Discernment Knows Better
July 20, 2026 Leave a comment
History and current events reveal that anything can be rationalized when politics is everything and power its ultimate goal. The same holds true when empathy is everything and the pursuit of inclusion its ultimate goal – anything can be rationalized.
Wayward Christian empathy covers the interior of the oldest cathedral in England in graffiti, making it look like an underground car park, in order to represent the voices of “marginalized communities.”
Cosplay Christian empathy speaks with Christian platitudes and acts out the story it tells itself listening to the MSM narrative about immigration. Its theatrics would have us place a high value on a foreign invader’s human dignity to discourage deportation and place a negative value on immigration law, law enforcement, the country, and thereby, the human dignity of those living here.
The destructive effects of open borders – the flooding of communities and neighborhoods with unvetted foreigners, many with diseased bodies and diseased mindsets – are ignored in MSM narratives and the echoed Coplay Christian stories. Coplay Christians want to be the heroes of their own narratives, as I wrote in my post Self-Central Casting.
Tell me. Have you seen reports on MS NOW or CNN about those invaders who kill, maim, rape, drug to death our neighbors, and do horrible things to our children (See Arrested: Worst of the Worst)?
Tell me. Have you seen those outlets report on those who take jobs and housing and resources from those living here? Have you seen those outlets report on those who want to overthrow the country? Have you seen those outlets report on those who want to turn (colonize) areas of our country into Islamic no-go zones and force Sharia law on the everyone in the area?
See what you see and not what MS NOW or CNN or the NYT wants you to see.
Careless regard toward our neighbors by forcing foreigners upon them via an idealism of “welcoming the stranger” inclusion is not Christianity. Rather, it is coercive Marxist-like redistribution of resources and it is authoritarian, just like what is projected onto Christian nationalists.
The plea for acceptance of the idealist boot on the neck of our neighbor and for Progressivism’s ‘anything goes’ terms of Christianity comes from Christian leaders without discernment and with a desire to be relevant.
From the May 31, 2026 post No Country for Old Men Without Borders:
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.
Like with the end game of politics, when empathy is everything and the pursuit of inclusion its ultimate goal, anything can be rationalized.
And that’s how the Rev. Kate Penney Howard finds a way to equate Christian nationalism with the KKK.
The following Facebook post was forwarded to me for comment. I am not on social media and thankfully so. https://www.facebook.com/rev.kate.penney/posts/10243888131684638/
My response is below the post.
Response:
One can expect generalizations and projection in opinion pieces, and that is what you get in this snappy op-ed.
Pastor Howard begins with the generalization “we” referring to Hoosiers and goes on to relate a story about the Indiana KKK that the “we” are retelling themselves.
Her history redux, a 1920s story of “churchgoing” people seeing the KKK as a Christian movement and moral crusade, is projected onto current Indiana citizens that she believes are promoting Christian nationalism involving political will. She warns “we are telling ourselves a story we have told before. It did not end well.”
What are the “we” to do with this op-ed sermonette claiming that Christian nationalism is KKK-like by deciding “who belongs and who does not?” What’s the implication? What’s the sermon’s application? The reader is left to speculate as to the “who” she is referring to and about what “belongs” means to her. Maybe her Facebook followers take in the same media as she does and know what she is inferring.
When empathy is everything and the pursuit of inclusion its ultimate goal, anything can be rationalized. And others can be slandered.
Equating Chrisitan nationalism with the hate-group KKK . . . is she, while decrying Christian nationalism, advocating in a backhanded way for a national policy of inclusion – open borders illegal immigration?
Is she against the Spirit-filled wanting to exercise their right as an Indiana and U.S. citizen to vote for the candidates and polices that decide who’s in and who’s out of the country for the safety and flourishing, not to mention the human dignity, of their family, their neighbors, their communities, and for the common good of all citizens? Would she consider them to be Christian nationalists and therefore KKK-like?
I wonder. Is she inclusive about everything? For example, is she OK with men in women’s sports and women’s locker rooms? Does she ever draw the line? Set boundaries? Exclude?
