Posted on 11/30/2006 9:48:41 PM PST by Mr. Silverback
Elvira Arellano’s new T-shirt has me wondering how many hospitals Jesus would close.
Arellano is the illegal alien and pro-law breaking activist (she wouldn’t call herself that, but a spade is a spade) who is holed up in a Chicago church, hoping to avoid deportation. She says she should get to stay here because her 7 year old son Saulito is an American citizen. Her new shirt, pictured in the Journal-Standard recently, reads “Who Would Jesus Deport?”
Strangely, I don’t recall hearing any teachings on immigration policy during my Sunday school days. But given the wild success of products asking “WWJD”—What Would Jesus Do—it’s inevitable it would pop up in the political discourse. Strikingly, almost all these political versions come from the Left. True, questions like “Who would Jesus Torture” are supposed to be rhetorical, but if the people asking them were really trying to promote truth, they wouldn’t stop asking questions so soon.
Take for example, “Who would Jesus bomb,” asked on protest signs and blogs, in editorials and even a protest song. Another popular variation was “Who would Jesus kill?” Yet they never ask how many hijacking schools, terrorist training camps, child prisons and torture chambers Jesus would leave open. In the face of great evil even a slogan inspired by history’s greatest moral light is trite and bereft of sense.
I wonder why the Left doesn’t apply the WWJD principle to other problems. How many of those asking “Who would Jesus kill” have ever asked, “Who would Jesus abort?” One might also ask, “How many condoms would Jesus pass out at school,” and “Would Jesus ban prayer in school?” Of course, one could also ask why a movement known for its strict view of separation of church and state would decide to search the scriptures of a single religion for policy directives.
So, how many hospitals would Jesus close? A 2005 study appearing in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons found that 60 hospitals had closed in California alone between 1993 and 2003 as a direct result of illegal immigration. Under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act of 1985, hospitals must treat the uninsured without reimbursement. Though the law was intended to guarantee that no emergency room would turn away a patient in crisis, it’s led to illegals using ERs for their primary care. Those 60 hospitals had all reached a point where they were paid for less than half of the services they performed. The study also found 24 hospitals on the brink of bankruptcy.
Whose wages would Jesus decimate? In 1980, according to the Department of Labor, a meat packer could expect to make $19 an hour. Today the going wage is less than $10. Across the board, American wages are lowered by as much as $200 billion dollars by illegal aliens. The Left speaks a lot about the squeezed middle class, but these champions of the working man will line up to vote for amnesty in Congress in the new year.
How many false Social Security numbers would Jesus use? Arellano was going to be deported because she convicted of that exact crime. The immigration bill the Congress narrowly rejected this year even had provisions for paying out Social Security benefits to those who’ve stolen other people’s numbers. Of course that only applies if they came over the border illegally; legal immigrants and native born citizens get to go to jail when they steal someone’s identity.
A long line of Christian organizations, notably America’s Catholic bishops, backed amnesty this year. They made a lot of noise about how such reforms were a sign of loving one’s neighbor. When we reward lawbreaking on the part of illegals and the businesses that hire them we penalize businesses, workers and legal immigrants that follow the law. Aren’t they our neighbors too? Is shafting them the Christian thing to do? Is the cause of justice served by letting Mexico’s fatcats export their poor to the U.S. instead of enacting reforms at home?
Of course, despite my love of Christ, I’m not interested in governing by Bible verse. That’s theocracy, not democracy. Even if a principle is based in Christian teachings, one must win the public policy debate to implement it. That’s the real reason for Elvira’s shirt. If you can pretend the Almighty is your personal mascot, you don’t have to explain why rewarding lawbreaking is good for a society. You can just “win” the policy debate by saying “Thus saith the Lord.” When a conservative does that, he’s dismissed and rightly so.
We’re a nation of laws (not T-shirts), and our duty to enforce them in a just manner. Still, if Arellano and her allies want a verse to base immigration policy on, I suggest John 10:1.
The editor of the local newspaper has been accepting lucrative ads from the local saloons. Would Jesus do this? No, he decides--and cancels the ads.A young singer gives up a promising career on the stage to sing at tent meetings on Skid Row. A young heiress takes in a homeless woman, to the horror of her fashionable family. A businessman decides that Jesus wants him to make his tenements as warm and comfortable as his own home.
Maybe the churchcommies could take a lesson...
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Hah! Wonderful job!
Spot on sir, spot on.
ps: Please add me to your list.
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Thank you!
Would Jesus skip paying taxes?
Would Jesus approve of reverse discrimination?
WIWJS
Whose identity would Jesus steal?
Muy, muy bien, Mr. Silverback.
Our Founders looked to the scripture for advice and we have a republic.
Would Jesus even use the word, "illegal" when describing a human being?
Just a question from the sidelines.
I think the Left would say we are a Nation of Bumperstickers. You know what they say, "Speaking Truth to Power at 35 m.p.h. on the back-end of a 1988 Volvo."
Please add me too. Great job!
please add, thnxs
I forgot to work in, "Which racist and Communist groups would Jesus ally Himself with?"
Okayyy. How about this...
How many poor working men who ran accross our border in the millions with out regard to other's property, jumped ahead of line of millions of other poor working men and then committed crimes then were captured and then wound up in jails would Jesus allow to come out and commit more crimes like theft, assault, rape, and murder?
Is that better?
Wait, here we go:
How many poor working men who cheated and jumped ahead of the line of other poor working men who followed the rules and obeyed our laws and then ran accross our borders would Jesus force the law abiding poor working men to give drivers licenses to?
Ah, maybe this will work:
Would Jesus let half of the hospitals in our state go broke because poor working men cheated other poor working men and jumped ahead of the line by not obeying the same rules that the poor working men here legally had obeyed their whole lives?
Does that work better for you?
Thank you!
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