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From an evangelical Alabama woman who has spent time as a missionary in Guatemala.

https://www.al.com/opinion/2019/06/mercy-and-justice-at-the-border.html

Mercy and justice at the border

Posted Jun 30, 2019

Guatemala City. The trenches between the shelters are conduits for raw sewage.

By Dana Hall McCain

The Christian faith is a tangle of ideas that, at first glance, seem to contradict one another. Truth and grace. Mercy and justice. Yet these seemingly paradoxical ideas do—and must—co-exist to accurately reflect the God we serve.

When I observe the varying Christian responses to the suffering at our nation’s southern border, I am reminded of how easily we blow it when we fail to live in the tension of these counterbalancing ideas. How mercy without justice falls short, as does justice without mercy.


As a nation, we have managed to hit every wrong note in our response to the immigration problem. Every. Single. One. And because of our partisan and selfish natures—on both the left and the right—people are suffering. People are dying.

Tremble, fellow American, because God is watching. The same God who cares for the unborn children we regularly go to war for burns with a white-hot love for those children at our border. The ones we’re allowing to sit urine-soaked, covered in lice, crying in fear.

Whether it’s the left terrified that they’re going to be required to give the President funding for his wall, or the right terrified that any display of humanity or decency will encourage more illegal immigration and be a win for the left—we are a nation of political calculators who use the pain and terror of others as a bargaining chip. We argue that the ends will justify the means. It must be done, right?


God sees it all.

Which brings us to the horrors of the last couple of weeks, with reports of children caring for children in detention facilities arguably worse than the third-world poverty many of them are fleeing.

About six years ago, I spent a week in one of the most impoverished sections of Guatemala City. I was one of those Evangelicals traveling to a hotspot of suffering to offer aid and the good news of the Gospel. The people we worked among that week lived around the edges of a massive landfill. They picked through fresh deposits of refuse to find bits of metal or other marketable materials to earn a few pennies on which to live. Children walked barefoot over the mountains of trash, searching.

We had strict protocols for going into their massive tent city—an endless mass of shelters built almost entirely from scraps of tin and cardboard they’d mined from the landfill—because the local missionaries explained that rape and robbery were daily occurrences in the dump. I stepped across streams of raw sewage in the rain boots I’d packed on the advice of previous visitors to this missions site.


The mothers cried. A lot. It was a filthy and violent place, from which they could see no exit. I cried with them, because I could offer a little bit of help, but not nearly enough.

And what I know is this: if that was all my native country could offer to my children, I would put them on my back and walk to the moon to get them out. And when I got to the US border—the land of the nice Jesus people who had visited with Tylenol and snacks and said that they loved me—I would expect at least merciful temporary accommodation and consideration of my plight. I would not expect for things to actually get worse.

I don’t care how the children got here. I don’t care whose wildly irresponsible rhetoric caused their parents to panic and join a north-bound caravan. I don’t even care if some of their parents are bad actors. Because none of that matters with regard to what my responsibility to the hurting child is right now. In one of the richest nations in the world, with the best healthcare in the world, there is zero excuse for children in our care being anything other than safe, healthy and clean.


If there’s any silver lining in the family separation policies of this administration, it’s that we could treat children like kings while they wait…if we wanted to.

When the good Samaritan came upon the beaten and suffering man on the side of the road, he didn’t ask how he got there, if he had exercised prudence in his choices up to the point of the beating and robbery, or if he “deserved” mercy. He just helped him, at his own personal expense and inconvenience.

Our immigration system is god-awful broken, and these detained children are a symptom of that. But we have a moral responsibility to care for vulnerable children for as long as necessary until we fix what’s broken. Mercy can’t wait, and God is watching.

Note: On Thursday, Congress passed a $4.6 billion humanitarian aid package thanks to the cooperation of moderate Democrats and Republicans in the House. It fell short of the limitations progressive Democrats wanted to place on Trump’s immigration enforcement plan, but should funnel money toward crucial needs for detainees. It’s a step in the right direction.


Take it from the mouth of one of your own - THIS IS NOT JUST ABOUT ECONOMICS! AND EVEN IF IT WERE, YOU DO NOT TREAT OTHER HUMAN BEINGS, ESPECIALLY CHILDREN, THIS WAY.

Shame on slorch and chrispy and anyone else defending these concentration camps.

Jesus thinks you stink.
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Posted
1 minute ago, ChickenSandwich said:

 

 

"Rev. Samuel Rodriguez was "full of indignation" when he saw the reports and heard from politicians about the deplorable and inhumane conditions for illegal immigrants at an El Paso County, Texas migrant detention center. But what he saw at the same facility toured by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. with a group of pastors was "drastically different."

