The Tomorrow No One Thought Of
August 10, 2026 Leave a comment
“Roy, some ivory tower guy will say that the gun violence problem of big cities like Central City is due to the inequality between the rich and poor and to housing and education and guns and blah blah blah. But the Good Book says that evil intentions come from inside and those include stupidity. Any copper worth his salt will tell you that big city gun violence is due to someone without a lifeline playing fast and loose with forever by doing unbelievably stupid and vile things within seconds.”
After another day working the mean streets of Central City and a half hour of listening to Desk Sargent Grasso Il filosofo di strada, I was on my way to have a dinner of pork chops with my best girl. But then Sarge stops me in the parking lot. He wants me to check on a domestic disturbance in my neighborhood. Neighbors are calling the station.
I get to the Lopez place, walk up the steps, and find the door open. I poke my head inside. That was a mistake.
I come around half-conscious and curled up on the floor. Something like a sledge hammer wacked the back of my head. I look up and see a woman holding a cast iron frying pan
“Sorry, señor . . . Winder. I thought you are my soon-to-be ex.”
She had taken the ID out of my coat pocket. Does she have my service weapon? I check. It’s in the holster. I check the back of my head. There is a lump the size of an Easter egg. But no blood.
“I feel soon-to-be ex.”
Someone walks in the door and steps over me.
“Who’s this?”
“It’s policía.”
“You hit policía?”
“I thought Manny come back.”
The man helps me to my feet. I bring the swirling room up with me. He tells the woman to get some ice.
“Sorry, señor, it was mistake. No feelings hurt, OK?”
“You’ll get a raincheck on that, pal.” My knees crumble.
The guy walks me to the sofa and I lay down. He places a bag of ice behind my head.
“Why are you here, señor? The man asks this with ‘r’s rolling.
“The neighbors. The neighbors called saying there was a disturbance going on here.”
“I see. Manny was here. Matty and Manny they don’t get along.”
“Who are you?” I ask trying to remain conscious.
“Eduardo. Matty call me and say Manny outside. She throw him out last night. She no want him here.”
“I wish he’d been here a half hour ago.”
Eduardo laughed. “Yeah, me too señor.”
I open my eyes and see the frying pan woman standing at the foot of the sofa. She is holding a pocket mirror up to her face and putting on red lipstick. She looked like one of those femme fatales in the el cine negro movies my father-in-law likes to watch when he visits – a dangerous combination of beauty and vice. Her large dark eyes would bring men to their knees. Those two wrecking balls would make sure of it.
She turns away from the mirror. “Are . . . you . . . OK . . . señor . . . Winder?” Her deep voice purred out each word.
“I need to call my wife. She must be worried.”
She gives me a once over and says, “Lucky girl.”
I didn’t ask what she meant. Eduardo didn’t like what she meant. He narrowed his eyes and stared back at her.
Not with me I tell her.
A small boy peeks out from behind her wide hips and then hides again.
“Te veo hombrecito. Hi. Holá.”
The boy peeks out again. This time with a toothless smile.
¿Cómo te llamas?
He comes out from behind the woman with a hold on her silky dress.
“Miguel.”
“Mucho gusto Miguel. ¿Cuántos años tienes?
The boy holds up four fingers.
“Ah, no tan poco.” The boy let go of the dress ready to grab it again.
Eduardo helps me to my feet. My head is throbbing like a vodka toast hangover from a Polish wedding. I ask for my ID back and tell Matty to get a protection order if she feels threatened by Manny. “You don’t want to go from the frying pan into the cooler.”
What I said doesn’t make any sense to me or to them. So I say “I don’t want to come back here unless I am forced to. ¿Entiendes? Adios Miguel.”
The boy bits his lower lip and tugs on the dress as he watches me go out the door. I step out into the oppressive August heat and feel my heartbeat in my head. I call Laci and tell her I’m on my way.
~~~
Three AM Saturday morning the phone rings. It’s Sarge.
“How did things pan out for you at the Lopez place?”
“Who told you?”
“Laci. She knew you wouldn’t say anything.”
“Yeah. She’s right. I’m not down for the count if that’s what you’re wondering. And I’m guessing this isn’t a welfare check at three in the morning.”
“I need you to go over to Baila Escena over on fifth street. There’s been a shooting. One dead. CSI are headed over there now. Get going. And watch where you stick your head, Roy. Never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
I hung up wondering what spirit Il filosofo di strada was imbibing at 3 AM. Was it the spirit of Hemmingway or Donne or of port wine?
Before I head over to the Zona Roja part of the city, I stop at Nighthawk Diner for a black coffee to go. Max, the owner, hands me the coffee and tells me that there is a full moon tonight. Of course there is, I say.
Baila Escena is on a rundown backstreet along with a pawn shop, a loan shop, a tattoo parlor, a package liquor store, and a smoke shop – each with bars on the windows.
There are two neon signs on the front of Baila Escena. One says it’s a dance studio during the week and the other says it’s a nightclub at night.
I go inside. The place has the wet cardboard smell of stale beer. And it is dark even with the house lights on. The walls, the small tables, the chairs, the dee jay booth, and the bar – everything is black. The windows are painted black. The only relief from the colorless setting are the liqueur bottles behind the bar and a few posters.
Behind the bar there is a dia del los muertos poster. Male and female skeletons are dancing in colorful outfits. A poster by the tables has a lively couple doing what is called “rumba caliente.”
I walk up to the bar. On the floor are three yellow evidence markers next to 9mm casings. The dead guy is seated on a bar chair and slumped against the bar. He’d been shot three times in the back. On the bar in front of him is an almost empty bottle of Salvadores Anejo and a shot glass. Shots in back. Shots in front.
The CSI guy is taking photos. I ask him who the dead guy is.
“Manny Lopez. He and his wife Matilda own the joint.”
The names had an all too familiar and painful ring. I guess no man is an island.
A short mustachioed man with a Guayabera Shirt pops up from behind the bar.
“We call her Matty.”
The CSI guy points while taking pictures. “That’s the guy who called 9-1-1.”
The little man hadn’t popped up. Was four foot six was all he had to offer?
“Who are you?”
