OPINION: The Christ-like view of refugees and immigrants versus the fearful one

You’ll find a 2:38 clip of Ronald Reagan and the elder George Bush talking immigration in a 1980 Republican primary debate. Put them on a stage right now and both would sound to the left of Bernie Sanders.

The candidates were asked this question: “Should children of illegal immigrants be allowed to attend public school free or should their parents pay for their education?”

Bush said: “We’re creating a whole society of really honorable, decent family-loving people who are in violation of the law…. The answer to your question is much more fundamental than whether they attend public schools, it seems to me. I don’t want to see 6-and-8-year-old kids — one, made uneducated — and made to feel they’re living outside the law. Let’s address ourselves to the fundamentals. These are good people, strong people, part of my family….”

Reagan said: “Rather than talking about putting up a fence, why don’t we work out some recognition of our mutual problems? Make it possible for them to come here legally with a work permit. And then while they’re working and earning here, they pay taxes here. And when they want to go back, they go back. And they can cross. And open the border both ways.”

Was this purely political for Reagan and Bush? Were they simply courting Hispanic votes and putting forth some nice-guy mask to hide their actual disdain for Hispanics? Their words didn’t strike me that way, though it’s surely possible. They sounded sincere to me, but who knows? What I do know with certainty is that their words in 1980 have no place in today’s politics.

Reagan, a man who demanded that Russia tear down the Berlin Wall, a man who said we don’t need a border wall but an open border with Mexico, is long gone. And so are his sentiments. Fear and hate are much more in vogue than love and care.

This has me very down. I don’t want to be a man who runs toward our societal fire with gasoline. I want to run toward it with water. And so it really did my heart good to go to Jubilee Partners last week and see local Christians work with refugees just as they have for nearly four decades in Comer. I think they are truly a force for the selfless and loving ideals I recognize in the teachings of Jesus, the type of Christ my mother has spoken of my entire life. I watched a man teach a Burmese refugee how to count money. That was touching to me. She sat quietly counting, learning the meaning of quarters and dimes. I sat on the floor with small children from the Congo, who were fascinated by their reflection in my cell-phone camera. They laughed and laughed. At lunch, I listened to Jubilee founder Don Mosley talk about how Comer “deserves a Nobel Peace Prize” for its work with the refugees. He praised Comer Baptist and Comer Methodist and spoke of how wonderful local churches, businesses, citizens and schools have been toward the 3,700 refugees who have come through Madison County over 38 years. He also expressed that he is puzzled by the sharp move toward an antagonistic attitude toward refugees, whom he said are fleeing violence and terrorism, not seeking to commit it.

Publisher Mike Buffington and I were asked to say a few words at the lunch, and I didn’t have too much to say, but I tried to express a few things. Here’s what I tried to get across:

In my mind, we don’t just have a conflict at the moment over policies toward “immigrants” or “outsiders” or “refugees.” We are in a type of spiritual conflict that cuts deeply to our identities. I’ll put it this way: in my mind, there are only two true tribes. And they aren’t bound by party, religion, race or nationality. Our true tribes are fear/hate vs. love/care. You can be a Republican and be in either. You can be a Democrat and belong in either. It’s a matter of heart, not logic. At heart, the hateful are consumed with the self and always constricting its circle of care toward narrower forms. At heart, the loving are always pushing to expand their sphere of care. The hate side is eager to reduce others to a simple form. The loving side recognizes that every individual is complex and worthy of genuine inquiry, not fast judgment.

In truth, we are all a mix of both sides. Even my generalization of two tribes — love/care vs. hate/fear — carries something of simplistic reductionism. Of course, we are all both things to some extent, but the effort needs to be clear in each of our heads: we need to lean toward the love side. We need to fight our own fears and swim upstream toward the good side.

And I absolutely agree, too, that fear of terrorism makes sense. 9/11 rocked my world just as it did everyone else’s. But I think terrorists have two goals, not one. And I think it’s terribly important to be cognizant of both. Obviously, the willfully wicked — and a number of them commit atrocities in the name of Islam — aim to kill innocent people. We clearly can’t turn a blind eye to that. These are the worst sort of criminals. And we should treat them as such — serious criminals. We should vigorously pursue them wherever we find real evidence. Mass murder is a primary goal of some really misguided individuals.

But I believe there’s a broader, secondary goal for terrorists. And that’s to force us to give in completely to our terror, thereby demeaning us as humans and giving them ultimate power over our actions. That’s why it’s called “terrorism.” When we are confronted with fear in any matter, not just terrorism, but say, the fear of weather or the fear of snakes, we recognize that there’s the emotion, for sure, but there’s also a decision we have to make. Do I never go outside because I’m scared of lightning? Well, if staying inside is my choice, then I’m deciding to be a certain kind of person, a fearful one. And I’m not going to be as happy or as productive. Sure, I might avoid the rare lightning strike, but at what cost? I’ve given up some of my dignity and self worth for an illusion of safety.

This is how I feel right now about our attitudes regarding outsiders. We are caught in the fear mode and we’re not looking at the bigger issue of who we want to be: are we fear/hate driven or are we courage/care driven? I think these are two distinctly different paths with incredibly different outcomes.

That’s why I’ve liked looking back at the YouTube footage of the Reagan/Bush debate and the attitudes that those two Republicans expressed in 1980. In my eyes, adherence to their ideals on immigration would be one step toward making America great again — not a fearful nation, but a brave and caring one.

Zach Mitcham is editor of The Madison County Journal.