The evolution of Southern Baptist ethicist Russell Moore

Unless you know what it’s like to live in these places, then you have no right to talk about the matter.

Americans don’t have the right to talk about immigration unless they live in certain places? When did that start?

Those who live near the US-Mexico border can see the effects of years of illegal immigration most clearly, as illegal immigrants flood those cities first. Eventually, when they get more comfortable living here, and as word spreads of possible jobs, they trickle up to the Northern states, but not nearly in as large numbers.

I have lived in Los Angeles my whole life. And I can tell you one thing. That if you took a map of Los Angeles county, and highlighted those cities where Hispanic people composed at least 70% of the population, you would have most of L.A. county highlighted. I know of some cities where Hispanics make up 90% of the population. The only places where they have not taken over(yet), are those few cities west of L.A. where affluent people live.

There seems to be a pattern. There is a nice, new quiet Caucasian suburb with pretty houses. Then over the years, the houses aren’t quite as new or as expensive. Latinos begin to move in. Caucasians slowly move out. Latinos take over the city.

You have said you believe:

1) no amnesty,

Yes. I have consistently said that.

2) good people disagree with that,

They do.

3) you disagree with every alternative that is offered,

No I don’t. I have said I agree with you at least twice, and I laid out my own beliefs above which are substantially identical to yours.

4) you can’t think of anything to do other than apparently the status quo, which you have yet to say anything negative about.

Again, simply not true. I have agreed with you at least twice, and I have laid out what I believe which, again, is substantially identical to you. I have simply pointed out two issues: Practicality and political feasibility.

What I have done is agree with Moore that no matter what our position, the people affected are in the image of God and we should be careful in how we speak of them. And now for the third time, I ask you, Do you disagree with that?

maybe you can understand how I ended up there

No, I can’t. I have been pretty clear on at least five occasions, two of them in explicit agreement with you.

I suspect the problem is either that you think my agreement with Moore about the fact that these people being in the image of God should affect how we talk about them means more than that; it doesn’t.

In the end, it’s fine. I would just encourage us all to read carefully and with charity. It helps to avoid misunderstandings and helps to avoid missing what has been said.

Thanks for sharing that info, Christian. Not sure how that helps the question of who is allowed to speak about immigration.

Nor does it help me know if I qualify to speak. In my city, the hispanic population is only about 11%. There used to be four families on our block, but they moved up to the previous block a couple of years ago. The girls still walk by sometimes and play with the kids. We have a Spanish speaking church in our building and we have held ESL classes before. Within about 5 miles of here, there are between 50,000 and 70,000 hispanics living (not sure of the exact number these days), and a good friend of mine pastors a bi-lingual church about two miles from here. I love Mexican food but I usually go to Mexicantown to get it. Of course, I do order in English so that might be negative (though a few times I have tried to order in Spanish). Then there’s the Arabic population up in Dearborn which is quite significant. But I am not sure if that helps either. So please let me know if I qualify to speak about this or not.

Of course, I speak in jest (although all the above facts are actuall true). As you know, you don’t have to live around the hispanic population to have a right to speak about the immigration issue.