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Entry: Benedict on the Border--A Showdown over Church and Nation-State Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/benedict_on_the_border_a_showdown_of_church_and_nation_state#24946 Post contents: <i>It seems to me that such a statement is contrary to any policy of attrition or incentives for self-deportation.</i> Not necessarily--again, because it doesn't address policy. If the United States adopted a "reverse immigration" policy that offered immigrants a incentives to leave, would that change our Christian duties toward those who don't? <i>First, ‘immigrants’ makes no distinction between legal and illegal. </i> Nor does "stranger," and this is an important point that we Christians who favor immigration restriction and are adamantly opposed to illegal immigration have to wrestle with. <i>whether we want them here</i> The proper place to address that is in policy. <i>How does one help them “flourish” if they are unwanted? Give them enough food and money to return home? Welfare, room and board for the rest of their lives (and their children’s lives too)?</i> We can't draw either conclusion from what Pope Benedict said, or from what he didn't say. What we do know is that his statement was not directed at policy. I want to make it clear that I support, as I have for years, a complete moratorium on immigration to the United States, and that I have called in the pages of <i>Chronicles</i> even for the forcible repatriation of certain immigrant groups (in the national interest). That said, I don't find Pope Benedict's remarks at all disturbing; in fact, I find them a refreshing change from the policy-oriented remarks of the U.S. hierarchy. Sent at: 2008 07 06