“Emilio Estrada Ramírez. I am barback.” The little man began wiping the counter and I tell him to stop.
“What did you see?”
“Nothing, señor. I was in back when I hear shots. I stay there and call 9-1-1.”
“Who else was working last night?”
“Milana. She is bartender.”
“What’s her last name?”
“Kharinova. She is Russian.”
“Anyone else?”
“The bouncer.”
“What’s his name?”
“Ron. I don’t know his other name.”
“Milana and Ron – were they around when this happened?”
“Everybody go home. They go home. We close at two.”
“So, Emilio, was it just you and Mr. Lopez?”
“Yes. Me and him. Manny alway have drink when close. I stay with him to he close.”
“Was Matty here?”
“Oh no. She leave with Eduardo . . . I say about five when dance class is close.”
“Was anything taken? Anything from the cash drawer?”
“No sir.”
There are no CCTV cameras inside or outside. I have nothing and no one showing me who entered and shot Manny. I need to question Milana Kharinova and Ron the bouncer. I bring Emilio to the station for his statement.
I found out from Emilio that Milana goes to MMAclass on Saturdays. “She wants to be UFC fighter.”
~~~
I track down Central City MMA Academy in an industrial park outside city limits.
The Academy is in an industrial use space with high ceilings and a loading dock. There are mats on the floor and on the walls. Kids, teens, and adults are going at each other, some wrestling, some Muay Thai Kickboxing, and some with Jiu Jitsu. I ask an instructor if Milana Kharinova is training today. He calls her over.
Milana looks to be about five eight and a flyweight. Her short chestnut brown hair, gray eyes, and sharp jaw line give her a sophisticated and confident look. That she is training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu told me that under her disarming beauty was a dynamo looking to take on all comers.
I take Milana outside and show her my ID. The first thing she says: “Is Miguel OK?”
“Miguel? Is he four years old?”
“Yes. Miguel is four. Have you seen him?”
“I saw Miguel over at the Lopez house. He’s OK. Was he supposed to be there?”
“Yes. Matty watch him so I can train.”
“Milana, I am here to ask about the shooting last night at Baila Escena. You’re the bartender, right?”
“Yes. Wait. There was a shooting? Last night?”
“Yes. Manny Lopez was murdered.”
“Oh my God! I say goodnight to Manny and go to Matty to pick up Miguel.”
“What time was that?”
“Last call at one-thirty. I leave at two.”
“Did you see anyone go in around closing time?”
“No. Everyone go out.”
“Were there any cars parked out front.”
“No. No cars. Just homeless people. I take taxi to Matty.”
I tell her that I am going to see Matty and check on Miguel. I tell her that I need her to come to the station to make a statement after her class.
~~~
I drive over to the Lopez place. I want to have a talk with the woman who didn’t want Manny around.
This time I ring the doorbell, stand back about four feet, and wait for her to answer.
“Well helloooo detective. May I help you?”
“I’m sure you could, but I’m married. Ms. Lopez, I need to ask you a few questions.”
“Come in.”
I walk in and notice Miguel watching cartoons. He turns to look at me and turns back to the TV. I walk over to him and pull something out of my coat pocket. It’s a box of licorice pastilles. I offer one to Miguel. He takes one, puts it in his mouth, begins to screw up his face, and then asks for another.
“What did you give him, detective?”
“Licorice.”
“Are you trying to take him from me?”
“I was just talking to his mother over at MMA class. Now, I want to talk to you about last night. Privately.”
We walk into the kitchen. I keep an eye on the frying pan.
“You talk to her about what? What about last night?” She had dropped the smooth sultry voice and began using sharp tones.
“Where were you last night Ms. Lopez?”
“I was here. With Miguel and Eduardo.”
“All evening?”
“Yes.”
“Manny was murdered about ten hours ago.”
“Oh. I see. Who knows what he’s been up to. What’s that got to do with me?”
“That’s what I’m here to find out. With your husband and business partner out of the picture, you get Baila Escena all to yourself. And the other day when you conked me on the head, you thought it was Manny that you were smacking with that frying pan over there. You don’t want him around. You have motive. And you don’t seem at all bothered by his death.”
“I don’t want him around, detective, but no that way.”
Eduardo walked into the kitchen wearing only pajama bottoms.
“Oh señor. You are back. How is your head?”
“My cabeza is fine. But things are not fine at Baila Escena.”
“What do you mean?”
“Manny Lopez was murdered last night.”
“¡Dios mío.”
“Let’s talk privately.” I bring Eduardo to another room and out of earshot from Matty.
“Where were you last night, Eduardo?”
“I was here. With Matty and Miguel.”
“The whole night?”
“Yes. The dance studio close at five. I leave with Matty and Miguel.”
“When did Manny arrive?”
“Manny he come in at four to ready the club.”
“You leave with Miguel?”
“Yes. Miguel come to the club with Milana the bartender.”
“What time does she start?”
“Five. She brings Miguel to the club and we take him home with us. When Milana leave club at two she come pick him up.”
“This is Saturday. Miguel is here with you and Matty this morning.”
“Matty and I watch him in the dance studio when Milana goes to class on Tuesday and Saturday here.
“Is Milana in class right now?”
“Yes señor.”
“What is Matty’s relationship with Miguel?”
“She loves him very much. She wants to adopt him. She say she can’t have children.”
“I need you to come to the station right now and make a full statement. I’ll get Matty’s statement later today. I don’t want to leave Miguel alone.”
I didn’t want Matty and Eduardo alone together. I needed to find a hole big enough in someone’s story to crawl through and find the killer.
Before I go, I offer Miguel another pastille. He takes it and says thank you.
¿Estás bien, Miguel?
“Yes, sir.”
Miguel spoke with a raspy throat. His nose was running and his eyes were bloodshot. He’d been rubbing them.
“Cats bother you?” I point to the three cats that had the run of the place.
“Yes, sir. I like dogs better.”
“I like dogs, too. I’ll talk to your mother about the cats. I’ll check on you again, Miguel.”
Miguel smiled and rubbed his eyes.
~~~
At the station I walk in with Eduardo. Detective Smoltz is waiting in the hallway.
