Religious Bullies?

This morning, Susan Jacoby, spokesperson for a secularist view on religion in the Washington Post, wrote an article that the Post entitled Religious Bullies in '08. Her perspective is that it is ironic that Religious Republicans are vying with one another to see who can be meanest toward immigrants in this country. She says that Jesus taught that we should give food and shelter to the poor, but the term 'sanctuary city' has become a dirty-word to the so-called Christians running for office.

The vast majority of comments that follow her column support her. I think that's probably because people of a like-mind are the only ones reading it. But this article has given me pause for thought.

I have been wondering why Democratic candidates support amnesty for illegal immigrants. On the face of it, that makes no sense to me. But I guess it's the view that we should be compassionate to those who are suffering.

To this point in my life, I cannot support that position, however. If that's the way we feel about it, then we should change our immigration laws, and invite the poor from all over the world to come here. But until we take that position, which is unlikely to ever happen, we have laws on the book that need to be honored and enforced. It is my belief that the ones who benefit the most from illegal immigration are the wealthy amongst us, or more to the point, the businesses that hire illegal immigrants. To support illegal immigrants is to support big business, and it is to oppose the American worker. I am on the side of the true American worker, whatever their nation of origin.

I don't wish people from other countries harm. I don't oppose legal immigration. I don't like policies that help businesses to drive down the wages of Americans. I don't like policies that take away the jobs of Americans. We should support our families first, and our fellow-citizens second. If there is money left over, we can donate to causes that help the poor in other countries. We should not support policies that take away wages and jobs from our fellow-citizens.