As we cross the border today, I’m struck by the predominance of FEAR.

Fear of “The Other” is fundamentally what drives the kind of policies we see now.

We must understand the real dynamic of the past two years:

1. While our immigration laws have needed reform for decades, there was never any “invasion.”

2. The new “metering” process that keeps migrants out of the US has CREATED a MUCH WORSE crisis along the border than ever before. The fear that created this Federal Government policy has —in a self-fulfilling way— created the crisis they told us existed before (but didn’t really, at the scale we are now).

3. Calling these policies “Migrant Protection Program” is offensive propaganda worthy of an Orwellian novel. We are not only NOT protecting migrants, we are HARMING them, predictably creating de facto tent cities at a size we’ve never experienced here along our border. This is a moral issue, regardless of your politics. We need preachers to speak against this. We need politicians to change the policies.

4. The current policies are *unsustainable* and will continue to create a violent and unhealthy situation along the border. WE —our Federal government— is creating this new crisis. And it will eventually also harm US citizens with unintended consequences.

God teaches us to FEAR NOT, even when we are told to be afraid. Even when there is danger.

These are moral issues for all of us as Americans.

Finally today, as I cross the border and see migrants living in squalor, because of our government’s policies, I think of my FB friend Noggy David Jaen. We’ve cycled around White Rock Lake together. A Salvadoran immigrant, he recently became a citizen, and has just today announced this joyful news online. It strikes me as a perfect example of hope and who we are called by God to be as a nation.

He is who we are CALLED to be.

The “metering” policies that are worsening the humanitarian crisis…

This is who we are.

May we have the courage to again become who we are called to be.

#pastorsinaction2019

#endfamilyseparation