No Political Theory Will End the Immigration Debate

Only a Truly Biblical Worldview

Perhaps the spirit of the back-to-school season has given me a feeling of nostalgia for my Political Science courses as an undergraduate at Carroll University because this week, I found myself contemplating philosopher John Rawls’s Veil of Ignorance. Basically, this is a thought experiment in which Rawls proposes we imagine ourselves behind a veil of ignorance where we draft principles for a fair and equitable society, not knowing what our own social position—gender, race, socioeconomic status or abilities—will be. This is an effort to curb the human tendency to think only of our self-interest. Of course, in reality this theory falls short because we are incapable of surrendering completely to this way of thinking. Our social position, and the thought patterns that come along with it, are so engrained in us that they will inevitably influence how we think.

This theory came to mind when I heard the horrible, baseless story last week that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio were eating people’s pets. From a Christian perspective, this rhetoric is despicable on so many levels. For one thing, God did not include any qualifiers in the commandment “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor” (Exodus 20:16), so the fact that some of the same politicians who want the Ten Commandments posted in every public school classroom, can justify this cruel, racist lie for political gain is our first clue that Christian Nationalism is their true religion, a completely different religion from the teachings of Christ. I would also add that I believe that most people possess a basic sense of decency, a component of God’s general revelation, evidenced by the fact that prohibitions against stealing other people’s property, killing or otherwise harming one another, are included in the moral codes of all mainstream religions, both Eastern and Western. Even humanists and Atheists recognize that it is in our best interest to have an orderly society where we don’t have to fear for our safety and where personal property is respected. Of course in practice, the Doctrine of Total Depravity means that all humanity, across every race and religion is susceptible to lust, greed, jealousy, and thus theft and cruelty are not uncommon occurrences. Thus even if pets had been stolen and eaten, the proper Christian response requires recognizing that but for the grace of God, any one of us, put into the right circumstances, is capable of egregious conduct, which is why we can seek restitution, through proper legal channels, from the individual responsible, but ultimately, we must forgive, and attribute our hardship solely to the total depravity of all humanity, not any particular ethnic group.

But as Kaitlyn Schiess insightfully points out in this week’s episode of The Holy Post, this was never even about immigrants causing harm, such as the little boy in Springfield who was killed in a bus accident by one of these Haitian immigrants, nor even about the isolated incidents across the country of undocumented immigrants murdering people. If it were, the politicians could have stayed focused on these stories. But the motive for spreading a baseless claim on social media that Haitian immigrants are eating people’s pets is far more sinister: to argue that these immigrants are fundamentally different from us, subhuman, savages. It should go without saying that God would disagree (Genesis 1:27). Again, there are no qualifiers: all humanity was created in God’s image and are to be treated with dignity. For all the ways we, in our fallen nature have come up with to divide ourselves, the Bible makes it abundantly clear that there are really only two types of people in this world, those who are near to Christ, and those who are far from Christ, whom God calls us to minister to so that they too might draw near to Christ (See especially Ephesians 2). In The Holy Post, Phil Visher also sited a statistic that 47 percent of the world’s migrants are Christian, so our shame should be magnified if we stop and consider that when we dehumanize immigrants, there is a good chance we are dehumanizing many of our own brothers and sisters in Christ. But dehumanizing those who may not be Christian is no less shameful. In fact, it is tragic because our misrepresentation of the true Gospel may be so off-putting that they never trust in Christ.

But I want to return to the idea of the Veil of Ignorance. We are incapable of putting ourselves behind a veil of ignorance, and actually, even if we were, this wouldn’t be the most Christian response to the injustice and inequity of our society. Sure, it could yield excellent earthly outcomes of fairness and equity. But Christ is not interested in merely our external behavior but our motives, and thus if I am crafting social policy that lifts up women, the poor, people of color simply because I might be born into one of these groups and will have to live with the consequences of my policies, I am still acting in my own self-interest, albeit in a roundabout way. True Christianity requires that even affluent white men advocate for policies that lift up the marginalized, even if it costs them wealth, or status or political power, motivated by genuine love and a desire to offer society a foretaste of God’s kingdom where there will be no social stratification.

Shortly after leaving the Catholic church and joining a nondenominational Protestant church, I was listening to a radio sermon from Pete Briscoe, the son of renowned pastors and missionaries Jill and Stuart Briscoe. He mentioned how as a kid, he asked his parents one day why he lived in comfort, when so many he met on the mission field with his parents lived in extreme poverty. I wasn’t a missionary kid, but as someone who grew up in a stable, loving family in an affluent suburb, I had often wondered the same thing. The response of his parents was one simple word: grace. Growing up Catholic, I understood grace from a theological perspective. We are all sinners who deserve eternal punishment and separation from God. But God graciously sent his Son to atone for our sins so that we may enjoy eternal life. But with this broadened application of grace, so much more of the Bible, and our lives in this world make sense. There was nothing particularly virtuous about anyone in the Old Testament. In fact, it has all the makings for a gripping television drama: deception, betrayal, jealousy, even incest. But God, by his grace, chose flawed people to play a part in his redemption plan, and long before Christ came to dwell among us, even before God gave the Law to Moses, formally prohibiting things like deception and incest, the Bible tells us that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6, James 2:23). I did absolutely nothing in a previous life or anything to deserve my good fortune, and children born in a war-torn region like Gaza, a slum in India, or even a family or community right here in America plagued by drug addiction or violence certainly did nothing to deserve their hardship. But God did not set Abraham apart for a life of privilege in a vacuum. God told Abraham that “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:3). In other words, while God doesn’t tell us why he chose Abraham for the lineage that would become Israel, or why for that matter, he declared the Israelites his chosen people, God was very clear as to how the Israelites were supposed to respond to this grace: to be a blessing to others. In the same way, God does not tell us why to this day, some of us live in peace and comfort while others are born into war and poverty, but he is clear that he did not endow us with these blessings so that we could hoard them for ourselves, like lighting a lamp and then putting it under a bowl (Matthew 5:15). We too were shown grace so that we might be a blessing to others, like putting our lamp in its stand so that it gives light to everyone in the house (Matthew 5:16).