“Need any help with that hot tamale Matty, Roy?”
Eduardo lunges at Smoltz and unloads a punch to his jaw. Smoltz tries to return the blow, but I put myself in between him and Eduardo. The Sarge walks up. “You will not press charges, Smoltz. Go back to work.”
I interview Eduardo and he repeats the same things he tells me at the house. Then I ask “Eduardo, what is your relationship with Ms. Lopez?
“We teach dancing together.”
“And what else?”
“What else?”
“You were in pajama bottoms this morning. Is Matty divorcing Manny?”
“She want to but business is problem. She love dance studio but need club business to pay bills. They business together but no live together now.”
“Why does Matty want to divorce Manny?
“Matty say Manny cheat on her. But I do not think it was true.”
“Why?”
“Manny a good man. He help people. He help Milana. I tell Matty Manny good but it no matter.”
“So why are you taking a good man’s place?”
Eduardo didn’t answer.
“Did you kill Manny to have Matty and the business to yourself?”
“No señor.
“Would Ms. Lopez be crazy enough to have someone kill Manny?”
“No señor. She can be crazy in her blood but the boy make her less crazy.”
I finish the interview and have an officer take Eduardo home and bring Matty to the station.
If those two had anything to do with Manny’s death, they would alibi each other. I needed more to go on.
~~~
Milana arrives at the station. I bring her to Interview Room 1.
“Milana, I saw Miguel this morning. He is allergic to cats. He’s having a hard time breathing. Matty has three cats.”
“I find better place.”
“Milana, how many nights do you work at Baila Escena”
“Six nights.”
“You said you left Baila Escena at two last night?
“Yes. At two. Everyone leave.”
“You saw no one come in?”
“No.”
“Did you ever see Manny cheat on Matty?”
“No. I never saw him cheat. He talk to women every night but I never see him do anything else.”
“Has he ever come on to you?”
“No. He knows what I can do to him if he did.”
“Do you know anyone who wanted to kill Manny?”
“No.”
“What do you know about Eduardo?”
“Eduardo is a friend. Maybe father.”
“Miguel’s father?”
“Maybe. Maybe father Jasper my MMA instructor. I see him when Eduardo stop with me. Eduardo is afraid of Ron.”
“Ron? Is he the bouncer at Baila Escena?
She nodded her head.
“What’s Ron’s last name?”
“Laverty.”
“What’s the story? Why is Eduardo afraid of Ron.”
“Ron watch me all the time. Ron is big man. That why Eduardo is afraid of him.”
“Why does Ron watch you?”
“I meet Ron online what they call mail-order service. In Russia I live with someone but he drink a lot and hurt me. I want to be MMA fighter. Take care of myself. But he says no.
“Ron pay for me to come to America. He want to marry me. I come to America with my friend Daria. I come stay with him. He talk to Manny get bar job for me. He keep eye on me. But I no want to marry him. He drink a lot and get mean. I stay maybe two week with him. No more. Manny help me get apartment.
“I meet Eduardo at club. He nice to me help me with rent but Ron scare him. I meet Jasper at MMA class. He nice to me. Give me free classes. Then I with child. Manny help me when baby come.
“Is Ron the father?”
“Ron think maybe is father but Ron say he had snip job. You know snip job?”
“Yes, I know.”
“Is the guy in Russia the father?”
“Maxim? I don’t know. He rape me and I leave.”
At this point, there are at least four paternal lines of inquiry into a dead man with no say in the matter, a mother and a boy who don’t know who the father is, and a tomorrow no one thought of.
“Does Matty know that you and Eduardo were together?”
“No. We careful.”
“Does Eduardo think Miguel is his son?”
“I think yes.”
“Does Matty know Miguel could be Eduardo’s son by you?
“I don’t know what Eduardo say to Matty.”
“Here’s what I heard you say, Milana: you come to America to get away from a drinking and abusive guy who raped you. You stay with Ron, who paid your way to America, maybe two weeks because he drinks and is mean to you. He got you a job at Baila Escena maybe to keep an eye on you.
“Your boss Manny gets you an apartment. You hook up with dance studio Eduardo who helps pay the rent. But Eduardo is afraid of Ron and leaves you. Then you hook up with Jasper who gives you free MMA classes. You find out that you are pregnant. All in less than a month. Is that right?”
“Yes.”
“And now, after four years, there are four men who think that Miguel may be their son: a Russian, one who shoots blanks, and two who help you in exchange for God knows what.
“Detective, men use me and I use them.”
“I am not here to judge you, Milana. I am working for the dead man. And the boy.”
There is a scuffle and shouting in the hallway. Orbits colliding? I get up to see.
~~~
Five officers are having trouble restraining two guys. One of the guys is huge. He had to be six foot five and two-hundred-fifty pounds. The other is a scrappy looking guy with dirty blond hair, mustache and goatee.
One of the officers says, “These two were going at it outside the Lopez house.”
“Who’s the big lug?”
“Ron Laverty.”
“The other guy?”
“Maxim Chernykh. He shot some guy named Eduardo.”
“Is Eduardo OK?”
“He took a bullet to the gut. He’s in ER right now.”
“Was a guy named Jasper there?”
Both handcuffed guys growled, “Who’s Jasper?”
“No. No Jasper, Roy.”
“Was the boy in any danger?”
“Not that we could see. He stayed behind his mother.”
“Put the big lug in holding and put the shooter into Interview Room 2. Is the gun 9mm?”
One of the officers said it was.
“Before you send the gun to ballistics have it fingerprinted and check the serial number.”
“One other thing, Roy.” Sarge walked up to show me the two Russian passports found on Chernykh. One was for Maxim Chernykh and the other for Mikhail Chernykh. The boy’s picture looked like a cut-and-paste job.
“Sarge, send this one to Immigration. It looks fake.”
I return to Interview Room 1. I tell Milana that a guy named Maxim Chernykh was picked up outside the Lopez place. I tell her that he was threatening Ron with a gun and shot Eduardo.
Milana jumped out of the chair ready to fight. She looked at the door and back at me.
“Miguel . . . is Miguel . . .?
