The eCrozier

“FOLLOW ME TO MEXICO.” Those words were on the back door of a recycled school bus that gubernatorial candidate, Michael Williams, had been driving around our diocesan boundaries in recent weeks. He called it the “Deportation Bus” to show his support for a tougher stand against illegal immigration. In a press release last week, he said he wanted to “shine a light” on the “the overwhelming problem of illegal immigration.” Well, if we had an “overwhelming” problem of illegal immigration in Georgia, then that would be one thing. But we don’t. We know that because we can examine the facts (they still matter, don’t they?). For over ten years now, the number of immigrants who don’t have documentation to live in this country has been on a steady decline. That trend began long before Mr. Williams painted his bus and started his campaign. Since 2009, according to the Pew Research Center, such immigrants declined by 55,000 in Georgia alone. Even before that, they represented only about 5% of the total workforce in Georgia, doing the work that most citizens of the state weren’t willing to do. That 5% figure remains steady today during a time of low unemployment.

So, how is this an “overwhelming” problem? It isn’t. It’s simply an effort by some politicians to gin up a distraction so we’ll not notice that our elected leaders aren’t addressing the very real problems of living wages for those who are trying to support their families, lowering health care costs that can financially ruin a family, or increasing the quality of our children’s education in our public schools. Williams was just acting like a bully who picks on an easy target, one that won’t or can’t fight back. We all have seen such behavior before and it’s unconscionable.

I hope Mr. Williams was only acting like a bully and this stunt wasn’t indicative of his true character. Maybe his campaign consultants talked him into this since his polling was so low? I’d like to think that if he’d actually known the facts, then he wouldn’t have behaved this way. I don’t know what he truly believes or even if he sees himself as a disciple of Jesus. If he does, then I’d want to remind him about what Jesus had to say about poor strangers in our midst and how we’re to treat them. I’d want him to know that our discipleship isn’t just about what we affirm in creedal affirmations or in testimonies we make at a church service. It’s also about how we behave; how we treat poor and vulnerable people; and, how we care for strangers in our community.

We’re sinners, to be sure. We all fail to live as Jesus calls us to live, but when we fall short of Jesus’s calling, we shouldn’t celebrate such behavior as a virtue. Bullying and scaring immigrants isn’t virtuous. It doesn’t even remotely look or sound like Jesus. It appears to be what it is: Just a cheap and immoral attempt to appeal to the worst in us at election time (in Mr. Williams’s case, it didn’t work). I hope we don’t just dismiss this stunt and conclude that’s simply how the political game is played. I hope we desire more virtue, not less, in people seeking election to public office. Even as we all sin, we’re still called to the “love of strangers,” which is the literal translation of the Bible’s word for “hospitality”. The next time your hospitality committee (and I hope you have one) meets at church, remember what that word truly means.

+Scott