republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
As American students at all grade levels fall further and further behind in all academic areas, the 1.7 million-member union is telling its teachers that they must focus not on helping their students learn the basic subject matter and academic skills that will enable them to be productive, prosperous, self-supporting citizens, but that teachers must instead become non-stop agitators for “racial justice” and fulltime race psychologists/sociologists — both inside and outside the classroom.The Fall 2019 issue of the AFT journal American Educator is devoted to “Confronting Bias in Schools: Classroom Conversations on Race , Ethnicity, and Identity.” However, a more accurate title might have been “Compounding Bias in Schools,” or “Enflaming Racial Tensions and Hatred in Schools.”“The President Is Leading a Homegrown Hate Movement”AFT President Randi Weingarten leads off the issue with an attack on President Donald Trump, declaring, “The president is leading a homegrown hate movement.” In her “Where We Stand” column, Weingarten proclaims that “President Trump has trampled rights enshrined in the Constitution and waged a war on truth. He has fanned biases that aim to dehumanize ‘the other’ and that erode our democracy. He is enamored of despots, and distances our allies…. We can’t ignore Trump’s bigotry and cruelty, or the fact that his erratic behavior is intended to create chaos and confusion.”This anti-Trump tirade follows only a few sentences after Weingarten had asserted that teachers “are called on to be guardians of democracy and cultivators of decency.” She also says teachers must “help young people value members of other groups,” and classrooms must be places “where disagreements are over ideas, not people, and dissenting views are respectfully heard, not shouted down.” But Weingarten’s decency, civility, and tolerance apparently does not extend to the tens of millions of deplorables who voted for Donald Trump, and the tens of millions more that disapprove of the union’s strident propaganda concerning LGBTQ programming, gun control, global warming, and other radical agenda items. Neither, obviously, does her lecturing on civility and inclusivity apply to the legions of militant AFT cadres that participate in riotous protests, lead their students in profanity-strewn "I Hate Trump!" chants, and engage in disruptive walkouts and school strikes.SPLC’s Non-stop Hate Baiting In addition to Weingarten’s opening salvo, a strong clue as to where the AFT journal was headed (and where it was coming from) was provided by American Educator’s first article in the issue entitled “Assessing — and Interrupting — Intolerance at School,” by Maureen Costello and Coshandra Dillard. So, who are these two authors that are given top billing? Costello is a senior staffer at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the viciously biased organization that regularly defames and demonizes pro-life, pro-family, pro-morality, Christian, patriotic individuals and organizations. In addition, Costello is director of the SPLC’s Teaching Tolerance program, the curriculum that is inculcating students in thousands of schools in political correctness and Marxist socio-political dogma. As The New American pointed out in 2011, in an extensive expose’ ("Protecting Rights: Loyal Americans Targeted by the SPLC"), among the many atrocious materials presented in the group’s Teaching Tolerance program is an adoring promotion of unrepentant communist terrorist Bill Ayers, a leader in the 1960s and '70s of the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) campus rioters and the bombers/murderers of the Weather Underground. Coshandra Dillard, Costello’s coauthor for the AFT journal piece, is a staff writer for Teaching Tolerance.The SPLC duo begin their race rant this way: “Three years ago — during and immediately after the presidential campaign — we documented a surge of incidents involving racial slurs and symbols, bigotry, and the harassment of minority children in the nation’s schools. We called this phenomenon the ‘Trump Effect,’ because it appeared that children were emulating the racist, xenophobic, and coarse language Donald Trump was using on the campaign trail.” A major problem for the SPLC writers is that the actual documentation shows that hundreds (literally) of the alleged crimes in the “surge of incidents” to which they refer have been, in fact, hoaxes — fake “hate crimes.” But that hasn’t stopped the “progressive” politicians, the liberal-left media, or the Southern Poverty Law Center from continuing to ride the hate