What does national exclusion and setting boundaries look like in scripture? Let’s ask Nehemiah.
Why did you rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, Nehemiah?
“It was done to restore the city’s protection and honor. The walls had been broken down, leaving the city vulnerable and causing shame among its people. Without fortified walls around the city, the people were left defenseless against enemies. Opponents could easily enter and cause “great trouble” to the people. Rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem was a sign to the enemies of Israel.” (Read more here.)
What did you tell Israel’s enemies, Nehemiah?
“The God of heaven will give us success. We his servants will start rebuilding, but as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it” (Nehemiah 2:20).
I know that Nehemiah is OT and not ‘enlightened’ or WOKE as progressive Christians are today, BUT, it sure looks like Nehemiah was a Jewish nationalist and that he rebuilt the walls to keep out bad elements. Apparently, not all the strangers encountered in the Bible are the “strangers” that open borders sermonizers want us to welcome with open arms.
Nehemiah didn’t do the Deuteronomy 10:19 “stranger” thing. He didn’t do the Leviticus 19:34 “stranger” thing. And, fast forward, he didn’t do the Matthew 25:38 “stranger” thing.
Remind me. Did Jesus cast out Jewish nationalists or did he cast out unclean spirits – the demonic forces of the strong man in human vessels that were making havoc in the territory around Galilee?
Let’s review the tactics of the forces of the strong man. Those are to smear, slander, poison, accuse, lie, destroy, negate, censor, produce fear to bring about submission, and grab power and more power and more power.
Didn’t Jesus cast out what was trying to corrupt and usurp his kingdom on earth? (Read Mark 5.)
Pastor Howard states “We are hearing pastors and politicians say God has chosen a side.”? I’ve never heard a pastor or politician say this, but Nehemiah and others in the OT have.
Nehemiah certainly says that God had chosen a side. And, he is not alone in his declaration of confidence in God being on his side, a side he understands as aligning with God’s purposes for the defense and good of Israel.
The shepherd-king David, when going to fight Goliath, said “The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.” He also said “The Lord is my shepherd” and “The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer.” That’s imperious of him, in pastor Howard’s way of thinking.
And when he became king, David’s accountability didn’t disappear because God didn’t abandon him. We learn that David couldn’t justify his adultery and murder before the prophet Nathan. He received the consequences of his actions.
Would you choose a president who acknowledged God and invoked his favor or someone like Obama who considered himself and invoked his ideology?
Contrary to the reverend’s misleading projection onto our nation’s founders about what they understood about claiming divine authority, they (and Abe Lincoln) did align themselves with divine authority and assigned that authority to safeguard their efforts.
The Founders concluded the Declaration of Independence by stating, “For the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
The Founders, building a republic and not a theocracy or a utopia, did decide who or what belongs and who or what does not.
Clauses like the Naturalization Clause and the Commerce Clause in the U.S. Constitution’s framework establish a strong federal role in immigration, to regulate immigration and naturalization.
Congress has almost complete authority to decide who may enter or remain in the United States. Congress can create rules for the admission of aliens.
(The recent reckless Supreme Court ruling, Trump v. Barbara, regarding birthright citizenship was decided by four women and John Roberts. The dissenting opinions rightfully claimed that the majority decision was a misread of both the Constitution (the intent of the 14th Amendment and the Civil Rights Act of 1866) and American history. John Roberts decided that English common law was the basis for US. Citizenship. The Constitution says otherwise. Roberts apparently didn’t want to be subject to the jurisdiction thereof. More below.)
With the following, the reverend projects onto Christian nationalism her understanding of what the founders rejected:
“Our nation’s founders [understood] what happened when governments claimed divine authority, how quickly God became a justification for control, exclusion and violence, and they made a choice.”
The founders did reject a state religion such as the Church of England that held significant influence over religious and political life. So, “The Constitution does not mention Jesus.”
But the founders did use religion as justification for “control, exclusion and violence.”
As The Library of Congress records, “Religion played a major role in the American Revolution by offering a moral sanction for opposition to the British–an assurance to the average American that revolution was justified in the sight of God.”
