of families like the Lopez family within any urban community who would truly appreciate a helping hand.

For Eduardo and Lola Lopez, the immigration policy paradox has implications within their own family. Three of their daughters were whisked across the border with them twelve years ago. Since that time, they added three sisters, born in the U.S.. Thus, you have three sisters that are legally considered Chillegals (children of undocumented, illegal immigrants) and three are U.S. citizens. All six children come from the same two parents, yet their legal status and prospects for contributing to mainstream American society are distinctly different. Their oldest daughter recently graduated from high school in the top 3% of her class. By virtue of her Chillegal status, she cannot get a legitimate job to help pay her way through college, cannot participate in paid internship programs in her field of study, is unable to join her classmates traveling by air to conferences, cannot get a drivers license to get to campus, and does not qualify for any sort of student loans. Imagine your six children walking to school together. Three of them are carefree. The other three keep looking over their shoulders wondering if Immigration and Naturalization Service field agents are in the neighborhood.  KABOOM! This is not the level playing field described in Scripture. It is an opportunity for the Christian community to become actively involved in ridding this society of biblically proscribed oppression.

As stated in Scripture: Zechariah 7: 8And the word of the LORD came again to Zechariah: 9″This is what the LORD Almighty says: `Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. 10Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.’ 11

The ‘Intimmigration’Proponents

As it relates to U.S. immigration policy, on one side of the debate are the proponents of intimmigration. Their arguments are filled with themes of legality, protectionism, blaming the individual, fear, misplaced patriotic fervor, self-righteousness, economic considerations and national security concerns. The following are some terms that characterize the essence of their position and will assist you in identifying who they are by what they say. They are typically the loudest voices, yet are careful to veil their arguments behind more moderate intonation in the mainstream media. These are the voices and viewpoints that you hear most often, if you listen for them. As you read the following, try to identify the voice of Jesus as He speaks about the alien, the poor and needy, and the oppressed in the New Testament. If you’re like me, I don’t believe you will be able to recognize His voice.

Latillegals – “These people are criminals by virtue of their unauthorized border crossing. It’s illegal. The entire immigration policy debate begins and ends with this one fact. Period!”

Hispanicriminals – “These illegals are robbing us blind! Most are disproportionately represented in gangs, drugs and alcohol abuse. They even drive illegally without any insurance coverage. We must do everything in our power to protect ourselves from these people.”

Latimmorals – “Entering this country illegally is immoral. These people are going to infect American society with the influences that contribute to the ongoing moral decay of this nation.”

Hispanationalsecurity – “The potential for terrorists to be among their lot is an absolute certainty. It’s just a matter of time before they attack us. I’m scared to death of these people.”

Latinomas – “Round em up and send em back where they came from! Every last one of em. You know, the internment camps during World War II did provide the country with a sense of comfort by virtue of the fact that we had our arms around the situation.”

Hispaniconomic – “They’re taking our jobs, overwhelming the jails, prisons, healthcare, affordable housing and social welfare institutions that our tax dollars are supporting. This is an outrage! No wonder this country’s economic recovery is retarded.”

Latinomo – “Build the damn wall! From the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. It’s the only way we’re gonna stop the ongoing incursion by these insurgents!”

Hispanitsyourowndamnfault - “Their lot is what they deserve.”

Latinotonmywatch – “Establish a road to residency for these people? It’s not gonna happen on my watch! There isn’t a politician in the country who’s dumb enough to advocate for this. What’s this world coming to anyhow?”

Hispaniconstituency – “Just imagine if we give these people the right to vote. That will be the day when we can all pack up and move to Canada. All hell’s gonna break loose. Our nation will be overrun with foreigners.”

Latillerates – “These people are stupid and lazy. They’re sure to drag our economy down and further the decline of the U.S. in the world from a competitive standpoint. There has always been an underclass in this country that has served a purpose for the majority. They should just accept their position in our society and be grateful we don’t round em up and send em back where they came from.”