“Miguel is safe. You’re safe here, Milana. Ron is in holding and Mr. Chernykh is waiting for me to interview him. Please sit down.”
~~~
Before I talk to the Russian, I go to holding to interview Ron.
“Ron, what were you doing at the Lopez place?
“I followed Milana this morning. I wanted to see where she goes with Miguel. If he is my son, I have a right to see him. I pay fifteen thousand dollars for Milana to come here. Fifteen thousand dollars! And she stays away from me. She keeps the boy from me. I try not to be difficult but difficult people try my patience.”
“What happened over there?”
“I’m in my car and see this guy go to the door. He looks like the homeless guy I blocked from the club last night. I wonder what he is doing here.
“He starts yelling “I vant ze boy come out now!” A man opens the door and tells him to go away but the nutcase pulls a gun out and starts waving it around. So, I get out of the car and start yelling for him to back off. The guy points the gun at me and I tell him I’ll break his neck. The guy is in a hurry to get the boy. He turns the gun back on the man at the door and shoots him. I rush the nutcase and take him down and hold him for the police.”
“Ron, the situation could have been a lot worse if you hadn’t been there. You protected Miguel and saved lives. Now it’s time for hard words and hard choices. You need to go your own way and leave Milana and the boy alone. From what Milana tells me, Miguel is not your son. And she left you because in the short time she’s known you, she thinks of you as no different than the same drinking mean guy she left in Russia who is the nutcase you took down today. But you showed me better than that today.”
“I know I’m a big galoot. I paid big money not to be lonely and I’m still lonely.”
“I’m no Dr. Phil, Ron, or a Sargent Grasso, but maybe find a focus outside yourself.”
~~~
I walk into Interview Room 2. Chernykh is pacing with clenched fists.
“Sit down Mr. Chernykh.”
He scraps the chair back, sits down, throws both arms on the table, leans in, and scowls at me with an open mouth and wolfish green eyes.
“Mr. Chernykh why were you are the Lopez house?”
“Mikhail.”
“Mikhail?”
“Milana call him Miguel to hide him from me. But I find out from Daria.”
“Milana’s friend?
“She is my friend, too. I send her money.”
“You came to America because you believe four-year-old Miguel is your son because four years ago you raped Milana and she left Russia with Daria?”
“Detektiv, you tupoy? You do not know how vomen are?”
“You’re not as smart as you think, yobik.”
“Oh, yes. I get Mikhail take him to home to Russia. Daria come, too.”
“You shot Eduardo. Why?”
“He tupoy problema.”
“The gun. How did you get it?”
“Daria has friends.”
“I hope Eduardo makes it. You better hope so too, Mr. Chernykh. There are several charges pending including assault with a gun, attempted kidnapping and passport fraud. No Russia for you, pal. No Daria. No Mikhail. Yesli ti dyéystvooyesh’ kak doorák, ti boodyesh’ traktovat’sya tak.”
~~~
I return to Milana with a bottle of water.
“I talked to Ron. He followed you to the Lopez house this morning. He saw Miguel go in there and he saw Chernykh trying to take the boy from Eduardo. Chernykh shot Eduardo and Ron took him down and held until police arrived. Ron saved Miguel from being kidnapped.
“He isn’t happy, Milana, that he paid for you to come to America and that you and the boy stay away from him. I told him that Miguel is not his son and to let you and Miguel be.
“I talked to Chernykh and found out that Daria is not your friend. She’s been helping Chernykh so he can take Mikhail back to Russia. She told Chernykh where to find Mikhail. Chernykh said Daria was going with him.”
Milana’s face turned fierce. “I tell her everything. I tell her I leave Ron. I tell her I have baby. I tell her that Manny help me get apartment and help me with baby. Maxim kill a good man because good man help me and Miguel.”
“Chernykh shot another good man because Eduardo wouldn’t let him get near Mikhail. Ballistics is looking at the gun Maxim used on Eduardo. If it matches the gun used on Manny, he will be charged with first degree murder. And, if Daria is involved in Mikhail’s attempted kidnapping, in supplying a gun for Manny’s murder, and in passport forgery I will bring her down.
“There are several charges pending against Chernykh including assault with a gun, attempted kidnapping and passport fraud. I told him that if he was going to be an idiot he would be treated like an idiot. He will be locked up for a long time.”
Before I send Milana on her way, I tell her to find a place for Miguel that has no cats. I give her my card and tell her to call me when she finds it. I’ll come and check on Miguel. Milana’s been to the mat several times and not for Jiu Jitsu. I hope the boy comes out on top.
It’s been a long day. I head toward the parking lot hoping Sarge doesn’t see me. But he does.
“Roy, I’ve been aware for many decades that most murderers are morons. Aristotle said that actions are consistent with character.”
I tell him that Mrs. Sarge called. I tell him she has some pasta e fagioli and a bottle of chianti waiting for a character like him at home. I tell him I’m going home to Laci, and to some Pozole that my father-in-law made, and to watch Ninón Sevilla in Víctimas del Pecado with him. I pop a licorice pastille in my mouth and walk out the door.
~~
©J.A. Johnson, Kingdom Venturers, 2026, All Rights Reserved
Cindy Wity 
No Country for Old Men Without Borders
June 1, 2026 Leave a comment
No Country for Old Men refers to a world that has become increasingly violent and chaotic, where traditional values and the moral compass of older generations are no longer effective or relevant. The title reflects the struggles of the aging sheriff, Ed Tom Bell, as he confronts the senseless violence and lawlessness that he feels ill-equipped to handle . . .
In the past six months I’ve come across two pastoral letters imploring Christians to think kindly toward the millions of foreign invaders who have illegally crossed our borders to appropriate our country’s resources and thereby impacting the future of our neighbors and the country.
The first (AI generated?) letter was posted “By A Country Pastor.” (Quaint, eh?) The second, from a Hispanic Anglican bishop out of California. (Surprise, surprise!). The document below is the latest missive. Like with my response to the first letter, I do not consider the current pastoral letter authoritative.
It’s not that an Anglican bishop doesn’t have authority to speak about such things. It’s just that there is nothing in the letter that compels me to change my understanding or my actions. I seek to love my neighbor as myself, I ascribe image-of-God dignity to all humans, and I hold myself and others accountable for what is done.