Many Revolutionary War clergy argued that the war against Britain was approved by God. In this sermon Abraham Keteltas celebrated the American effort as “the cause of truth, against error and falsehood . . .the cause of pure and undefiled religion, against bigotry, superstition, and human invention . . .in short, it is the cause of heaven against hell–of the kind Parent of the Universe against the prince of darkness, and the destroyer of the human race.”
The Founders, when establishing the federal government and a framework for conceiving of government and justice, did claim divine authority in the form of God’s providence as revealed in the Judeo-Christian scriptures and nature.
The Founders believed that humans are created in the image of God. They believed that human beings are inherently sinful and there would be no utopia on earth. They believed that God is the source of moral standards and that legislation should be in agreement with moral law. And, they believed that religious liberty is a God-given right and must be protected. The Left in America does not accept any of grounds for government and that is why Christian nationalism is seen as a threat.
The founders were the original Christian Nationalists. America’s earliest statesmen put national interest first.
Perhaps the reverend and her Facebook followers should read the following to gain insight into the founders:
and
Revolution: The Birth of the Greatest Nation in the History of the World
What about a version of Christianity that rejects what the founders established? What about disregarding immigration laws? What about disregarding your neighbors for the sake of better-than-thou religious beliefs? What about promoting open borders globalism? What about the deceitful religions of Progressivism and socialism that undermine reality and the Constitution?
Pastor Howard’s oblique use of “side” is the crux of the op-ed. What “side” is she on? The right way of thinking side as opposed to the “we” side that “feels faithful while it is happening?”
If people want to restore the nation to its Judeo-Christian bearings, is that Christian nationalism? Our heritage is worth preserving. The heritage of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to bear arms is worth preserving. Even now, Democrats are working to do away with all that in order to produce a secular totalitarian communist state that they believe will heal all wounds. Discernment knows better.
Anything can be rationalized when politics is everything and power its ultimate goal. The same holds true in Christian circles when empathy is everything and the pursuit of inclusion its ultimate goal – anything can be rationalized.
If people want to restore law and order and justice in the courts, is that picking sides or sound judgement? If people want to remove foreign invaders that came to plunder the homeland, is that KKK-like or removing that which is trying to corrupt and usurp what the founders established?
History, which has “a way of exposing what we would rather keep comfortable” has it that there was a coercive demand for the right way of thinking in the Soviet Union. Perhaps the reverend is more comfortable with the ideological orthodoxy of a closed society than the cultural pluralism of an open society she pretends to offer. (Listen to the podcast on the sidebar.)
The reverend reveals her side, her right way of thinking, when she condemns her opponents: “Certain policies were once political preferences but are now divine mandates. Opposing them is seen as rebellion against God.” What are the policies and divine mandates she is referencing? We are left to speculate. Is this about closing the border and deporting illegal migrants?
She says Jesus didn’t want or need political power. OK. But then she says “God does not need a government to do God’s work.” Is she thinking Jesus did away with nations and borders and now everything is open to inclusion and needs her Christian touch?
Yet, God did use government to do His work.
When Jesus was born, Rome had unified much of the world under its government. Under Pax Romana, the empire was relatively peaceful, travel was possible. This allowed Christians to spread the gospel. The Septuagint, the gospels and epistles and other texts handed down to us were not censored.
Romans 13 teaches that all governing authorities are established by God. The role of government is to maintain justice, restrain evil, and serve the common good. Governments provide security and order. Open borders and the Illegal immigration of millions is chaos and anarchy.
While Jesus did say “My kingdom is not of this world” he also taught his disciples to pray, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Government, in part, enables the latter. A government founded on Christian principles empowers the latter even more so.
The most dangerous thing about smearing Christian nationalism is that it feels faithful while it is happening. It wraps itself in inclusion theology but speaks the language of SPLC. It makes opposition into the KKK. Discernment knows better.
~~~
I cannot impute a motive onto Rev. Howard for her op-ed in the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette other than concern about Christian Nationalism. But I can ask if she is concerned with other exclusionary isms.
