On Thursday, as Pope Francis left on the private Vatican jet following a visit and speech made in Mexico near the American border, he was asked about the wall that presidential hopeful Donald Trump proposed building to stop illegal border crossings.
The pope’s reply set off a showdown between the two when the pontiff stated, “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian.”
Not surprisingly, America’s most brash and brazen billionaire took to the nearest microphone and camera and rebutted that the pope was “disgraceful” for daring to question the Donald’s faith.
While I am hardly the biggest fan of Donald Trump, the pope is wrong in his assessment of walls and borders. Jesus Himself made it clear that people should enter by the legal means and not by way of an illegal border crossing.
If the pope had a “Christian” or biblical worldview he would encourage compassion from the United States and other nations while at the same time encourage people from outside to seek the legal way to enter the country, any other direction from the pontiff would be cruel and unloving.
Jesus stated that we should enter by the gate and that if we enter by climbing over the fence we are thieves. I understand that His primary intent was to speak of the Kingdom of Heaven but the principle He taught is universal.
A nation has the right to set its borders and to secure them and establish the method people use to migrate into the country. Nations set up gates for lawful entry and its government establishes the number of people that nation can reasonably absorb and remain healthy.
For the United States this is not a matter of ethnicity, as you will often hear progressives argue, it is about the lawful migration of outsiders. It is the right of the American government to decide how many people can come in to work or get an education or even to become citizens. But it is not the right of people not born in the US to just cross where they please and live in opposition to the laws a sovereign nation has legally established. They must enter though the gate.
What the pope and progressive liberal are promoting is the abolishment of our nations borders and our laws. We saw this in the battle over driver’s licenses in New Mexico during the legislative session, progressives do not wish to hold law breakers accountable for their actions because such lawlessness undermines the long term stability of the United States, thereby reducing the country to third world status where laws are not followed except when the right bribe is paid.
An orderly immigration system asks for the loyalty of a nation’s new citizens by going through the lawful process. The same is true for becoming a citizen of God’s Kingdom, we must enter thought the gate and declare that we renounce our allegiance to our old selves and Satan by recognizing Jesus as our Lord and King.