Such a massive influx of immigrants to one small community is a legitimate logistical concern that needs to be rationally addressed. But to respond to these Haitian immigrants, and all immigrants for that matter, with hateful rhetoric about how they are taking our jobs, or buying up our houses making housing unaffordable, or requiring us to pay higher taxes, is reprehensible because from a Christian perspective, these resources were never ours to begin with. Our financial resources, even the land we occupy, are gifts from God we were given not because of anything virtuous we ever did to deserve them, but by virtue of God’s grace, so that we could be a blessing to those less fortunate, like these Haitian immigrants, who came legally by the way, fleeing extreme poverty and lawlessness in their country.

When I was eighteen years old and trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, I chose to study Political Science because I found political discussions interesting in high school, and being the typical young idealist, I thought maybe if I studied Political Science, I could pursue a career in government and in this way, have the power to make a positive difference for society. I had accepted Christ, but my faith was a compartmentalized faith. I went to church every Sunday and generally tried to be a good person, but I didn’t fully appreciate how the Christian faith is supposed to radically transform our entire outlook on life. But looking back on my studies with the perspective of a much more mature faith, I have come to realize that no political ideology, no silly theory like John Rawls’s Veil of Ignorance has the power to make a genuine, positive difference in the world. The Oxford English Dictionary defines politics as “the activities associated with the governance of a country or other area, especially the debate or conflict among individuals or parties having or hoping to achieve power.” This desire for power means that self-interest is inseparable from governance. Jesus said that no man can serve two masters, and he was right because history proves time and again that when people try to combine Christianity with a political philosophy, Nationalism, the lust for political power inevitably wins out, resulting in supposed Christians misusing the name of the Lord, and twisting Scripture to justify all kinds of evil, including the hoarding of God’s grace for themselves. As discussed above, the Veil of Ignorance thought experiment is impossible to actually carry out, and even if we could stand behind such a veil, we would still be, in an indirect sense, acting out of self-interest. Ideologies like Socialism or Communism are feeble attempts to manufacture fairness and equity without God that do not account for the evil in every human heart. This is not to say Christians should completely disengage from politics: On the contrary, Christians are called to “seek the good of the city” (Jeremiah 29:7) which in our context means praying that the Holy Spirit speaks into our conscience, voting accordingly, and then continuing to speak truth to whomever is elected because every political candidate will fall short of Christ’s righteous standard, including Kamala Harris. In the interest of full transparency though, I have to say here that I believe character matters above all else. Sticking with the immigration context, the Biden/Harris administration has unfortunately succumbed to political pressure to secure the border by denying migrants the chance to request asylum if border arrests rise above 2,500 per day for a week, a policy that is arbitrary and cruel from a Christian perspective, but overall, you can tell by the way they speak that both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have compassion in their hearts, that they at least recognize the humanity of these migrants, even if they like all politicians, sometimes put political expediency ahead of doing what is right. But I cannot fathom how honest Christians can vote for someone who says that immigrants are poisoning the blood of this country, and who amplified the horrible rumor in Springfield. But ultimately, true Christians recognize there is no political solution to the immigration debate, or any of the other social issues for that matter. Only a truly biblical worldview that recognizes the grace we have been shown, and our mandate to respond to this grace by being a blessing to others has the power to make a genuine, positive difference in this world.

That Reminds Me of a Song: But for the Grace of God, sung by Keith Urban is technically not a song in the Christian music genre. It is a country song expressing gratitude for the love of his wife. I kind of quit listening to country music several years ago when it took on a more pop sound, so I hadn’t heard this song in years, but as I was writing this post, it came back to mind. In the first verse, he sings of the neighbors who are always fighting, and how he has to turn the radio up to drown out the shouting. Then in the second verse, he sings of a man in his neighborhood who is materially rich but spiritually poor. No one calls him or comes to visit, so he wanders through his empty home, surrounded by his things. Meanwhile, the narrator is blessed to have a peaceful life with a wife who loves him, which he correctly credits to the grace of God. In the refrain you can almost imagine him crying as he is clearly aware that but for the grace of God, his life could have turned out very differently. The song doesn’t tell us whether he responds to this recognition of God’s grace by reaching out to these troubled, lonely neighbors, but what if we used this song to imagine a third verse to God’s grace in our own lives?