~~~
Here’s the letter’s opening and my comments:
“As bishop of the Diocese of San Joaquin within the Anglican Church in North America, I write pastorally to address the subject of refugees and immigration. I recognize that immigration is a complex matter involving legal, social, and economic concerns. Yet for the Church, it is first and foremost a biblical and pastoral issue, shaped by our allegiance to Christ and our calling to make disciples of all nations (Philippians 3:20; Matthew 28:19–20).”
What brought about the need “to address the subject of refugees and immigration?”
Did narrative-edited videos on CNN and MS NOW showing ICE rounding up the bishop’s would-be disciples provoke clerical stole clutching? Was it something preachy Morning Joe Scarbourough said?
Was it some attribution of unchristian behavior onto the millions of legal citizens never wanting their neighborhoods and their country overrun with and terrorized by the worst of worst criminal aliens, international criminal gangs, drugs, and scammers?
Was it Progressivism’s predatory foray into the church? (See video below.)
“After years of global elites lecturing us about compassion, diversity, open borders, asylum, labor flows, and all the buzzwords they love to force-feed us, The Economist is suddenly admitting that voters are right to think the system has been gamed to screw us over.”
The Economist suddenly changes its immigration tune…
Is it because “The globalist machine is sputtering and losing speed. And they can hear the America First engine coming up fast right behind them”?
Was it concern that Federal grant money to NGOs was drying up?
Was it Trump derangement syndrome?
Is it because Democrats need to keep their animus toward America, its Constitution and laws, always before us, so deportation resistance has to be revved up again?
What brought about the need “to address the subject of refugees and immigration?”
After giving lip service to the complex matters immigration invokes “involving legal, social, and economic concerns” – matters established by our country’s founders for the common good that include the principle of subsidiarity, protections both physical and civil, fiscal soundness, and a legitimate process for the integration and assimilation of legal immigrants leading to citizenship – the bishop, without saying any more about the very real down-to-earth “legal, social, and economic concerns” of not dealing with the complex matters that (illegal) immigration brings down upon our families, our neighbors, our communities and our nation, goes on to place the matter of (illegal) immigration into his safe space – his otherworld jurisdiction.
The bishop, you see, has a “first and foremost” trump card: entitlement of citizenship for (illegal) immigrants – citizenship in heaven – that overrides legal citizenship status and subjugates the concerns of legal citizens to a ‘scriptural’ utility of making disciples.
I wonder. Does the bishop assume that illegal immigrants will want to assimilate and willingly accept being discipled because of compassion extended toward them? Do Islamists assimilate and become disciples of Jesus? Do gang members assimilate and become disciples of Jesus? Will the Chinese from the CCP? Will the Somalians? If a comfortable living situation is the basis for entering illegally, the immigrant will be discipled by Democrats willing to give them all kinds comfortable living on welfare in exchange for their vote.
How convenient that the San Joaquin valley is inundated with Hispanic illegal immigrants! Now they can easily be colonized as citizens of heaven and as low-cost farm workers!
You tell me. Have you read anywhere in the gospels that before Jesus ascended into heaven, he said “Go. Open your borders. Let everyone in, even your enemies. This will facilitate making disciples.”?
The two letters are the same in their “pastoral” plea to be welcoming and hospitable to the invaders, the opportunists violating the law for access to another’s property and wealth. (See The Dark Side of the Immigration Debate and The Ungrateful Immigrant below.)
The letter goes on . . .
“Holy Scripture teaches that every human being is created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26). Therefore, all people—regardless of legal status, nationality, or ethnicity—possess inherent dignity. The Bible repeatedly calls God’s people to welcome the stranger, care for the vulnerable, and extend hospitality to those in need (Leviticus 19:33–34; Matthew 25:35; Hebrews 13:2). Our Lord Himself knew the life of a refugee when the Holy Family fled to Egypt (Matthew 2:13–23).”
Here, the bishop pulls out all the “social justice” stops. His words are coded in Biblical jargon to supply the naïve reader justification for open borders. We are to trade the real-world deleterious effects of illegal immigration for a high-minded other-world compassion that unleashes chaos with the senseless violence and lawlessness that we are ill-equipped to handle.
My understanding of image-of-God “inherent dignity” involves personal accountability and responsibility for one’s human agency. It’s not a badge we put on someone to give them a ‘social justice’ pass.
Tell me. When Jesus said “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10) did he point out the inherent dignity of the thief so that we would take a compassionate view of him and his ways? Did he do this with the Pharisees or the woman caught in adultery? No. Jesus spoke of what they did against their image-of-God “inherent dignity.”
The application of “dignity,” like with applying “love,” can be used to Ok of all kinds of inordinate things, such as same-sex marriages: [IN Senator Todd} Young Op-Ed: Marriage Bill Ensures Dignity and Respect for All Hoosiers. S.J. James Martin uses “inherent dignity” to justify all kinds of unholy things
Both pastoral letters imply that foreign invaders should be treated as possessing human dignity. But do the illegal immigrants respect the inherent dignity of the ICE officers and their lawful task?
ICE has its hands full with those who resist – you know, the “strangers” who crossed the border illegally and are now putting up a fight with law enforcement. And with those “strangers” financed and deployed by Democrat NGOs to put up violent resistance. Where’s the dignity in that?
Why doesn’t the bishop publicly denounce and admonish the ICE protestors and the chaos they bring? His higher law says to speak the truth in love. Maybe he agrees with the NYT’s op-ed columnist David Brooks who says “It’s time for a comprehensive national civic uprising.”
“I’ll kill your whole f-cking family! Your whole f-cking family is dead!” the agitator yawped. “Your children, your wife—all dead!”
Acting AG Blanche: Anti-ICE Agitator Will Be Arrested for Threatening Agent During NJ Riot
At some point, ordinary, law-abiding people are going to get sick of the disorder protected and excused by their degenerate liberal governing elites. I will continue to ask the question “Where are the adults?”
Saying that Jesus was a refugee – is that said to invoke empathy for the refugee? How so? Mary, Joseph, and the baby traveled to Egypt under God’s protection and direction. They also remigrated home under God’s protection and direction. The Illegal immigrants can do the same.