“I read the reports, saw the news clips. I just wanted to see what was actually happening in order to better enable our efforts to find a fair and a just solution to our broken immigration system," Rodriguez, who has advised President Trump and both Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush on immigration reform, noted. “To my surprise, I saw something drastically different from the stories I’ve been hearing in our national discourse. Even as a veteran of immigration advocacy in the U.S., I was shocked at the misinformation of the crisis at the border."

The group of pastors saw a very different picture described by Ocasio-Cortez and other politicians and media outlets.

“We found no soiled diapers, no deplorable conditions and no lack of basic necessities,” Rodriguez remarked, adding he specifically asked border agents if they staged the facility in response to the negative press. “They unequivocally denied it — we were witnessing the identical conditions the attorneys saw when they toured the facility days earlier."

In fact, some told him the sources from whom the negative coverage originated “never toured the areas of the facility that we toured” and speculated they might have had political motivations.

 

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/immigration-border-facility-aoc-hispanic

You realize that we’ve seen pictures of the facilities at this point right?

Posted

There is no amount of money or solution to properly care for 100,000 economic migrants arriving every 30 days or  3,333 people a day.  More than Austin's entire homeless population that we can't care for.  Now imagine how overwhelmed the border cities are and their lives and communities destroyed.

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Posted

Crisis is 100% due to the activist judges making it illegal to hold families together for longer than 3 weeks. This created catch and release. We made children a get out of jail free card, and now those who pushed for the policy are blaming others for the crisis they intended to create. 

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Posted
3 minutes ago, ChickenSandwich said:

There is no amount of money or solution to properly care for 100,000 economic migrants arriving every 30 days or  3,333 people a day.  More than Austin's entire homeless population that we can't care for.  Now imagine how overwhelmed the border cities are and their lives and communities destroyed.

Open up, baby.

They have a right to America.

No Borders At All.

Posted (edited)
5 minutes ago, slorch said:

Open up, baby.

They have a right to America.

No Borders At All.

And no new money for immigration judges. No new money for more facilities. Abolish ice!  No new money. Decriminalize illegal crossings. Free health care. Free legal representation. “Why bother with internal enforcement”. Forcing LEOs to not cooperate with federal officials.  Protect criminals but not their victims  Sanctuary Cities.  Sanctuary states

How dare you say we want open borders!!

Edited by ChickenSandwich
  • Haha 1
Posted
1 minute ago, ChickenSandwich said:

So believe AOC over Rev Simpson and the other pastors. Shocking 

Why not, she has a better track record of telling the truth than most pastors.

Posted
1 minute ago, ChickenSandwich said:

So believe AOC over Rev Simpson and the other pastors. Shocking 

 No I believe my eyes because I can think for myself. You apparently believe what you’re fed. Shocking.

Posted
Just now, DixonHur said:

Why not, she has a better track record of telling the truth than most pastors.

Seriously, it’s literally in a pastor’s job description to be a 24/7 bullshit artist 

  • Like 1
Posted
3 minutes ago, hpslugga said:

Seriously, it’s literally in a pastor’s job description to be a 24/7 bullshit artist 

We could also just you know... look

Posted
1 minute ago, hobbes2702 said:

We could also just you know... look

Dude, where have you been?  The age of believing your lying eyes is over...Fox news delivers the new New Testament.

Posted
Quote

U.S. agencies have been scrambling to find adequate facilities for migrants streaming across the border with Mexico, and the Border Patrol has been detaining some children for weeks as opposed to the court mandated 72 hours, because the U.S. Department Health and Human Services said it doesn't have the capacity to take them.

Harris said children have been staying at the Clint facility an average of 6 to 10 days, and in some instances for as long as 30 days. And the facility, which was originally designed to hold a little over 100 people, at one point this year was housing 700 children, he added.

"This is not a detention center. It's a holding area," said Aaron Hull, chief of the El Paso Border Patrol sector, which encompasses all of New Mexico and parts of West Texas. He added that the Border Patrol is not built, staffed or funded to handle longer-term stays.

https://www.krmg.com/news/court-case-seeks-inspections-child-border-facilities/ocEwep4KLYZ6fcetUzx5IK/

Posted
53 minutes ago, slorch said:

 

Chrispy is a citizen.  Not an invader.

 

I know the difference is lost on y'all/

You’re actually stooping to defending this sack of shit obvious troll act? Are you in on it?

Posted
25 minutes ago, ChickenSandwich said:

And no new money for immigration judges. No new money for more facilities. Abolish ice!  No new money. Decriminalize illegal crossings. Free health care. Free legal representation. “Why bother with internal enforcement”. Forcing LEOs to not cooperate with federal officials.  Protect criminals but not their victims  Sanctuary Cities.  Sanctuary states

How dare you say we want open borders!!