crimes bandwagon. Even after high-profile, media-promoted incidents have been repeatedly, thoroughly exposed and discredited as total fabrications — with the notorious cases of Jessie Smollett and Nick Sandmann-Nathan Phillips as prime examples — the professional race baiters and their Fake News Media allies have refused to drop their hate-hoax promotions. The folks at SPLC’s Teaching Tolerance have produced multiple stories parlaying the fake news that it was 16-year-old, pro-life student Nick Sandmann who was the aggressor, the offender, in the now infamous confrontation with “Native elder” Nathan Phillips. Videotape and witnesses have completely shredded that false narrative, showing that it was Phillips who was the instigator of the event. But the SPLC race agitators march on, continuing to insist that American society is, was, and ever has been thoroughly, irredeemably racist.“Hate crimes are rising…” Costello and Dillard insist, “And the racism, bigotry, and misogyny of a virulent white nationalist movement are being parroted by mainstream political and media figures.” “Whether looking at news media reports or reading educator stories, it’s clear that hate and bias are national, not regional, issues,” they darkly warn.It’s the same America-is-racist mantra that the SPLC has continuously played like a broken record for years. It has served them well, pulling in hundreds of millions of dollars to their slush funds and political war chest, including more than $121 million the “poverty” organization has parked in offshore tax havens. Stirring up hate, turmoil, and strife has paid the SPLC (and the AFT) huge dividends — financially and politically.Communist “Historian” Howard Zinn — in Thousands of ClassroomsAdam Sanchez contributes an article to the Fall 2019 American Educator entitled “Teaching the Complex History of Abolition and the Civil War.” Abolition and the Civil War are indeed complex subjects, but there is little reason to hope that Sanchez will handle the topic in a reasonable, fairhanded manner devoid of left-wing dogma and anti-American propaganda. Why do we say that? Among other things, Sanchez, a high-school history teacher in Philadelphia, is an acolyte of communist historian Howard Zinn, and he quotes Zinn extensively in his article. Moreover, he is an activist at the Zinn Education Project, a collective of Marxist educators/propagandists that popularizes Zinn’s pro-communist screed A People’s History of the United States. According to Sanchez, he and his comrades at the Zinn Education Project “have prepared the 10 lessons and materials in a new resource for educators, Teaching a People’s History of Abolition and the Civil War from which this article is excerpted.”A word about the late Professor Zinn is in order here, since many readers will be unacquainted with his “illustrious” career and the disturbing significance of his prominent promotion in a major education publication. Like Alger Hiss, the Soviet spy and top-level agent-of-influence for mass-murder Joseph Stalin, Dr. Zinn adamantly, publicly denied being a member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). But, like Hiss and hundreds of other prominent communists, he was lying. Unfortunately for the Zinnophiles, their lying hero was exposed with the 2010 release of his FBI file in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from Accuracy in Academia’s Cliff Kinkaid. The entire 423-page file is available here (Part 1) and here (Parts 2 and 3).In his massive study of the pro-communist Hollywood celebrities, intellectuals, politicians, and journalists during the Vietnam War period, Dr. Roger Canfield gives considerable coverage to the treasonous activities of Professor Zinn. Like Jane Fonda, Bill Ayers, Tom Hayden, David Dellinger, and others, Zinn was not as much “anti-war” as he was “anti-American.” These “peaceniks” were actually agents for the Hanoi Lobby, working closely with the communist regimes in Soviet Russia, China, and North Vietnam.In his extensively documented book Comrades in Arms: How the Ameri-Cong Won the Vietnam War Against the Common Enemy — America, Dr. Canfield mines the FBI files on Zinn, as well as vast archives of leftist and communist literature. Zinn was no mere liberal dupe, as were many of the other radical gadflies that traipsed off to Hanoi, Beijing, Moscow, Budapest, Havana, and other enemy capitols during the Vietnam War. Zinn was a ardent, hardened, enemy agent who did vast damage to America. And his legions of devotees in schools and colleges across our nation continue his toxic legacy. Zinn taught his Marxist-Leninist version of history