Conclusion:

Something must change. If you have read this far in this article, I only hope that you recognize what it is that must change. It is you, it is me, it is us. We must change. Until we recognize the essence of the vocabulary that inhabits the dialogue of the debates on public policy issues in the U.S. that involve the poor and needy, and contrast those voices with the truth revealed in Scripture, we shall remain victims of Christianimation. We cannot hope to contribute our voices and actions to the chorus and efforts that must be heard and seen to have the hopes of the families like the Eduardo and Lola Lopez family realized. U.S. immigration policy won’t change until the Joe and Sally Christians of our nation raise their voices on behalf of the millions of undocumented immigrants residing in our country whose lives remain suspended in a state of Hispanimation. We have the keys to release the oppressed from Hispurgatory. Yet, we must rise from the posture of complacency to free God’s children from their cells.

We need a new posture within the Christian community in the U.S. Our future depends upon it, as one author says: “The future depends on God and on His people who will hear Him, believe Him, and obey Him.”[ix]

The purpose of this article is to expose the disease of Christianimation that has infected the Christian community in the U.S. Our advocacy on behalf of, and service to, the poor and needy within our respective communities represents the litmus test for our obedience to the cause of Christ. It is an important ingredient in our inoculation for this disease.

Furthermore, I have attempted to clarify the voices that populate the dialogue of the U.S. immigration policy debate. Do these voices sound like the voice of Jesus Christ? I think not. We are the one’s who are responsible for ridding this country of what one author has characterized as “man’s inhumanity to man.”[x] It is up to us to expunge the contradiction that Christianimation in the U.S. shouts to the world, and solidify the reputation of our faith and our country as “the land of the free, the home of the brave, with liberty and justice for all.

I conclude with the words of former President Theodore Roosevelt:

“Until we put honor and duty first, and are willing to risk something in order to achieve righteousness both for ourselves and for others, we shall accomplish nothing; and we shall earn and deserve the contempt of the strong nations of mankind.”[xi]

The Eduardo and Lola Lopez family are deeply grateful to you. Speak up. Get involved. They can’t. Become a Christian who is ‘in recovery’ from Christianimation.

KABOOM! He’s counting on you. The Good News is that the Christian life is not about just changing, but changing for the better. Progress begins with Him and includes you.

Isn’t it about time you re-dedicated your life to this truth?

NOTES:

[ii] Barna, George A Fish Out of Water © 2002,Integrity Publishers Brentwood, TN p.77

[iii] Montiel, Lisa – Nathan, Richard – Wright, David An Update on Urban Hardship, August 2004 (c) 2004 by The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, State University of New York p. 4 www.rockinst.org

[iv] Wells, Ronald A. History Through the Eyes of Faith © 1989 Harper San Francisco – Christian College Coalition  p.184

[v] Acts 1:10 – Excerpted from Compton’s Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[vi] Schaeffer, Francis True Spirituality Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton, IL © 1971 p. 64

[vii] C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, HarperSanFrancisco – A Division of HarperCollinsPublishers, (c) 1952, pp. 207-208.

[viii] Schaeffer, Francis True Spirituality Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton, IL © 1971 p. 60

[ix] Blackaby, Henry What The Spirit is Saying to the Churches, Copyright (c) 2002   by Multnomah Publishers 2002 Sisters, Or. P. 29

[x] Francis A. Schaeffer, The God Who Is There, InterVarsity Press Copyright (c) 1968 p. 136

[xi] Allies to Punish Turks Who Murder, New York Times, May 24 1915, p. 1

What if you couldn’t count? You probably wouldn’t have any use for the words you take for granted like countless, counter, countdown, Count Dracula, or catchy little nursery rhymes your parents taught you as a child. Yet God created us to count. Each of us is created to count for something. He will also call us to account for this. As the Bible says, “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”   You can count on it.

When it comes to the statistics that populate the U.S. immigration policy reform debate, I’m absolutely certain we’ve forgotten how to count. I am so convinced of this, I’ve created an experiment for you to complete to help you understand.

Have you ever attempted to count the number of pops you hear as a bag of popcorn bakes in your microwave? (Of course you haven’t! I’m one of the very few human beings silly enough to do this from the first pop to the last). Try it. Then, open the bag and count each of the fully formed morsels of popcorn that are ready to eat. How does that sum compare to the number you counted by listening to the popping? My guess is there are many more morsels of popcorn formed in the bag than your ears were capable of counting. What do you care? You’re going to devour the whole bag mindlessly watching the television anyway.

