In fact, I have been stopped by Immigration many times. That is what Immigration does. It makes sure you should come into our country. They stop me every time to check my Passport, ask what I did while away, who I met with and what I am bringing into the country.
I was detained when I entered Iraq to film our story of Abraham. It took two hours of questions and interrogation before we got in. Even then for two weeks we were never left without an escort and checked everywhere we went.
We were stopped in Rome for two hours until they vetted and cleared us, especially with all our equipment. I was “detained” in Istanbul Turkey, in Cairo Egypt and Dubai. In London we were detained because we didn’t have “an address.”
I was forbidden entry to Lebanon and Syria simply because I had an Israeli stamp in my passport. I could not enter until later when I acquired a new passport. Several times Israel stopped to question us at length because we had a Lebanese stamp in our US Passports.
My relatives all came over from Europe but many people on the same boats were sent back because of diseases, criminal backgrounds or for many other reasons.And where were the hysterical media and Leftists in 2011 when Obama ordered that that no refugees from Iraq were allowed into the US?Generous and welcoming America had to be smart and that meant exclusive. Obama also sent people back who came from Ebola-affected countries.
Was our country wrong, immoral or un-Christlike to restrict people from countries with the Ebola Virus a few years back? No, of course not.
Then comes the question: “Is it Christian to do that?” What does that have to do with anything? Is it Christlike for a man to cut another man open with a knife? Yes, if he is a doctor removing cancer.
People seem unaware of St. Paul’s exhortation about the role of government – and it is not to be walking around hugging everyone. Paul writes,
Romans 13:1–7 “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore he who resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of him who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain; he is the servant of God to execute his wrath on the wrongdoer.”
For those who make no exceptions for Muslims, go visit Paris or Sweden or large areas of Germany and Holland. If you haven’t heard about what is goings on there then educate yourselves. Muslims in general do not assimilate into society. Islam is more a political ideology than it is a religion. This is where many people err. Islam drives toward a theocracy. It does not accept democracy. It’s ultimate goal is to have all people and countries under Sharia Law in obedience to Allah.
Many of the Muslims coming here are doing so with the very purpose of Islamizing the United States! All of them? No. And neither am I saying all should be kept out, but the ones who don’t want to respect us and our way of life should be kept out. Not just Muslims but anyone who does not respect our country and our form of government.
Wake up America! I am glad when Immigration vets people (even me) and I applaud Trump for being the first in a long time with the hutzpah and political incorrectness to do something about it.
Here are three other excellent resources: Bobby Jindal interview and Crisis Magazine article. Also Prepare for the Skyline of the Future which I wrote about how Islam can change a country over time.
Fr. George Rutler’s article On Immigration short, precise and correct!
(Pictures below: Muslims protesting in England and maybe someday in your hometown.)
This Post Has 9 Comments
I agree with you 100%, Steve. We must use common sense. By trying to be politically correct, areas in Europe have been taken over and are now being dominated by the Muslims and their beliefs. They do Not assimilate. They want us to conform to them. And, unlike many other groups who try to enter this country, this group has a large faction that does truly want us to CONVERT or be KILLED. People need to wake up to that fact.
Steve, I have travelled with you to Israel and I know that you agree with our Catholic (Christian) values. I trust your judgement.
Jesus said many times, "Fear not!" or "Be not afraid!" The faith of 90++% of the Christians I know in America will never conform. Ever immigrant group, at first, needs to relate to their own. After they are secure, they gradually integrate in US society. Let us be not afraid, rather love inclusively as Jesus did.
STEVE RAY HERE: Rich, your quotation about “fear not” is taken out of context and does not apply here. If a gang of men surround my wife and I with guns drawn, are you telling me I should not fear and should not try to extricate my self and call the police? Really? And what does “fear not” have to do with immigration? Should we “fear not” and allow people in our country with the Ebola Virus or other contagious diseases? How about you take them into your home – since you fear not.
You need to be more precise and not be driven my mere emotion. We are to be rational as well as emotional.