at Boston University for a quarter of a century while also slavishly serving mass-murdering communist dictators.Howard Zinn not only traveled about the United States, Europe, and Asia denouncing the United States, praising the communist Vietcong, and stirring up campus turmoil, he actually went to Hanoi to provide treasonous aid to the enemy during wartime. For one of his most perfidious actions, he was selected by Hanoi, along with Father Daniel Berrigan, the radical Catholic priest, to perform special propaganda service concerning America’s POWs.Dr. Canfield writes:On February 16, 1968 Berrigan and Zinn met [communist North Vietnam’s] Premier Pham Van Dong at his French villa and garden behind armored doors. Berrigan saw in the “face of this man…of whom complexity dwells … life and death … great intelligence, and yet also great reserves of compassion.” (Seven years later Dong’s mother saw no such compassion and fled her son’s invasion.)According to Berrigan’s notes, Dong said, in part, “Your visit is of some importance…. We ask … that you clarify the meaning of war for your fellow Americans.” Dong said, “public opinion in your country is of the essence.” Further “we have a common front. We are in combat here, and you there.” Comrades in arms, they were on the same side.The premier made clear that the war in Vietnam and in the United States were one and the same. “We must continue to coordinate our efforts.... We will be in touch with representatives of your movement … (in) future meetings ... here or in another place, such as Bratislava [in then-communist Czechoslovakia]."Additional articles in the Fall 2019 American Educator include “Developing Inclusive Youth How to Reduce Social Exclusion and Foster Equality and Equity in Childhood,” by Professor Melanie Killen; “Race to Improve Teacher Education Building Awareness for Instructional Practice,” by Professor H. Richard Milner IV; “Engaging in Meaningful Conversations: The Need to Foster Ethnic-Racial Identity in School,” by Professors Deborah Rivas-Drake and Adriana J. UmaƱa-Taylor; “Responding to Anti-Muslim Bias a Q&A with Debbie Almontaser”; “AFT Resolution Opposition to Anti-Muslim Bigotry, Discrimination, and Violence”; “School Integration: How It Can Promote Social Cohesion and Combat Racism,” by Richard D. Kahlenberg, Halley Potter, and Kimberly Quick, all senior activists at the Century Foundation; “Demystifying the 'Safe Space’: How to Lead Meaningful Race Conversations in the Classroom,” by Matthew R. Kay.Unfortunately, the woke ideology that saturates this issue of American Educator is standard fare for the journal. The AFT, like its competitor, the National Education Association, never misses an opportunity to steep its members in political correctness and to turn our nation’s classrooms into ever more radical indoctrination chambers. Which is a major reason why, if we intend to save our children from the statist brainwashers, we must “Get Them Out (of Public Schools)!”, as Professor Duke Pesta and Alex Newman recently explained, in our special report Rescuing Our Children.Related articles:
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
There is nothing wrong with students learning about Islam in school, if what they’re taught is accurate. But it isn’t. Because of the overpowering influence of the multiculturalist ethos and fears of charges of “Islamophobia” and “racism,” public school materials on Islam and other religions are for the most part heavily biased, with scarcely a critical word about Islam, Muhammad depicted as a cross between Gandhi and Sheriff Andy Taylor, no mention of jihad or dhimmitude, and harsh criticism of Christianity.“TMLC Uncovers Tax-Payer Funded Islamic Propaganda Forced On Teachers,” Thomas More Law Center, August 22, 2019 (thanks to R.):ANN ARBOR, MI – The Thomas More Law Center (TMLC), a national nonprofit public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, has uncovered evidence of a well-orchestrated Islamic propaganda campaign aimed at teachers in school systems throughout Michigan and several other states.Concerned about a two-day mandatory teacher-training seminar on Islam conducted by a Muslim consultant hired by Michigan’s Novi Community Schools District, TMLC filed a Freedom of Information Act request for documents related to the workshop.Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Law Center, commented on the results of their investigation, “We found that the teachers were subjected to two days of Islamic propaganda, where Islam was glorified, Christianity disparaged, and America bashed—all funded by Novi taxpayers.”Moreover, during the past five years the school district has presented no teacher-training seminars focusing on Christianity, Judaism or any other religion – only Islam.The hired Muslim consultant was Huda Essa, a resident of the Dearborn area and of Arab descent. She appeared before the Novi teachers in a hijab, the Muslim headscarf, billing herself as an expert in “cultural competency” and “culturally responsive teaching.”Most disappointing was the fact that of the more than 400 teachers attending the workshop, not one teacher challenged Essa’s denigration of Christianity or attacks on America.TMLC inspected dozens of internal school documents, including audio recordings of Essa’s presentation.The information on Islam she provided to Novi teachers was riddled with falsehoods and errors of omission that were clearly meant to deceive.Essa provided no truthful information on Sharia law and jihad, two of the most important aspects of Islam. All references to terrorism were dismissed as having nothing to do with Islam. White Christian males, she suggested, are more dangerous than Islamic radicals.Essa is the face behind Culture Links LLC, a Michigan-based consultancy. She describes herself on the Culture Links website as an advocate of social justice who encourages children to “take pride in their many identities.”But, as TMLC discovered from the Novi documents, the one identity Essa does not celebrate is that of patriotic Americans who believe in our nation’s exceptionalism.And her message extends far beyond Novi.Essa’s client list reveals she has been spreading her “trash America first” philosophy to colleges, universities, schools and professional educator associations throughout Michigan, California, Georgia, Texas, Florida and beyond. In Michigan alone her website lists nine school districts as clients – Oakland County Schools, Ann Arbor Schools, L’Anse Creuse Public Schools, Plymouth-Canton Community Schools, Roseville Community Schools, Farmington Public Schools, Dearborn Public Schools, Birmingham Public Schools and Melvindale Public Schools.Under the banner of promoting diversity, inclusion and a multicultural approach to education, Essa sets about comparing Islam to Christianity, calling them “mostly similar.” The one big difference, she claims, is that Islam is the world’s “only purely monotheistic religion.”Islam’s holy book, the Koran, came straight from Allah to the prophet Muhammad and, unlike the Jewish and Christian scriptures, has never been altered or changed, she told the Novi teachers. Significantly, the Koran commands Muslims to “Fight and kill the disbelievers wherever you find them, take them captive, harass them, lie in wait and ambush them using every stratagem of war.” (Koran 9:5)Her message was clear: The Koran is superior to the Bible. But she did not address the fact that it calls for the extermination of Christian and Jews.While quick to indict America as guilty of “cultural genocide,” Essa was silent on the 1400 years of actual genocides, also known as jihads, in which Muslims wiped out Jewish tribes on the Arabian Peninsula, and slaughtered millions of Christians throughout the Middle East, North Africa and the European Continent. Referring to Islam, Winston Churchill wrote, “No stronger retrograde force exists in the world.”Novi’s Islamic teacher-training is just the latest example of professional Islamic indoctrinators infiltrating U.S. public schools even as Christianity has been forced out of the classroom.“This type of infiltration amounts to an Islamic Trojan horse within our public-school systems,” Thompson said. “No other religion gets this kind of special treatment in our schools.”Only action by patriotic American parents will put a stop to the indoctrination of teachers and students. They must attend school board meetings and call their board’s attention to the existence of unconstitutional Islamic propaganda whenever they find evidence of it in their children’s schools. And when their board is unresponsive, they must be willing to take legal action to stop it whenever the law permits.TMLC has several active cases involving public schools bending over backwards to promote Islam while trashing Christianity.In New Jersey, seventh-grade students at Chatham Middle School were taught “Islam is the true faith,” required to learn the Shahada, or Muslim creed, and forced to watch videos that sought to convert them.TMLC is representing another student at La Plata High School in Maryland, where pupils in world-history classes were taught that “Most Muslims’ faith is stronger than the average Christian” and “Islam at heart is a peaceful religion.”Jihad, meanwhile, was