What if I told you to pop a second bag of popcorn? Same brand, same size bag. This time, the number of pops you count, actually add up to something meaningful. You are only allowed to eat the number of individual popcorn that you actually recognize and count aloud whilst popping. My ability to count more pops unquestionably goes up on this second try. Yours will to. Why? Because we had a vested interest in the outcome (satisfying our hunger).

I find it fascinating that the results of counting have very little to do with what’s actually being counted versus the importance of what the motives of the counter are. Well, I guess it’s all poppycock anyway. Or is it?

Dreaming About Reality?

I called Senator Orrin Hatch’s Washington D.C. office last week inquiring about when the Senator will introduce the Dream Act again. I got into a discussion with the Senator’s aide who answered the phone about the sixty-five thousand students figure that is consistently used when describing the number of resident, undocumented students who graduate from U.S. high schools each year. This is the number the Dream Act is supposed to positively impact every year. I researched this “65,000″ number and find that it goes back to the 2000 census. However, from 2000 to present, the enrollment of immigrant students in the U.S. public school system has been the primary source of student enrollment. This influx of enrollment has dramatically exceeded the enrollment projections for the period by the vast majority of urban school districts.

I asked him where this number came from. He said, “It’s a well-documented figure that is a statistical extrapolation from the 2000 census of U.S. residents.” We discussed the merits of having a reliable versus a popular figure. He agreed that the figure used must be one that is accurate. He added that “the present figure of 65,000 was likely popular because it has integrity.” I told him I begged to differ as I live in Los Angeles and had been taught otherwise by the ongoing Michael Jackson trial ( Popular/well-known does not necessarily possess the attribute of integrity ).

I pointed out that it might be time to “check the math” because I was aware of some deficiencies in the current statistics that might make that sixty-five thousand figure a heck of a lot higher and vastly more reliable. He asked me for specifics. I told him that PEW Hispanic Research suggested the number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. was now (March 2005) “approximately eleven million.” The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) has numbers all over the place (depending upon what policy position they are endorsing today) that range from nine to eleven million. FAIR ( Federation for American Immigration Reform ) agrees with CIS ( It’s fascinating how both these organizations espouse remarkably similar public policy positions too). The Urban Institute, Demography and the International Organization for Migration are all in the same guesstimate neighborhood (It’s nice to have company if you’re wrong).

Then, along comes an investment-banking firm, Bear-Stearns, that throws the whole country club into a tizzy… “this figure may be as high as 20 million people.”  “Wow!” exclaimed the Senator’s aide. “I’ll have to get back to you on that one.” We politely ended our call and went about our lives.

Why is immigration reform mired in the muck of this murky math? Perhaps the following quote from the Bear Stearns report can help clear things up: “Like corrupt accounting practices or poor national security information, the United States is struggling with its immigration policies because of false assumptions and unreliable data.” Yep, what counts is not being properly accounted for. Let me explain.

Oh, the aide from Senator Hatch’s office? He hasn’t called back yet. Maybe I’m just dreaming about the reality that I will get a return call from this guy.

Arbithmetic

We typically don’t have any problem counting money. Yet, when the equation involves people, that’s when the math gets murky. Unfortunately, we have developed a tendency to forget how to count people accurately when it comes to socio-political issues. It really boils down to counterfeit counting or, counting only the folks that somebody defines as worth counting, the ones that truly matter. The figures we throw around depend upon the position we are attempting to support. This is what I refer to as arbitrary arithmetic or arbithmetic: the rules for counting change depending upon the reason underlying your count. Whether people count or not is dependent upon some pre-defined subjective definition that somebody makes up.

We have arrived at a critical juncture in our world that demands that we revisit the madness of our arbithmetic, as characterized by the following author: “The first step is to measure whatever can be easily counted. This is OK as far as it goes. The second step is to disregard that which can’t be easily measured or to give it an arbitrary quantitative value. This is artificial and misleading. The third step is to presume that which can’t be measured easily really isn’t important. This is blindness. The fourth step is to say that which can’t be easily measured really doesn’t exist. This is suicide.”

