Churches Have No Business Harboring Illegals

What happens when a criminal who seeks and receives sanctuary in a church in order to escape prosecution eventually leaves the church?

Good-bye sanctuary.

Hello real world.

The soap opera of a woman named Elvira who repeatedly snuck into our country in order to take a job and defy immigration laws is like an episode right out of “The Twilight Zone.” Somehow she managed to find herself at the doorstep of some Methodist Church in Chicago.

It was like Dorothy finally getting to meet the Wizard in the Land of Oz.

In this case the Wizard is a minister who loves to espouse a bunch of pro-illegal rhetoric whenever he’s asked the time of day. I’m not kidding interviewing this guy on the radio is an exercise in futility. I’d ask him a question about when his little tenant plans to depart her holy digs and he’d ramble on about how illegals only work the jobs that Americans refuse to work how hard illegals work blah blah blah.

In other words Elvira was the perfect vehicle for a Methodist minister who was just aching to make his mark in the pro-illegal movement.

So after a year of Elvira holed up on the second floor of this church along with her 8 year-old son it appears the time has come for Elvira to make her move. According to the minister/publicist she will leave the church sometime in September so she can make a pilgrimage to Washington D.C. and tug at America’s heartstrings by trying to get arrested in our nation’s capital.

This is where the Twilight Zone part comes into play. Somehow I just know she’ll manage to travel the 702 miles from Chicago to D.C. to stage her media event. And that doesn’t make a lick of sense other than knowing that forces will probably converge to prop up yet another poster-child for unlawful behavior.

There is not one single solitary explanation for failing to put this woman in handcuffs and taking her to jail the minute she steps out of that church.
Not one.

She’s enjoyed a year of “sanctuary” because she found some misguided church pastor who decided to claim his fifteen minutes of fame by harboring a fugitive. When she leaves the church the sanctuary is gone. Over. Done. Off she should go to lock-up.

But that’s probably not the way this will play out is it? Heck in a perfect world the pastor would be taken off to jail with her. If you or I gave aid and comfort to a fugitive from justice the police wouldn’t think twice about arresting us.

So goes the insane world of illegal immigration and the crazy people who continue to support it.

This isn’t the first time I’ve heard about a church leader standing up for the criminals who break our immigration laws. Frankly a number of ministers priests and rabbis seem to believe that it’s a noble and honorable thing to do.

And I’ve often wondered how these men and women of the cloth can sleep at night.

I’m no religious scholar or anything. I try to attend church every Sunday and pray as often as possible. I don’t claim to be as devout as I should be or have some kind of notable expertise on Scriptural matters.

But it seems to me that church is nothing if not steeped in a foundation of morality. Every Sunday school class I’ve ever attended every sermon I’ve ever heard every Bible verse I’ve ever studied always centers around the moral righteousness that God expects us to embrace. It seems pretty simple actually: we are expected to do the right thing.

Clearly obeying man’s law is a big part of that process. People who break the law and defy the authorities in order to achieve their own selfish goals are hardly morally righteous. It’s not likely that any pastor would counsel anyone to flaunt city state or federal laws.

So how in God’s name can a church leader possibly defend illegal immigrants? Furthermore what wack job of a minister would literally give one of them sanctuary?

I tried to ask this Chicago minister how he could possibly be expected to lead a church congregation with lessons of morality and righteousness when he is obviously so blind to the immorality of illegal immigration. Naturally he sidestepped the question and gave some mini-speech about the glories of hard-working “undocumented” immigrants.

Any member of a church whose leader advocates for illegals should ask the same thing. Because there is nothing moral about defending criminals.

Of all people pastors and priests should know that better than anyone.

Mike Gallagher is a nationally syndicated radio host Fox News Channel contributor and guest host and author of Surrounded by Idiots: Fighting Liberal Lunacy in America.