Immigration Statement

I write these words not as an immigration specialist nor a legal scholar. I hesitate to enter these waters of political posturing, but my heart just won’t be still, and the eyes of my heart cannot turn away from pictures of children separated from their parents. When I think about the legal side of all this, I think of two similar quotes:

“If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so.” -Thomas Jefferson

“One may well ask: ‘How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?’ The answers lies in the fact that there are two types of law: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal, but moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I agree with St. Augustine that ‘an unjust law is no law at all.’” -Martin Luther King Jr. Letter From A Birmingham Jail.

I have not set out to write an eloquent treatise on Immigration Reform, nor have I set out to write a theological or doctrinal treatise on scripture and the law. I simply trust my heart on this one.

I don’t need competing media outlets, nor political commentary, nor spin specialists to convince me that separating children from their parents and detaining them in facilities is wrong no matter how you try to fix it. I don’t need divisive Facebook posts or Twitter statements that polarizes us into moral blindness. I do not write these words to debate whether or not we need immigration reform. It is quite obvious that we do. However, as a born again, water washed, spirit born disciple of Jesus Christ, I must say with all the moral authority I can that the current path of separating children from parents is not the way of Jesus Christ. I say with the apostle, “But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.” -I Corinthians 12:31.