Is she concerned about the Democratic Socialists of America and their plan to destroy America and bring in communism? Communism will exclude those who don’t align with it. See history.
Is she concerned about the political rise of red-green alliance, a fusion of progressive socialism and Islamism? This alliance will exclude those who don’t align with them. See Mamdani’s NYC.
I can impute a motive onto the hate-funding Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Demonizing others is what the nasty Southern Poverty Law center (SPLC) does with hate maps and reports. “Democracy is threatened by anti-democracy extremist white Christian nationalism” is a SPLC narrative and an outright lie to produce fear.
For, Progressivism/globalism/socialism/communism – tyranny itself – cannot take over along as there Christians who are not controlled opposition. Projecting authoritarianism and tyranny onto Christian nationalism is a means to frighten people into submission to their lies. (Fear has also been used to produce submission to the COVID and climate crisis narratives.)
Because the narratives from the nasty Southern Poverty Law center (SPLC) are so pervasive as they filter through various media, it would not surprise me that there are Christian leaders who take them in and then feed these same narratives to their flock (and to social media) using one-part “Christianese” and one part media narrative while thinking they are being apolitical.
Learn about the SPLC. Learn how people are being manipulated:
Mike McDaniel writes Just when you thought SPLC revelations couldn’t get worse… – American Thinker:
A large part of what the SPLC did was to brand innocuous organizations like Turning Point USA or the Family Research Council as “hate” groups. The evidence of that “hate” was that they opposed Democrats and organizations like BLM and Antifa, which somehow were never so SPLC-branded. . .
It’s hard to imagine an organization and people more depraved. Should the allegations be proved, and it seems likely they will be, the SPLC defamed innocent, decent Americans, enriched and helped small groups of evil but largely ineffective people, and badly damaged America by stirring up racial hatred that wouldn’t have existed without their behind-the-scenes manipulations. They knew what buttons to push among black Americans and played on white guilt like harps from Hell, and we’re all the worse for it. (Emphasis mine.)
Even Red States Quietly Use Content from the SPLC | Headline USA:
Parental rights organization Defending Ed published an investigation revealing that nearly 200 school districts and 30 state government entities spread across 42 states and Washington D.C. publicly promote curriculum materials from the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The SPLC currently faces a federal wire fraud indictment. Prior to these charges, the organization became infamous for including mainstream conservative groups on its “hate map.” The Justice Department also opened a criminal investigation into claims the group directed funds to individuals tied to white supremacist movements and allegedly poured millions into efforts to influence Southern elections. . . .
Just the News documented how certain school districts employ aggressive tactics to conceal curricula, psychological programs, and information about which adults interact with students. These same districts, however, openly advertise their partnerships with the SPLC.
The SPLC’s “hate map” designated groups including the late Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA, Defending Ed, multiple Moms for Liberty chapters, Alliance Defending Freedom, Gays Against Groomers, and the Family Research Council. The FRC’s placement on that map motivated a terrorist attack against its Washington headquarters in 2013.
“The content often pushes or reinforces far-left cultural and political ideologies such as left-wing activism, anti-racism, Black Lives Matter, gender ideology and queer theory, white privilege, white supremacy, whiteness, and transgenderism,” according to Defending Ed. (Emphasis mine.)
More about the SPLC:
Superseding Indictment Alleges SPLC Funded “Ku Klux Klan garments” and “Cross-Burning Events”
SPLC – Creating Hate To Fundraise To Fight Hate
SPLC charged with offering would-be KKK, Neo-Nazi defectors salaries to stay in, spy on hate groups…
SPLC boss funneled $1.2 million to lover in neo-Nazi group — pair even had joint bank account – AOL
CEO of the SPLC confirms it stands by its May 2025 decision to add TPUSA to its ‘hate map’…
SPLC’s Hate Inflation Strategy…
~~~
History has a way of exposing what Democrats would rather keep comfortable.