introduced to La Plata students as a “personal” spiritual struggle, having nothing to do with using violence to spread the faith. And, like in New Jersey, the Maryland students were forced to learn the Five Pillars of Islam and memorize the Shahada.A SERIES OF DECEPTIONSEssa spent a great deal of time in her Novi presentation talking about Muslim women, whom she described as victims of Islamophobia on the part of bigoted Americans.She said her own mother’s decision to wear the hijab was met with “rage” from random Americans. Other hijab-wearing Muslim women have been spat upon, had hot liquids poured on them, been beaten and even killed because they wear the hijab, Essa said, without giving details of when or where these atrocities supposedly occurred.Essa presented no statistics on hate crimes to back up her claims. FBI crime stats show that anti-Muslim attacks are relatively rare in America and actually fell by 17 percent in 2017. Anti-Jewish hate crimes that year out-numbered anti-Muslim offenses by nearly four to one.Globally, Christians are the most persecuted of all religious groups, according to the watchdog Open Doors. Of the top-ten most dangerous countries to be a Christian, all but two of them are Muslim-majority nations, according to Open Doors’ 2019 World Watch List.But Essa’s attempts to con Novi teachers into accepting her anti-American, pro-Islamic worldview didn’t stop with the idea that Muslims are the most persecuted and victimized people.She said any poor treatment of women in Islamic countries should be attributed to “cultural” differences, not the religion of Islam.She failed to mention that Muhammad, Islam’s prophet, is reported to have said that the majority of hell would be populated by women (hadith by Sahih Bukhari Vol. 1:28, 301, Vol. 2:161, Vol. 7:124-126). Also absent from her presentation was the Koranic instruction for husbands to beat a disobedient wife (Sura 4:34).Exercising the art of deception, Essa said Muslims love Jesus and refer to him as “messiah.”But the word “messiah” has a different meaning for Muslims than for Christians. When Christians speak of Jesus their Messiah, they are referring to God’s “anointed One,” who has the power to forgive sin and grant salvation.Muslims confer no such divine authority to their Jesus. Under Islam Jesus was only a man, a lower prophet under Muhammad, not the Son of God, and he did not die on a cross or rise from the dead as documented in the gospels.Essa hammered Novi teachers with the Islamic teaching that the Jewish and Christian scriptures are not to be trusted. Although once pure, they were gradually “corrupted” by unscrupulous men. Only the Koran contains the final, “pure” words of God, she said.Essa also schooled teachers in the proper use of the phrase “Allahu Akbar!” or “Allah is greatest!” While this is widely known as battle-cry of Muslim terrorists, Essa said it’s really just a refrain that Muslims use to convey feelings of happiness, sadness, anger, or thankfulness while praising Allah.Essa said the word “Islam” is an offshoot of the Arabic term “Salaam,” which means peace. This is a common ploy used by Muslim apologists to deceive uninformed Westerners.“Islam” is more accurately translated as “submission” and good Muslims know they must submit to Allah and his Sharia (Islamic law), above all other systems of law.Essa noted Islam is the world’s fastest-growing religion without mentioning that Muslims are forbidden from leaving the faith. Considered apostates, those leaving the faith are subject to severe punishment, up to and including death. And forced conversions have been a well-documented fact of history.The Middle East and North Africa, once overwhelmingly Christian, were Islamized by a series of jihads starting with Muhammad, his successor caliphs and later by the Ottoman Turks.She completely ignored the jihadi terrorist attacks conducted on U.S. soil: The 9/11 attack that murdered nearly 3,000 people, the Fort Hood massacre of 12 U.S. soldiers, the Pulse Nightclub attack that killed 49 Americans in Orlando, the San Bernardino attack that killed 14 at a Christmas party, the Chattanooga shooting that killed five at a Navy recruitment and reserve center, the Boston Marathon bombing that killed three and left hundreds wounded, and the Chelsea, New York, pipe-bombing that injured 30 innocent Americans. Not to mention the countless terror attacks that have been foiled by the FBI.Here are some other facts uncovered by TMLC’s Freedom of Information Act requests:
- Novi school district has no guidelines for the selection of presenters for teacher-training events.
