President Barack Obama’s reaction to the shellacking he and his policies received from the American people in the midterm elections surprised no one in its stubborn petulance. Along with some eye rolling and clearly perfunctory statements about how he would “cooperate” with the new Republican majority, President Obama made clear that he sees himself as [...]
Speaking to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Albuquerque in 2001, George W. Bush declared that, as Mexico was a friend and neighbor, “It’s so important for us to tear down our barriers and walls that might separate Mexico from the United States.” Bush succeeded. And during his tenure, millions from Mexico exploited his magnanimity [...]
A plausible interpretation of America and the world at the moment is that the imperatives of the 21st century global marketplace are so powerful they trump anything religious and political leaders say or do. Techno-economic change does not, to be sure, trump anything and everything that nature might do. We recently had the near-miss of [...]
The immigration crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border these days is an odd one. Adherents of the party of free-enterprise, the Republicans, are opposed to the migration of free labor across the border, arguing that agents of the state should stop people and turn them away, if not submit them to government justice. Meanwhile, the party [...]
“Jesus was an illegal immigrant.” So goes what has become an oft cited refrain among those advocating amnesty for thousands of illegal immigrants in the United States. “No,” comes the retort, “The state is called by God to enforce the rule of law.” When it comes to the question of illegal immigration, Christians in the [...]
Although I am now a citizen of the United States, I was for most of my youth virulently anti-American. Back in the 1980s, I could be seen demonstrating outside U.S. airbases in England, carrying a placard demanding that the “Yanks Go Home”. At the time I knew nothing about the “Yanks” or their home. I [...]
Defining the essential attributes of being an “American” is a dangerous undertaking. Although I’m hardly a member of a marginalized minority, it wasn’t too long ago that my Irish ancestors were considered by many to be not-quite-American by virtue of their Celtic heritage (and often their Catholic faith). Faced with a nation not only comprised [...]
Christians and Catholics, in particular, often have been on the front lines of battles supporting the rights and dignity of immigrants. From the “no Irish allowed” signs so common on the streets of nineteenth century America to opposition to immigrants from Southern Europe, the arrival of newcomers to this nation has occasioned discomfort and, sadly, [...]
In Monty Python’s comic diner skit every dish came with Spam, either a little or a lot. Is America the same with ideology? Does Ideological America touch everything and corrupt everything it touches, and can it turn back? Or, in the words of President Obama’s periodic, and oftentimes unpleasant, Chicago preacher, have “the chickens come [...]
While our political and cultural elites debate about what to do with the millions of illegal immigrants in this country, it may be worthwhile to pause for a moment and ask what truly is at stake here. My sense is that the debate about illegal immigration–as well as over topics like same-sex marriage or national [...]