In a preview of Sunday’s 60 Minutes interview with former White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, CBS released a segment in which Bannon is asked a question by Charlie Rose that no one in the media ever asks pro-gay marriage, pro-abortion Democrats.
Bannon was asked to reconcile his Catholic faith with those political beliefs in opposition to the church. In this case, it was about the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) strident and, as I wrote Wednesday, hypocritical support of DACA.
Transcript courtesy of CBS News:
Rose: Can I remind you, a good Catholic, that Cardinal [Timothy] Dolan is opposed to what’s happened with DACA? Cardinal Dolan.
Bannon: The Catholic Church has been terrible about this. … The bishops have been terrible about this … Because [they’re] unable to really come to grips with the problems in the church, they need illegal aliens, they need illegal aliens to fill the churches. … They have – they have an economic interest. They have an economic interest in unlimited immigration, unlimited illegal immigration.
Rose: Boy, that’s a tough thing to say about your church.
Bannon: As much as I respect Cardinal Dolan and the bishops on doctrine, this is not doctrine.
In response, the UCSSB quickly released a statement that is even more absurd than the original one:
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As you can see, a whole lot of scripture is quoted, but there is absolutely nothing quoted about how Jesus said it was okay to burden others with your personal religious and political beliefs, which is exactly what the legalizing of illegal immigration does. In other words…
Sorry, but I fail to see the Christian or Catholic compassion here.
It is very easy to call for the legalizing of 800,000 or two million or 11 million or 25 million illegal immigrants when you will only personally benefit from these policies, both through fuller pews and the love of the mainstream media. The problem with this thinking is that it shows ZERO compassion for the victims of this sort of immigration policy — you know, those who lose their jobs to illegals, those whose wages are lowered by a flood of cheap labor, those whose children cannot get a decent education due to classrooms burdened with illegal children who cannot speak English. Good heavens, where to begin with the wave of crime these illegals have brought with them?
And do you want to know who disproportionately suffers the negative and sometime tragic consequences of all this Catholic compassion?
The poor.
The working poor.
And this includes legal immigrants trying to get their lives jump-started.
The already-disenfranchised in America, the struggling working class, those who follow the rules, they are the ones disproportionately damaged by legalizing and incentivizing illegal immigration. And isn’t it interesting how the advocates of these policies always seem to be above it all, above the consequences of their own advocacy – how they never seem to be in the demographic that takes it in the neck because a bunch of do-gooders are doing good at someone else’s expense.
Did Jesus not tell us to do unto others as you would have them do unto you?
Please explain to me, then, exactly who would want the very real world consequences of legalizing illegal immigration “done to them,” and why are my Catholic leaders (I am a practicing Catholic) doing this “to others?”
I am all in favor of treating illegal immigrants with compassion and mercy. I am all in favor of feeding those who are hungry, clothing those who are naked, offering medical help to those who are sick or injured. But as a good Catholic and Christian who cares about the poor, I am most certainly not in favor of using whatever influence I have on public opinion to virtue-signal at the expense of my neighbor’s job, wages, education, or safety.
It simply is not compassion on your part when others pay the price for this so-called compassion.
Why not do both? Why not show mercy for the migrant without hurting an innocent person? Because it is certainly within the teachings of Jesus to welcome, feed, clothe, and show compassion to those as we repatriate them back into their own country.
I’m sorry, but calling for anything else is selfish, is vain, is screwing your neighbor, and is a violation of Christ’s teachings.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
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