Mennonite Weekly Review

Since Arizona mandated that police question and detain people who might be undocumented immigrants, I’ve questioned myself — and my surrounding culture — for portraying human issues with a simplistic either-or mentality.

Bradley Siebert teaches English at Washburn University in Topeka, Kan.

I will grant that those arguing the economic angle on immigration have their points. States like Arizona feel a heavy burden funding services to poor people trying to gain financial footholds.

I’ll grant also that since 9/11 concern about illegal immigration has intensified, somewhat validly.

Yet it’s quite a leap to confuse the typical undocumented immigrant with a terrorist. Recent news stories indicate we have more to fear from citizens and immigrants living here legally.

But the number of citizens and immigrants we have to fear is remarkably small.

Still, when our self-preservation instincts are stimulated, and when we don’t know what or where to flee, we prepare to fight. This disturbs productive social relations. It weakens the social fabric. It represents why in various ways — not only in Arizona — we’ve willingly compromised the liberties we still claim define us.

Statistical odds can’t completely dispel our fears, but even so, fight and flight aren’t our only options. Although we retain brutish impulses, our higher potentials tend toward compassion and creativity. We fulfill ourselves in mutual nurture.

Jesus’ teachings guide us toward this fulfillment. He equated love of neighbor and devotion to God. He encouraged forgiveness and reconciliation. Attention to these principles makes it much more likely we will live together well.

But where in the United States is compassion being expressed for the souls desperate enough for a decent life to risk the hostility of desert landscapes and of the people who populate the promised land beyond? Who extends hospitality to them? Precious few, and they are far between, it seems — though the news of protest to the Arizona law is encouraging.

More often, the political debate frames the issue in strictly legal terms. This is an ironic ploy for people whose immigrant ancestors stole the land from its native inhabitants — or, in the cases of Mennonites and many other later immigrants, received stolen property.

Our times are stressful. The letters of laws get twisted under stress. Jesus experienced this in his encounters with keepers of the law. The law that does not serve human need is unjust. What is better to burden ourselves with than neighbors in need?

Bradley Siebert teaches English at Washburn University in Topeka, Kan.