Any your assessment of all immigrants eventually assimilating – do you speak from experience? Like I said, go to Sweden, Germany, Holland, etc. and tell me Muslims assimilate. You sit in comfortable America with little experience of the real world.
Love does not mean an emotional fuzzy feeling. It means making proper choices for good and in this case it is for the love of neighbor and family that we need to protect our country and our loved ones. There are a lot of things we can do to love the immigrant and it does not mean just opening the doors of the US to everyone irregardless. We are the most generous country in the world and many like me financially support and help orphans, immigrants and others around the world.
We forget that so many situations like we have today stopped immigration or even worse, such as the imprisonment of Japanese citizens at WWII. We do what we need to do. Political correctness never brought back a loved one who was lost to terrorism.
Holland, Steve Ray here: Thanks for your irenic tone and genuine concern. You asked me to comment so I will. I do NOT think our country should wash it’s hands in the immigration issue. We should be careful with immigration. My ancestors were immigrants. In a democratic republic the people should “inform” the government about morals in all matters — abortion and immigration.
Regarding Muslims, this is a very interesting and new phenomenon in the US. Muslims don’t assimilate. When they are few they seem to but when they are many and their mosques and schools are built and the gather in communities they begin to assert themselves. They don’t want to live like us but to have their own laws (called Sharia). I shouldn’t even have to tell you this if you pay attention to the news and read what is happening all over Europe.
It has nothing to do with “weeping children” (as you don’t have facts you try to go for the emotion) but about a country doing what it should do. I don’t think you really read my article and if you did, you didn’t understand it.
However, I have never said to keep all Muslims out but that those who come here who don’t want to respect us or our laws should be refused entry. That goes not just for Muslims but for anyone.
Holland wrote:
Hello. First off I would like to say I enjoyed reading this post, it is a well written piece. The only issue I have seems to be double standard this piece, and pieces similar to it have regarding the preferred relationship between the church and the state. In this article, and please correct me if I'm wrong, you seem to wash your hands regarding the issues of immigrants, claiming that this is an issue that we must defer to the government on. However, that does not seem to be the case when dealing with other matters, the largest and most prominent being abortion. Now both issues deal with the sanctity and dignity of human life, be either the murder of innocence in the womb or the murder and/or death of innocence as they flee an environment I as an American thank God everyday that I have never encountered. Of course that is the ultimate twist of this piece isn't it? Muslim Refugees. The misdirection leads the reader to believe that being stopped by immigration is as normal at an airport as a delayed flight. But underneath this article is undoubtedly directed towards the banning of Muslims, refugees included, from the country. Now you know as well as I the numerous scriptural passages that rebuke abandoning our neighbors to their own unfortunate ends, regardless of a nonsensical interpretation. Objectively, Christ is very clear on how we are to treat immigrants, the needy, orphans, and widows. My convictions, placed upon me by the Holy Spirit, knows that both you and I understand this to mean Muslims as well. Their children die just like ours, their parents weep the same as we do. Do not fall victim of a fear based Christianity that refuses to sacrifice a portion of our prosperity to show love to others. But that raises the next question, which I know is the ultimate basis for our concerns and prejudices which ultimately cause us to fall short on upholding our convictions as Christians, what if they kill us? To that I say the love of Christ is worth the potential temporal consequence. Almost every man, woman, and child we help wants nothing more than we do, to live in peace. And if in loving these people the way that Christ loves them leads to an predestined unavoidable outcome such as our demise, who are we to believe that we deserve better than the founder of our faith.
We live here in Minnesota with the largest Somalian Muslim population in the USA. Most of them where brought here by Churches and by the Catholic Church. It was the charitable thing to do at the time. However we have experienced that their culture does not mix or blend with ours and never will. Unlike the Jewish people that remained separate in their personal community they respected the rights of their host countries.