Perhaps it’s time to heed the words of the psalmist when he wrote, “Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit.”  It’s time to re-examine the deceit we’ve come to accept within our math from a moral and spiritual standpoint.

Migraine Math

Our unwillingness to be accountable to God by counting, being counted upon, taking action when it counts and counting correctly has contributed to untold suffering worldwide during the twentieth century. The Ottomans exterminated more than a million Armenians during WW I. The Germans killed six million Jews and approximately five million other folks who crossed their path. The atrocities in Cambodia, Rwanda, the Kurdish territory of Iraq, and Bosnia all add to the 20th century total. Unfortunately, this list continues to grow today with day after day additions of casualties from Somalia, Iraq, the Congo, El Salvador etc. Yet, as one-author notes, “History has shown that the suffering of victims has rarely been sufficient to get the United States to intervene.”

Contemplating atrocities of this scale gives me a raging headache. I become nauseated and sick to my stomach. I am overwhelmed with the sense that I am experiencing a migraine of the soul. Tears stream down my face. My being cries aloud to God. It’s the onset of an episode of migraine math.

Wrestling with these moments, I have come to realize that my mind has limits. I am distinctly incapable of grasping the magnitude and meaning of certain events in life. I am also quite confident that God has a reaction very similar to my own. Although I’m convinced that He can comprehend what I cannot, I’m even more certain that the heart of God is broken over our unwillingness to count as He created us to. I continue to hear the voice of Christ among us today, looking around Himself, shouting at us, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

It’s time to repent from our counterproductive ways.

The Compassion Calculation

Counting can be considered, cold, cruel and calculated. When we immerse ourselves in this routine activity, we can become desensitized to the essential compassion required of the character of one who claims the name of Christ as Lord and Savior. As one author points out, “At the end of the twentieth century, many millions of refuges and displaced persons are victims of “compassion fatigue.”  Yes, we human beings have a history replete with centuries of evidence documenting our tiring about the care of the less fortunate. Yes, we continue to suffer from this insidious malady today.

One need not look beyond the borders of the United States to count millions of refugees and displaced persons. The present debate about U.S. immigration policy reform is the domestic human rights opportunity of the 21st century in the United States. However, this debate is not about the components of some sort of high-minded, sterile public policy. It is about people. It is as much about the soul of the undocumented immigrant residing in the U.S. as it is about the soul of the Christian citizen in whose neighborhood the undocumented immigrant is your neighbor. It is about the soul of this nation. It is the opportunity to be startled from the numbness of compassion fatigue, rise and “As Christians, by the grace of God, let us act upon what we say we believe.”

Counting the Cost

Spurred on by the relentless pursuit of prosperity and the ruthless defense of what we already have in the name of economic progress, we have become comfortable with diminishing the sacred value of each child of God to an economic cost. Faces, names and souls have been replaced with dollar signs denoting their perceived contribution to, or detraction from the burgeoning global economy.

It’s at this juncture that we must face the fact that we have marginalized Christ in our world. We have erected idols commissioned with prayers for His blessing of abundance. The shadows from these idols obscure our view of the poor, the needy, the displaced, the undocumented immigrant and the refugee. In our nations economic calculations, these people, God’s children, have become costs, economic burdens without faces or voices. Their needs continue to be diminished, overlooked and devalued in state and congressional policy deliberations, as well as in the individual and collective hearts of those who claim to be Disciples of Christ.

When we define people as costs that require containment and/or elimination, we elevate the pedestals that proudly support the idols of efficiency, self-determination, self-righteousness and patriotic fervor. We add a backdrop adorned with subtly subdued, fear-laden images and a swatch of scarcity designed to remind us that we might risk losing what we have if we don’t go along with the proposed formula for our future. Yes, this is the calculation we have arrived at for becoming the greatest nation on the face of this planet.

I believe this nation has the opportunity to become greater than the sum of all this. We must embrace a new math, a moral math, a Christian math.

Net Worth

Total assets minus total liabilities equals net worth.  Is being against the fundamental capital outlays required to address the burgeoning divide between the haves and the poor, the needy, the marginalized, the displaced and the undocumented immigrant actually something that detracts from the net worth of this nation? Is it possible that, “In the process of being against something worth being against, one often becomes for something not worth being for.”  When world opinion is at an all-time low toward the United States, is it time to examine whether or not we have become for something not worth being for.