- The school district did not fully vet Huda Essa before selecting her as a presenter and providing her with data about the school district and its students.
- Essa was given access to data from student and teacher surveys.
- The school district said it had no records that would indicate it ever conducted a factual analysis of Essa’s presentation.
- The school district signed a contract on August 2, 2017, agreeing to pay Essa $5,000 for her two-day seminar on August 28 and 29, 2017.
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
From FreedomProject Media:Citing indoctrination and sexualization of children in government schools, along with other concerns, a number of top conservative and Christian voices across America have urged parents to remove their kids from public schools in recent days.Among the leaders who have joined the growing nationwide chorus were talk-radio king Rush Limbaugh, evangelist Franklin Graham, Christian leader David Lane, and Catholic talk-show host Mother Miriam. And this may be just the start.Speaking on his radio show, which estimates suggest is heard by over 15 million Americans, Limbaugh blamed government education for the sorry state of affairs in America. And for the first time ever, he brazenly urged parents to pull their children out and homeschool them.“I think it’s becoming very apparent to Millennial parents, parents of Millennial kids,” Limbaugh said. “Their kids are struggling in the wretched, horrible circumstances of the public school system.”“One of the answers to this mess (sobbing) 'What’s happening to our children?' is homeschooling,” he added. “It’s not just conservatives and Christian-oriented people who are choosing to pull children out of public schools.”Speaking on Fox's Todd Starnes Radio Show, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse chief Franklin Graham also urged parents to get their children out. In a conversation about New Jersey's new law mandating LGBT lessons to school children, Graham said the time had come.Starnes asked Graham what advice he would give Christian moms and dads: “I mean do they pull their kids out of public school or do they homeschool, private school?” the Fox host asked. “What should they do?”“Oh, absolutely,” Graham replied without hesitation, breaking new ground. “I’d pull them out of public school and put them in private school.”Next, Mother Miriam said she did not know “of anything more urgent” than getting children out of public schools and into homeschool programs with God at the center of them.“It has to do with you being a proper mom and dad to your children,” she explained on her show. “You, no matter what the situation is, are responsible for the growth of your children in faith.”“The public schools,” she continued. “Such evil has penetrated those schools.” Quoting another expert, she said the system was “designed to turn the hearts and minds of the children away from God.”Finally, writing in Charisma News, David Lane with the American Renewal Project noted that a crucial part of the ongoing spiritual battle would be to develop a plan “— God’s plan — to free Christian children from public education.”The growing calls for a national exodus from the public school system got a major boost when James Dobson — among the nation's most influential evangelical leaders — featured Lt. Col. E. Ray Moore (Ret.) of Exodus Mandate on his radio show in 2017, for two full days.It is past time for conservative and Christian leaders to warn Americans about the existential threat government indoctrination and dumbing down poses not just to their children — but also to their nation and their freedom. Better late than never, though!To get copies of The New American magazine's ground-breaking Special Report “Rescuing Our Children” exposing government schools and urging parents to get their children out, click here.Alex Newman and Dr. Duke Pesta were among the lead contributors.EXCERPT:
______________________________________________________________
SEE ALSO:
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2019/08/michigan-california-georgia-texas-florida-nj-public-schools-islam-glorified-christianity-vilified-us-bashed
"There is nothing wrong with students learning about Islam in school, if what they’re taught is accurate. But it isn’t. Because of the overpowering influence of the multiculturalist ethos and fears of charges of “Islamophobia” and “racism,” public school materials on Islam and other religions are for the most part heavily biased, with scarcely a critical word about Islam, Muhammad depicted as a cross between Gandhi and Sheriff Andy Taylor, no mention of jihad or dhimmitude, and harsh criticism of Christianity."