Our Somalian residents have already generated a large number of Terrorist recruits, that so far have traveled back to the middle east to fight. We have had an unexplained explosion in one of the Somalian communities' buildings, that killed some of the male residence. Were they practicing bomb building or preparing for an attach in the USA? The explosion was violent, leveling the building, was not caused by Natural Gas and has yet to be explained.
We are seeing many more protests, rally's and demands for special rights. The Somalians live in their own area and have their own schools, stores and now a radio station. It will not be long before they demand to have their own laws and courts. We have elected the first Muslim to congress, Keith Ellison from Minnesota and the first Somalia woman to the Minnesota State legislature.
Today the Muslim Somalian Minnesota refugees are relatively peaceful, but when will they become combative
We must remember the formerly progressive, liberal, modern country of Lebanon that welcomed in the Palestinian Muslim refugees from Jordan in 1948. The Lebanese people gave the Palestinian Refugees jobs, homes and education. The ignorant Lebanese marched and rallied with and for the Palestinians, demanding a homeland and freedom from persecution. In less than a generation in 1975, when the refugee's children who were born in Lebanon reached 27 years, a prime fighting age for men, they waged Civil war on their hosts. The Muslims killed their Christian hosts like cancer kills the body. Today Lebanon is a third world country that no Western Christian in their right mind would select as a vacation spot. Is that the future that we welcome to American in the next 20 to 40 years. I believe it is our future since Islam is not compatible with our Western and Christian culture and never will be.
Dear Steve,
I think I understand and appreciate why you quote Paul(Romans 13:1-7) in this situation. But how do you think a Christian living under Sharia law or Nazi rule, or under a War
Lord's yoke, should interpret and put into practice this advice? I find it difficult to apply in all situations. We live in a continual trend toward secularization and market driven, atheistic resolutions in our own market places and public spheres and religious schools and businesses here in US. Our president said that for him this decision was not about religion, but for us, shouldn't it be? Isn't that what Pope Francis and many of our American bishop's are trying to tell us.?
Jesus Our Lord seems to have promised us persecution and crosses, no matter how good and Godly we act in His name. He did, by example, submit to governing authorities that condemned and crucified Him. Paul himself, as a Roman citizen, submitted to the jurisdiction of the current emperor of Rome.
How do we seem to consider the Authority of US, secular and atheistic and pluralistic as it is evolving to be, of God, but are selective in recognizing the validity of other governmental authority structures?
In Christ,
Mark
STEVE RAY HERE: Thanks for your thoughtful comments and questions. Remember that St. Paul wrote this while living under the Caesar in the Roman Empire. St. Paul was a Roman citizen and obeyed the “legitimate” laws and prayed for the Emperor. He also did not hesitate to use his status as a Roman citizen in more than one instance. Peter and John stood up to the authorities in Acts 4 and 5 and refused to obey them when civil laws violate the law of God.
I am sad to see what the Pope and bishops are saying about immigration. I posted the link to the article about this from Crisis Magazine article. Go back to my article at the bottom and read it. I think it will help answer about the Pope and bishops.
Bearing our own crosses in humble obedience to God is one thing; asking for trouble, inviting problem people into our country and asking for crosses is quite another. God bless you.
Pope Francis doesn't agree.
STEVE RAY HERE: Pope Francis DOES agree that a nation has a right and obligation to define and defend its borders. He stated that just last week.
Holland wrote: "as Christians, what if they kill us? To that I say the love of Christ is worth the potential temporal consequence. " To me this seems like suicide rather than Christ like. Christ proved he was above death and conquered it. Are we to pretend that we as Christians are to play sacrificial sheep in this instance? I believe the turning of the tables story clearly illustrates that we can stand on solid ground in defending the dignity of life and Christian/Judaeo values we fought so hard to keep. Fighting might be difficult for some but it is the right thing to do when you put it in historical context as Steve Ray has in this article. I was hoping someone else would have provided a response to that quote but I am in here months later and don't see any so I thought I would offer my two cents.
STEVE RAY HERE: Thanks Matt. Agreed!
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