Tell us about the $25 billion bill that Donald Trump killed in late 2017.

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Posted

Rev. Samuel Rodriguez - a man of the cloth and of the snack.

Rodriguez is the executive producer for the Fox Searchlight film Flamin Hot, a true story about the man behind Flamin' Hot Cheetos, produced by DeVon Franklin of Franklin Entertainment.[19]

Posted
28 minutes ago, ChickenSandwich said:

And no new money for immigration judges. No new money for more facilities. Abolish ice!  No new money. Decriminalize illegal crossings. Free health care. Free legal representation. “Why bother with internal enforcement”. Forcing LEOs to not cooperate with federal officials.  Protect criminals but not their victims  Sanctuary Cities.  Sanctuary states

How dare you say we want open borders!!

You should give chrispy some positive rep. 

Posted
So believe AOC over Rev Simpson and the other pastors. Shocking 
In fact, some told him the sources from whom the negative coverage originated “never toured the areas of the facility that we toured”

In other words, this guy saw the nice parts so doesn't believe the bad parts exist.
  • Like 1
Posted
2 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Would you let the St Louis in or not? Answer you fucking gutless coward.

If most were against allowing Jewish refugees in back in those days, you really think Swam would support allowing in the Jews?

Shit, he would have been a member of Amerikadeutscher Volksbund back then like his grandfather.

 

Posted
1 minute ago, DixonHur said:

I wonder if Crispy and Slorch were against "open borders" when they visited Matamoros and/or Nuevo Laredo during college.

Both of them have never been near those places. They are both too much of a pussy to go near there, including their fake internet personas. Way too many browns there for their liking. 

Posted
42 minutes ago, ChickenSandwich said:

 

 

"Rev. Samuel Rodriguez was "full of indignation" when he saw the reports and heard from politicians about the deplorable and inhumane conditions for illegal immigrants at an El Paso County, Texas migrant detention center. But what he saw at the same facility toured by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. with a group of pastors was "drastically different."

“I read the reports, saw the news clips. I just wanted to see what was actually happening in order to better enable our efforts to find a fair and a just solution to our broken immigration system," Rodriguez, who has advised President Trump and both Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush on immigration reform, noted. “To my surprise, I saw something drastically different from the stories I’ve been hearing in our national discourse. Even as a veteran of immigration advocacy in the U.S., I was shocked at the misinformation of the crisis at the border."

The group of pastors saw a very different picture described by Ocasio-Cortez and other politicians and media outlets.

“We found no soiled diapers, no deplorable conditions and no lack of basic necessities,” Rodriguez remarked, adding he specifically asked border agents if they staged the facility in response to the negative press. “They unequivocally denied it — we were witnessing the identical conditions the attorneys saw when they toured the facility days earlier."

In fact, some told him the sources from whom the negative coverage originated “never toured the areas of the facility that we toured” and speculated they might have had political motivations.

 

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/immigration-border-facility-aoc-hispanic

You're citing a story written by fox news as a means to negate what's happening?  Seriously? 

giphy.gif

Posted

It would be a disgrace and heads should roll if this were the only room where something like this was happening. It's not the only place. Cattle are treated better. Dogs at the pound are treated better.

D-fOrf0XoAIM2DW.jpg:large

Posted
Just now, Mojo Hand said:

Funny how the ones who "aren't doing it the legal way" keeps turning out to be the Trump administration. 

it's almost like every accusation is really a confession.

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Posted
Rev. Samuel Rodriguez - a man of the cloth and of the snack.
Rodriguez is the executive producer for the Fox Searchlight film Flamin Hot, a true story about the man behind Flamin' Hot Cheetos, produced by DeVon Franklin of Franklin Entertainment.[19]
I haven't seen the film, but that's actually a pretty cool story (Flaming Hot flavoring).
Posted
11 hours ago, elfenix said:

it's amazing how many people breathlessly clamoring that the LAW NEEDS TO BE FOLLOWED!!!!!!! don't have any idea of what the law is.

This

Most of the people trumpeting this refrain don't have the foggiest clue of what it takes to immigrate from Mexico and central America to the United States. They talk about these immigrants as if they have a multitude of legitimate options to immigrate "legally". Do we even have a lottery visa program for Mexican immigrants or half of the central american countries? I'd like for one of these immigration experts to delineate the differences in the processes for one to immigrate from anyone of these countries. 

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Posted (edited)

IDGAF, nor do we owe them anything.  The notion that we do because they made the trek is bullshit.