When a national obsession on GNP inevitably leads to hollow, belated political programs entitled “NCLB” (No Child Left Behind), perhaps it is time to examine the math we are feeding into the calculator. It’s time to stop the blame game. There’s nothing wrong with the calculator. It’s operator error that must be confronted. Where do we turn when our collective conscience is stirred with questions about the net worth of this nation’s soul? Jesus has a formula. The liabilities we have been attempting to reduce, marginalize or eliminate must be revalued as His greatest assets. For God, math is always counterintuitive to the mind of man.

Summary

“We will stand before God one day and give an account for our lives.  And this generation of Christians is responsible for this generation of non-Christians.  God will ask, ‘Did you do all that you could?  Did you match the intensity and fervor I brought to the cross?’  People must be brought to the point of understanding that it would be a tragedy if change didn’t happen.  They must not simply embrace change, but cry out for it”.  This is why the math matters.

Count me in. I am re-evaluating what really counts in life. The consequences will be eternal. Will you join me? Will you join Him? He is why the math matters. Can He count on you to draw near to Him and learn the only equation that has ever produced the results of righteousness this world, this nation, your community and you so desperately require.

Draw near to Christ. He’s counting on you.

Bibliography & Notes

1 Hebrews 4:13 – NIV

2  www.bearstearns.com/bscportal/pdfs/underground.pdf.

3  Handy, Charles The Age of Paradox Harvard Business School Press © 1994 p. 221

4  Psalm 32:2 – NIV

5  Power, Samantha A Problem From Hell – America In An Age of Genocide Perrenial – An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, Copyright © 2002 by Samantha Power, p. 512.

6  Mark 15:34 – NIV

7   Power, Samantha & Allison, Graham Realizing Human Rights – Moving From Inspiration to Impact, (c) 2000 by Samantha Power and Graham Allison, St. Matin’s Press, New York, NY.  p. 30.

8  Schaeffer, Francis True Spirituality, (c) 1971 by Francis Schaeffer. Tyndale House Publishers p. 125.

9  Campolo, Tony and McLaren, Brian Adventures in Missing the Point – How the Culture Controlled Church Neutered the Gospel, Emergent YS Books -  Zondervan Publishers, Inc. Grand Rapids, MI., Copyright © 2003 by Youth Specialties p. 242.

10  White, James Emery Rethinking The Church Copyright (c) 2001 Baker Books, Grand Rapids, MI p. 151

Lurking covertly,
Within the shadows of a doubt.
Dubiously suspicious,
If we will ever work this out.

Befuddled and betrayed,
Thrashing amidst waves of confusion.
Is U.S. immigration reform a mirage?
Have we succumbed to Immillusion?

Perhaps, I’m simply naïve;
A citizen who believes we must solve this thing.
I believe in liberty and justice for all.
The day we let freedom ring!

Streets filled with joy and laughter.
Our nation’s heart reflected on our face.
Celebrating citizenship for the others among us,
Surrendered to the extension of God’s grace.

Millions enduring unnecessary oppression,
Counting on us for their release.
We hold the keys to their cells,
Unlocking citizenship will be our peace.

A nation suffering from cardiovascular disease,
Well known as hardness of the heart.
We espouse freedom and democracy abroad,
As immillusion continues tearing us apart.

Counterintuitive as it may seem,
The notions I ponder as I pray.
Perhaps it’s not what we must keep,
But what we shall decide to give away.

The malady of immillusion,
Clogs the arteries of our Nation’s heart.
The cure may require a dietary change,
Giving thanks may be a start.

Vision is a must.
Solutions begin as a mirage.
It’s time for innovation
Not park it in a garage.

Ten to twenty million,
Nobody has a solid number.
His creations are in our midst!
God, awaken us from our self-righteous slumber.

Unforgettable lessons,
Voices from our Nation’s past.
Once again, I yearn to hear the voice that cries,
“Thank God Almighty, We are free at last.”

He is here. He is among us.
Weeping over our confusion.
God Almighty please forgive us!
Lead us out of the land of Immillusion.