The letter goes on . . .
“At the same time, Scripture affirms the legitimacy of nations and civil authority (Romans 13:1). A faithful Christian response must therefore hold together two truths: the responsibility of governments to uphold the rule of law and protect their borders, and the obligation to treat immigrants and refugees with justice, mercy, and compassion, in accordance with God’s law (Matthew 22:21).”
Let’s be clear. U.S. immigration laws are not unwelcoming or imposing hate. They are not anti-human anti-dignity. They, in fact, affirm human dignity by holding the people who placed themselves in the lawless positions accountable.
“Justice, mercy, and compassion” have been extended toward illegal immigrants and “refugees”:
USCIS Supports “Project Homecoming” Self-Deportation:
If you are here illegally and you want to go home, the Department of Homeland Security now offers use of the CBP Home Mobile App so that you can voluntarily self-deport. Through the CBP Home Mobile App, you receive a complimentary plane ticket home, receive a $2,600 exit bonus upon your return, and will have any unpaid fines for failing to timely depart forgiven.
But the opposite is portrayed by left-wing media. Such have a financial and political stake in promoting open borders. The opposite is also portrayed by church leadership that has accepted the media’s lies.
I agree. We are to treat all people with “justice, mercy, and compassion” in accordance with God’s will. That would include our neighbors who are having to deal with the invasion of millions of illegal aliens. There is nothing merciful, just or compassionate about an invasion of millions of foreigners into our communities.
The letter goes on . . .
“In my episcopal ordination vows, I pledged to be “gentle and merciful for Christ’s sake, to poor and needy people and to all strangers destitute of help” (BCP 2019, p. 504). Guided by that promise, I call the Church to bear faithful witness by loving our neighbors, advocating for the vulnerable, speaking the truth in love, and offering practical care to those entrusted to us (Luke 10:25–37; Matthew 5:13–16).
Who are the vulnerable? Children. Trafficked children. Exposed children.
“These children are vulnerable; they’re actually the ones who need the help,” Rivera said. “They’re brought against their will, and they have no say in where they’re going, whether it’s mom or dad, aunt or uncle, or some stranger getting something out of it.”
Border Crisis: CBP Fights Child Exploitation: Without a choice, thousands of children are forced to make a perilous journey
Open borders have been a gateway for the exploitation and oppression of human trafficking.
Open borders have been a gateway for the child trafficking.
Biden admin failed to probe more than 7,300 reports of migrant child trafficking, startling HHS findings show
Biden-Harris admin loses track of 320,000 migrant children — with untold numbers at risk of sex trafficking and forced labor
Open borders have been a gateway to make billions:
US Govt. Paid Catholic Charities $3 Billion to Traffic People across the US/Mexico Border – Public Intelligence Blog (phibetaiota.net)
Our children are now exposed to the flood of unvetted pedophiles entering the country during Biden’s (and the bishop’s watch). Arrested: Worst of the Worst
Our children are exposed to the flood of sickness entering the country during Biden’s (and the bishop’s) watch.
Open borders import disease.
New York City’s health commissioner announced last week that the influx of migrants from the southern border — more than 50,000 to New York City alone in the past year — is delivering contagious diseases, including tuberculosis and polio, to our neighborhoods.
Per the CDC: While still abroad, immigrants, refugees, and others who apply for admission to live permanently in the United States must undergo a medical examination.
Did this happen during the Biden open borders invasion? No.
Biden’s open borders are bringing contagious diseases to your neighborhood
The letter goes on . . .
“ Our Anglican tradition has long affirmed the Church’s responsibility to care for refugees and immigrants while engaging society with moral clarity and charity. Respect for civil law must always be informed and corrected by God’s higher law, which calls us to justice, dignity, and mercy.”
Again, I wonder what brought about this letter? Who is NOT engaging society with moral clarity and charity? Who is NOT “informed and corrected by God’s higher law, which calls us to justice, dignity, and mercy?” “Is it the “basket of deplorables”?
I view the deportation of the millions of foreign invaders as respect for civil law, as respect for my neighbors, as respect for “God’s higher law.”
I understand God’s higher law as that which holds people accountable with “justice, dignity, and mercy.”
The letter ends . . .
“I encourage the faithful of this diocese to live into these convictions: welcoming the stranger, discipling those within our care, and assisting immigrants and refugees to live responsibly and faithfully within our communities. I pledge to engage our diocesan leadership and civil authorities with these biblical values, and I pray for the nations of Canada, Mexico, and the United States, that we may act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.
Signed,
The Rt. Rev. Dr. Eric Vawter Menees, SSC”
If I see a stranger in my neighborhood, I say “Hi.” I try to connect.
I will continue to insist that all illegal “immigrants and refugees” be deported or remigrate home and then apply to come into the country legally.
Otherwise, our land becomes increasingly violent and chaotic, where traditional values and the moral compass of older generations are no longer effective or relevant. We will be confronted by senseless violence and lawlessness that we are ill-equipped to handle . . .
~~~
Some Thoughts
-During COVID there was a lot of Karen-like shaming going on. Not wearing a mask, not social distancing, and not vaxxing meant ridicule for not submitting to “We’re all in this together.” I get the same “get with the program” vibe from the two pastoral letters.
-There are those who think they know all about me even though they never write, call or visit. They “know” me from a distance, from what the media and church leaders present about people “like” me, as in CT’s Russel Moore (See below.) I get the same vibe from the two pastoral letters.
-That we should help the “vulnerable among us” sets up understanding illegal immigration in terms of the “oppressed” and the “oppressors.” Stay away from Marxist narratives.
-Out of context verses can be used to endorse all kinds of unscriptural church policies – from saying women should not be pastors/teachers to open borders to anything goes sexuality. Out of context, out of bounds.
-Much of what comes out of the church today about Jesus, comes from the TV. That is how some came to see Jesus as the docile, friendly, welcoming, and unwaveringly accepting Mr. Rogers. Being nice his emotional landscape and children’s. Do these same people think that ICE should take off their LE gear, put on a sweater, and say “Won’t you be my neighbor?” I will continue to ask the question “Where are the adults?”