The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was closely associated with the Democrat Party, especially in the South, where most Klansmen were Democrats during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Klan supported Democrat efforts to establish one-party rule and suppress black political power through violence and intimidation.
The Democrat Party is not against using KKK tactics while denouncing the KKK. They are not against spewing negativity and hate 24/7/365 online and in the media. Read the NYT op-eds. Watch MS-NOW. Watch the View and late night TV Democrats want the strong man’s power to take control.
History and current events reveal that anything can be rationalized when politics is everything and power its ultimate goal.
~~~
Todd Bensman refutes the left’s narrative in Is Trump Trying to Deport Venezuelans to Earthquake ‘Hell’?:
In June 2025, the Supreme Court cleared the administration to send illegal aliens to agreeable safe third countries other than their own. Since then, the administration has collected formal agreements with 15 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean with more coming.
The administration and all those who support its deportation goals have facts in pocket to smoke the patently false binary choice being peddled that it can either heartlessly send Venezuelans straight to “hell” or let them remain illegally in the U.S.
Beyond its opportunity to beat down a fake narrative, the administration possesses the moral and legal authority—and a rich buffet of options it probably didn’t realize it had—to actually speed up this large new deportation project.
~~~
The four women on the Supreme court ruled in favor of birthright citizenship . . .
Helen Andrews wrote in The Great Feminization | Compact
“Wokeness is not a new ideology, an outgrowth of Marxism, or a result of post-Obama disillusionment. It is simply feminine patterns of behavior applied to institutions where women were few in number until recently . . .
Everything you think of as wokeness involves prioritizing the feminine over the masculine: empathy over rationality, safety over risk, cohesion over competition . . .
“The threat posed by wokeness can be large or small depending on the industry . . . The field that frightens me most is the law. All of us depend on a functioning legal system, and, to be blunt, the rule of law will not survive the legal profession becoming majority female. The rule of law is not just about writing rules down. It means following them even when they yield an outcome that tugs at your heartstrings or runs contrary to your gut sense of which party is more sympathetic.
“The problem is not that women are less talented than men or even that female modes of interaction are inferior in any objective sense. The problem is that female modes of interaction are not well suited to accomplishing the goals of many major institutions.” (Emphasis mine.)
Here’s a woman with discernment:
American Thinker Takeaways, July 6, 2026
~~~
Guiding the left is the fear that if permitted to go unchecked, the fact that America is indeed a Christian nation as designed would not be questioned. And so the left continues its enduring war on faith by trying to make it so that you’re an outcast simply for trying to insert the Judeo-Christian God into the conversation. Divide and conquer.
And so we have a battle today where a minority would have you believe that America is not a Christian nation, that if it can’t defeat Christianity through persuasion, it will do so by generating sheer numbers of imported people from other countries who practice other religions; by destroying anyone who would dare to mention their Christian faith in public life; and by shunning anyone who would openly and unapologetically profess his or her faith in Hollywood, the entertainment industry, or in the news media; and by marginalizing Christian faith in academia and in the schools. (Emphasis mine.)
On America 250: A Prayer for Our Country – PJ Media
~~~
The most damaging decision of the term, however, was Trump v. Barbara. In a ruling that will stand as a stain on the Court’s legacy, Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Barrett joined the liberal justices to effectively preserve near-blanket birthright citizenship. This was a profound misreading of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause. The authors of that Amendment, including Senator Lyman Trumbull of Illinois — a close friend and ally of Abraham Lincoln — made clear on the floor of the Senate that the clause was intended to secure citizenship for the children of emancipated slaves, not to create a magnet for illegal immigration or confer citizenship on the children of foreign nationals who owe no allegiance to the United States.
Not only the 14th Amendment, but the Civil Rights Act of 1866, passed by the same Congress, expressly limited citizenship to those “not subject to any foreign power.” That phrase, alone, signaled congressional intent to end blanket birthright citizenship. (Emphasis mine.)
The 2026 Supreme Court — a ‘C Minus’ at Best – American Thinker
Trump v. Barbara: Suicide by Cop-Out – American Thinker
~~~
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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
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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
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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
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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