For those who haven't yet read my friend Tim Isaacson's thoughtful response to my last post, here's what he said:
Have you had any conflicting thoughts about the experience? It doesn't sound like you do - which is totally fine. I'm trying to figure my inner-turmoil out and having a difficult time doing so. I mean, the up-side was huge. I'm trying to figure out what was off-putting for me. Or, rather, what was off-about-me that had me excited about some parts and wary of others. Any thoughts?
Actually, Tim, yes.
In fact, in the days following the post, I did a lot of re-thinking. I'm going to walk through my current thinking on this and see if it gets me anywhere. It's going to sound more like an argument against a current bill, but it's moving toward a response to your question.
The Georgia House's vote in support of HB 87, while invisible to most Georgians, was felt very clearly among the kids in our neighborhood. Many of them are aware of it, and it's quite possible that whoever wrote "Fuck you, white crackers" on our door today did so partly in response to that law.
When I think about the law, I realize something: It will probably never make it to the enforcement level. The federal government will probably sue Georgia, the state will get locked up in costly litigation, and even if they win, working down to enforcement will be a massive, expensive task.
Then there's the fact that the economic forecast for a state that passes and enforces such a law is pretty bleak. Labor costs go up, raising the prices on pretty much everything, businesses shut down, tourism wanes, and a huge chunk of the populace who don't pay income tax but still pay sales tax, rent, and grocery bills, will disappear quickly. The jobs that open up are difficult jobs that pay little money.
So, practically speaking, there will probably be no economic upside to this bill, although it will cost GA millions on almost every front.
If that is so (and it pretty clearly is), then why would the politicos vote for it?
The republicans voted for this to look courageous to their constituents. And this is where this law got me to re-think my interest in engaging immigration on a political level. Politics are a big, crooked machine, far detached from the individual lives they affect.
Being one who believes in the power of the kingdom, I have become wary of throwing my shoulder into the work of a system that is corrupt to begin with, that see-saws in its decisions, and that rarely, if ever, has any space for love in its workings. Government is the exact opposite of the kingdom I claim.
Then I thought about what we do. Introducing these immigrants to the host culture. Building good will. Showing love. Defying stereotypes. Feeding the hungry. Nurturing. Treating aliens with the dignity that the kingdom demands. These are all things that have a powerful impact in the lives they touch.
So it may be that one who loves in small ways will be inclined to care about the national stuff, but working with the government and its laws is murky and can be dreadfully distracting for ground-level guys like us.
Perhaps it is good to speak when issues arise, but I for one am prone to let the grand arena of politics and ideas distract me from the work I am specifically called and equipped to do: loving my neighbor.
So I still hope to be a radical, but my focus must remain squarely on the neighborhood work. On living and loving alongside immigrants. If I do speak to the political issues of the day (an aggravating, exhausting process), I must do so out of conscience and I must quickly turn back to my neighbor, lest I lose focus on love.
I have no idea if this is what bothered Tim, but it bothers me. My thinking is like a pendulum on this issue of faith, hope, love and politics.
Any of my readers want to question or add to this conversation? I could use your help here.
I think you hit the heart of it. It's the tension of loving people AND entering the cesspool out of that same love. But it's the cost that has me taking deep breaths. In my selfishness I'd rather not. But I can't say I love these kids and these families and stay silent. I'm not running for office or anything, but I can write, I can share my opinion with the politicos and I can participate in public life and issues. But I am scared to death of getting sucked in.
ReplyDeleteI think this is part of it for me. I wrote several papers in seminary about the fall of the Christian right. Their own leaders talked about abandoning Kingdom for power, and it's a lesson on the fore-front of my brain.
Yeah. I listen to the politics and I get mad and I analyze these things before I vote, but ultimately I think politics is a slow moving machine and if I don't do something NOW... then possibly nothing will be done. When the refugees have a nearly $2,000 phone bill because the US dropped them into Dallas without explaining the system.... can I trust a bureaucracy to advocate for them? Much better to personally sit with them and call the creditors and the phone company, beg for help... and then watch God work. Or... sometimes... just suffer with them as they struggle to pay.
ReplyDelete