-I once knew a female assistant rector. She saw herself as the PBS version of a female rector in an Anglican church in England – as the Vicar of Dibley. It came across in her PBS-like sermons.
-One cannot read the gospels and come away with Jesus being docile or unwaveringly accepting. Jesus didn’t accept whatever people did with their “inherent dignity” or “love.” He held people accountable. The gospel according to Progressivism doesn’t hold people accountable except for those who don’t go along with their narratives. See letter above.
Very reliable social media sources tell me that Jesus was a Progressive: he helped the vulnerable, the oppressed, and the foreigner. Why, they say that Jesus was down with socialism, abortion, LGBT-ism, social justice, DEI. Jesus was down with anything man came up with in the last five minutes to make the world a fairer and more equitable place, i.e. to make the world less God-saturated and more man-saturated.
Higher Law Bigotry
Two Judean religious leaders see a half-dead man lying on the side of the road as they walk along. A Judean had been beaten and robbed. But the two principled men stay away from “lesser” concerns to stay true to a higher law.
Someone the two religious leaders consider of low estate, as without their higher-law pedigree, comes along and helps their assaulted neighbor.
Turns out that the neighbor in Jesus’ parable is the one who sees what is going on around him and helps his neighbor. It is not the high-minded principled. And so it is with Christian leaders who ignore broken boundaries and their broken neighbors so as to observe a higher law.
~~~
https://www.dioceseofsanjoaquin.net/news–events
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33324911
~~~
Victor Davis Hanson:
“I live on a farm beside a rural avenue in central California, the fifth generation to reside in the same house. And after years of thefts, home break-ins, and dangerous encounters, I have concluded that it is no longer safe to live where I was born. I stay because I am sixty-five years old and either too old to move or too worried about selling the final family parcel of what was homesteaded in the 1870s.”
The Diversity of Illegal Immigration
~~~
From my post Two Visions Three Questions:
What hard evidence do you have that an open borders policy is a good decision? Your feelings? Your empathy? Any talk about “welcoming the stranger” in the abstract is not hard evidence in support of an open borders policy. Is the evidence your need for cheap labor? Democrats Once Again Concerned About Who Will Pick Their Crops
And . . .
Lest anyone think that I am an “ignorant hillbilly” and can be known by my smell (Peter Strzok), lest anyone think that I am a rube and an uncaring Christian xenophobe nativist, and lest anyone think that I haven’t traveled outside my shire and am not cosmopolitan, know that I have traveled to many parts of the world and have met and worked with many different people during my 70+ years. I am not a misanthrope.
My travel, mostly for engineering work, included a trip to Seoul South Korea and within five miles of the DMZ, to Dhahran and Jubail Saudi Arabia and the oil fields worked by Saudi Aramco, to Warsaw and Bialystok Poland, to England during the Queen’s silver jubilee, to Rio De Janeiro, to Mexico – Tuxpan and Tampico, Mexico City, and Sonora state, to many of the provinces of Canada, including Saskatchewan when it was 40 degrees below zero, and to most of the U.S.
I did love coming home to the U.S. after each trip to some distant place.
~~~
Podcasts:
“American Citizenship and Its Decline: Illegal Immigration and the Loss of National Sovereignty” from The Hillsdale College Online Courses Podcast by The Hillsdale College Online Courses Podcast.
Citizenship is rare in human history but essential to free government. Today, the constitutional rule of citizens in America is threatened by a new form of government, unaccountable to the people, in which power is held by a ruling class that seeks to transform our society. In this eight-lecture course, students will examine the origins and history of citizenship in the West and the grave challenges American citizenship faces today.
America’s founding principle of equality created an opportunity for people from all over the world—regardless of race or birth—to immigrate to the United States and become full citizens. This led to a system of immigration that proceeded according to established laws and required a willingness and ability to assimilate into American society. These criteria have been abandoned in favor of a system of widespread illegal immigration that erodes the rights of citizens. (Emphasis mine.)
https://podcast.hillsdale.edu/american-citizenship-and-its-decline-illegal-immigration-and-the-loss-of-national-sovereignty
https://podcast.hillsdale.edu/american-citizenship-and-its-decline-introduction
~~
Influence Campaigns Inside Evangelical Institutions Podcast:
https://cis.org/Parsing-Immigration-Policy/Influence-Campaigns-Inside-Evangelical-Institutions
~~~
Eric Metaxas: Christianity Today Had an Easter Message: We’re Just … Better Than You
“Lord, I Thank Thee That I Am Not Like These Deplorables”
[CT’s Russel] Moore quotes the evangelical sociologist James Davison Hunter, who in a previous patronizing essay made the case that it is the begrudging resentment of groups who once had power that fuels our societal woes. Hunter doesn’t actually say “working-class white Christians” so much as dog-whistle it. Everything such knuckle-dragging relics do is actually only so that they might cling to what power they still have — or mebbe to yank it back from them’s what took it. . .
Cheap Amateur Psychoanalysis
Moore explains, for example, the real reason that some people want secure borders:
“In Hunter’s view, a ressentiment posture is heightened when the group holds a sense of entitlement — to greater respect, to greater power, to a place of majority status. This posture, he warned, is a political psychology that expresses itself with “’the condemnation and denigration of enemies in the effort to subjugate and dominate those who are culpable.’”
Here Moore might very well die in the irony mines, as he condemns and denigrates his own cultural enemies for … condemning and denigrating their cultural enemies. Because the rules are apparently different for the right sort of people. . .
Damn the Kulaks, Full Speed Ahead!
But buckle thy seatbelts, pilgrims, for the condescension will soar yet higher. Moore continues:
“Often, the most contentious aspects of American life center on the question ‘Who is trying to take America away from us?’— whether that be immigrant caravans overwhelming the border, the concept of American elites developing a global pandemic to control the population with vaccines, or the rhetoric of Satan-worshiping pedophile rings at the highest levels of government.”
Moore confidently assures that his critics are driven by sheer resentment — pardon me, ressentiment — and are clinging to some America in which they were top-dogs. But the positively Himalayan irony is that it is Moore and his friends in subsidized, institutional Christianity who are losing cultural power. So they’re lashing out, in essays such as this.