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Karen Swallow Prior is a radical animal rights activist who believes animals go to Heaven because naming them gives them personhood, says she’s more upset over animal abuse than abortion, says abortion isn’t murder and calling it such is unchristlike, promoted erotic gay literature, and has attended gay fundraisers and uses gay-affirming language. She calls herself a feminist and attacks complementarianism as unbiblical.…I don’t know how much longer I have to continue defending my humanity. I don’t know how much more I have to clarify that I’m more than just a statistic, whether that’s used positively or negatively. I don’t know how much more I have to continue telling others that I am American.
Because I am.
I am American when I teach students about Hawthorne’s short stories, or brag about how much the English language has changed over its life, from old to middle to modern. I am American when I donate money to just causes or donate blood two or three times a year. I was American when I purchased my first car on July 4, 2013, and when I bought a newer model exactly three years later.Sadly, Yupanqui doesn’t know what it means to be an American. He thinks teaching English literature, donating blood or spending money here makes someone an American. In fact, three things make a nation; laws, borders and language. Without laws, borders and a common language there is no such thing as a nation-state. Yupanqui seems to have a grasp of our common language, but he is in violation of both our laws and borders. He has not taken a loyalty oath to the United States Constitution. He has not taken a test on the United States Constitution, as is required of immigrants who apply for Citizenship legally. He continues:
I have always been American, but it was Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) that made it official, however temporary.Actually, not. Yupanqui has not always been an American, is not an American now and never has been. I mean that in the most literal of ways. In no meaningful, legal, constitutional, or real way is he an American; he is a foreign national living illegally in America. There is a difference between the two. Furthermore, DACA made nothing – absolutely nothing – official. It didn’t make a single person a Citizen. It simply meant that a United States President, who took an oath to uphold the Constitution, chose to use his power of the Justice Department to order them to make enforcing U.S. law when it comes to childhood arrivals the last departmental priority. It made literally nothing official, and that’s the problem.
Furthermore, as a Christian, I cannot ignore my neighbor Bruno — nor his fellow DACA recipients. Bruno is not only my former student; he is my brother in Christ, one who has served at my own church. Protecting Dreamers aligns with what the Bible tells us: All immigrants are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27) and deserve to be treated with dignity. Whatever policies we think best to advocate, Christians must not fail in this.Of course, we Christians don’t want to ignore “Bruno,” nor do we want to ignore the sin of violating a nation’s laws and borders. While Bruno may be a “brother in Christ” (we strongly question whether or not Swallow Prior is a rightful judge of such things, her own Christianity being greatly suspect), there is absolutely no reason why being made in the image of God (which can be said of every criminal on the planet) means that we have to provide a path to Citizenship for people who are here against our nations’ legal provisions.
Bruno has shared with me that his experiences of being undocumented, of hearing others (including fellow Christians) speak degradingly and derisively of “illegals,” has made him wonder why he would be considered an enemy rather than a brother in the faith. He has wondered why those with whom he worshipped, prayed and broke bread would treat the foreigners in their land so differently than the Bible commands.Ms. Swallow Prior would be better off taking time to explain to Bruno that he doesn’t have a right to be in a country illegally, that the sin of his parents (yes, it is “sin”) has put him in the predicament where he now is, and that he is not entitled to Citizenship in the United States of America. Furthermore, if Ms. Swallow Prior was an expert in the Bible rather than in fiction, she might be able to explain that in the Bible, invaders in the land of Israel would be met with deadly force, and that criminal invaders are different than innocent sojourners traveling through. She might also – if she wasn’t a Marxist Manchurian candidate using Jesus as a way to inject the church with rabid feminism, animal liberation theology and general theological ugliness – have explained to her student some basic Biblical texts on the rule of law and role of government, like Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2.