Edited by slorch
Posted

How the fuck does what we do or do not owe migrants have anything to do with treating human beings with basic decency. Not even kindness. Just not abject cruelty.

We don't treat other human beings as human because we owe them. We do it (or don't) because that's what decent people do (or evil people ignore)

Posted
Fuck you dude.  that's always your play.
 
"your just not enlightened enough to get our fucked up view of how we're gonna change the country"
 
Yeah, I get it bro.  I just full-heartedly disagree.
 
The invader does not live there and is not authorized to be there...  You know the fucking answer.  So do they.  So does everyone in this thread.
 
But you'll ignore it, because there is political capital to be gleaned.
 
carry on...

Funny how the ones who "aren't doing it the legal way" keeps turning out to be the Trump administration. 

IDGAF, nor do we owe them anything.  The notion that we do because they made the trek is bullshit.

We owe them the rule of law. It’s a constitutional guarantee. As in, the supreme law of the land.

You either believe in the rule of law or not. Trump clearly does not. You clearly do not. Don’t lecture us on “it’s the LAW” ever again. You clearly don’t give a rat’s ass about following it.
Posted
Fuck you dude.  that's always your play.
 
"your just not enlightened enough to get our fucked up view of how we're gonna change the country"
 
Yeah, I get it bro.  I just full-heartedly disagree.
 
The invader does not live there and is not authorized to be there...  You know the fucking answer.  So do they.  So does everyone in this thread.
 
But you'll ignore it, because there is political capital to be gleaned.
 
carry on...

Funny how the ones who "aren't doing it the legal way" keeps turning out to be the Trump administration. 

IDGAF, nor do we owe them anything.  The notion that we do because they made the trek is bullshit.

We owe them the rule of law. It’s a constitutional guarantee. As in, the supreme law of the land.

You either believe in the rule of law or not. Trump clearly does not. You clearly do not. Don’t lecture us on “it’s the LAW” ever again. You clearly don’t give a rat’s ass about following it.
Posted
10 hours ago, ChickenSandwich said:

There is no amount of money or solution to properly care for 100,000 economic migrants arriving every 30 days or  3,333 people a day.  More than Austin's entire homeless population that we can't care for.  Now imagine how overwhelmed the border cities are and their lives and communities destroyed.

Now, imagine the 100,000 day were white.

Posted
2 hours ago, Catdaddyhorn said:

This

Most of the people trumpeting this refrain don't have the foggiest clue of what it takes to immigrate from Mexico and central America to the United States. They talk about these immigrants as if they have a multitude of legitimate options to immigrate "legally". Do we even have a lottery visa program for Mexican immigrants or half of the central american countries? I'd like for one of these immigration experts to delineate the differences in the processes for one to immigrate from anyone of these countries. 

We have also, due to Republicans, kept the number who can immigrate from those countries artificially low, much lower than our labor needs or the rate at which we can process and assimilate people. There is no way to explain this other than racism and it's no different than that towards Irish and Italians before. Those driving these policies are evil and if there was a just God they would surely burn in hell. Given the conditions we're learning about, the premise of God is unsupportable. 

Posted

Not that I care, but the thought of @slorch feverishly going to various posts I've made throughout the basketball and football forums to neg me makes me smile. It's probably a real life manifestation of stage 1 of @hayden_horn's Trump voter rationalization process.

  • Like 1
Posted

For those who say these people are overwhelmingly economic migrants, I guess you wouldn't mind retiring where they came from? You could probably live like a king. And it probably isn't dangerous at all if the only reasons they are coming here is economic.

Also,

D-bVdKZXsAA4wjd?format=jpg&name=900x900

4,5

2,6,3,1

7,8

Posted

I can’t find it right now but npr this morning noted a Texas Rep tweeted Trump that he should simply ignore the supreme courts ruling on the census question and print it anyways. My two thoughts were

1) Rule of law??
2) Obama abuses the executive powers arglebargle

Just endless stupidity

Posted
5 hours ago, slorch said:

IDGAF, nor do we owe them anything.  The notion that we do because they made the trek is bullshit.

Anything?  Obviously you'd be against executing them, right?   So there must be a minimum amount of care even you concentration camp folks would agree that we provide.   Food and water?  Toilets? 

Posted
2 minutes ago, Homercles said:

I can’t find it right now but npr this morning noted a Texas Rep tweeted Trump that he should simply ignore the supreme courts ruling on the census question and print it anyways. My two thoughts were

1) Rule of law??
2) Obama abuses the executive powers arglebargle

Just endless stupidity

3) Texas is among the states that would be most undercounted as a result of the question, so Texas Republicans are again putting culture war fanaticism above the actual interests of their constituents. 

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