~~~
Christian leaders shouldn’t be more concerned about protecting illegal aliens from ICE than protecting the religious freedom of their congregants.
https://thefederalist.com/2026/01/20/if-your-pastor-values-illegal-immigration-more-than-your-right-to-worship-find-a-new-church
~~~
Here’s what the media does to people: James Woods: On Memorial Day, a veteran dies from being beaten to death for the way he voted – in America… – Revolver News
Where are the pastoral statements about this murder? None I suspect. This is a lesser concern and not the business of following the “higher law.”
~~~
We are to be the Welcome Mat:
Texas state representative James Talarico compared the nation’s southern border to a “front porch,” saying it should function like a “giant welcome mat.”
~~~
J.B. Shurk, writing at American Thinker:
Globalism Seeks to Kill the Nation-State: International government threatens the whole planet.
People are beginning to understand that those who rule in their name have long been working to eliminate the nation-state….
. . .That’s another part of internationalism’s linguistic magic trick: The same global corporate news machine that has spent the last eighty-plus years conditioning people to understand the word “nationalism” as something evil, militant, and barbaric has simultaneously conditioned the world to see anything “international” as inherently good, peaceful, and progressive. The “national / international” dichotomy didn’t happen by accident; it’s been shoved down our throats all our lives. But once again, if a rational person takes a moment to consider the semantic manipulation, it is quite absurd.
. . . internationalism’s true intent: Internationalists are building a global empire. This empire is authoritarian (because it demands global compliance at the expense of personal freedom) and totalitarian (because it requires complete subservience to a centralized and dictatorial global government). There is nothing “democratic” or “representative” about this international system of governance. It has no interest in protecting an individual’s rights and freedoms. It has no interest in respecting a nation’s sovereignty. It will permit both individuals and nations to be raped in the name of “global peace.”
Therefore, it makes perfect sense why the United Nations encourages mass illegal immigration into the United States and Europe. When you are in the business of destroying nations, you do not care if murderers and rapists destroy local families. You do not care if Islamic terrorists burn down Christian churches. You do not care if the “newcomers” to Europe and America have pledged to conquer the West. (Emphasis mine.)
~~~
E. Jeffrey Ludwig, writing at American Thinker:
Illegal Is Legal, Immoral Is Moral – American Thinker
[American society is] also are contending with millions of foreign nationals who were admitted illegally during President Joe Biden’s administration, whom Democrats defend against being rounded up and deported. This expulsion of illegals is an affirmation of our legal system, which has set up rules for legal entry into the USA. The rules were approved by our legislative system, but now and for the four years of the previous administration, those laws are being denied and repudiated by one of our two major parties. The Democrats are doing what they can to defund the offices of government responsible for rounding up those illegals. They are encouraging illegal behavior yet do not believe that a stigma is attached to that intention.
They are sentimentalizing immigration laws as though our already generous laws were overly strict and against the pro-immigration traditions of the USA. Illegal entry by “huddled masses yearning to breathe free” is being propagandized as being more “moral” than obedience to the legitimately passed laws. (Emphasis mine.)
Suicidal Empathy is Killing the West
In the new book Suicidal Empathy, evolutionary behavioral scientist and professor Gad Saad makes the case that the West’s most celebrated virtue has been weaponized, mis calibrated, and taken to a place that is actively destroying the societies it claims to protect.
“ . . . the “West’s elitist progressive political class is infected by a mind parasite that causes its empathy module to misfire in every conceivable manner. Many of the policy decisions that are wreaking havoc in the West stem from this poor calibration of empathy, resulting in a society that is galloping toward the abyss of infinite lunacy.”
The Road To Hell Is Being Paved With Suicidal Empathy
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This Is NOT what Jesus would do:
New York City shouldn’t be flooded with filthy water, garbage, or aggressive illegal foreigners.
“When you first watch the video, you’d think this was some filthy, chaotic scene from Bangladesh.
“But sadly, this isn’t Bangladesh.
“It’s Canal Street in New York City.
“Yep, the Big Apple looks downright rotten, folks. And the kicker is that this is basically a no-go zone for Americans.
“And before the “refugee welcome” crowd starts screaming about how America was a nation shaped by immigrants. We know about the olden days. But the Ellis Island era worked because there was an expectation of assimilation. People came here, brought parts of their culture with them, and still understood they were joining something that already existed.
“That’s not what this clip looks like.
“This looks like a city that has stopped enforcing any American standards whatsoever. It looks like an illegal street economy operating out in the open, and it also looks like counterfeit goods, sidewalk chaos, territorial vendor control, illegals, foreigners, and Americans citizens being chased away from streets in their own country.” (Emphasis mine.)
Look at this horrific street in a popular US city. American citizens aren’t welcome… – Revolver News
~~~
The wolves – Globalism and Progressivism – have snuck into the church dressed in sheep’s clothing.
When Progressivism snuck into the Anglican church I was attending in Illinois via a female Wheaton college professor who became an assistant rector, I left. I knew the woke virus was already overtaking the congregation.
Progressive Christians believe “God is bigger than our borders, bigger than our language, bigger than our certainty.”
Megan Basham: How Progressivism Creeped into Evangelical Churches
Megan Basham: When Progressive Foundations Fund Evangelism
The political projects men like Christianity Today editor Russell Moore and New York Times columnist David French undertake involve a contradiction. While lamenting how partisan American Christianity has become (frequentlyaccusing other evangelicals of shilling for “Christian Nationalism”), they continue to launch and participate in programs designed, albeit covertly, to inject progressive politics into the church. (Emphasis mine.)
Progressive Powerbrokers & Corruption in the American Church | with Megan Basham
How Naivety Is Allowing Unbiblical Progressivism Into Evangelical Churches
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Filed under 2026 Current Events, Christianity, Culture, Globalism, human trafficking, Immigration, Political Commentary, Progressivism, The Church Tagged with American Values Coalition, Christianity, church, culture, Globalism, God, Immigration, J29 Coalition, Jesus, progressivism, The Anglican Church in North America