The Salty Peanut Gallery

Things aren’t always as they seem. This’ll make you do a double take. How do they do it?

Impossible Motion Trick – Watch more Funny Videos

The way worship was meant to be.

“Sunday’s Coming” Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.

To demagogue an issue means to obscure or distort the matter by making false claims and promises that serve to arouse the emotions, passions, and prejudices of the people. Politicians do it all the time in order to get elected or get a particular bill passed. Journalists do it to promote their own personal predilections in the name of making a difference. It’s easy to be swayed by demagoguery whenever it validates the things we are already thinking. We listen to it because it’s what we want to hear. It’s what we want to believe is true regardless of the facts. Sadly, I fear this has been the case regarding the recent Arizona immigration bill signed into law by Governor Jan Brewer during a Friday afternoon press conference less than two weeks ago. The chattering class has been aghast. Various politicians, minority rights organizations and, yes, numerous faith groups nationwide have wasted no time in decrying this legislation. But are their criticisms justified? Or is this a case of demagoguing the issue? And why are so many Christians so willing to join the fray?

Here’s how some journalists are describing the Arizona law:

“Harkens back to apartheid” – Cynthia Tucker, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“Shameful” – E.J. Dionne, Washington Post

“Terrible…an invitation to abuse” – David Brooks, New York Times

Some political figures describe it as:

“Mean-spirited” – Sen. Chuck Schumer

“Un-American” – NY City Public Advocate Bill DeBlasio

“The Arizona immigration bill is an affront to the civil rights of all Americans and an attempt to legalize racial profiling.” – Rev. Al Sharpton

“Misguided…threaten[s] to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans.” – President Barack Obama

Here’s a question for all of you. Has anyone actually read the law? Anyone…? Anyone…? Bueller…? And what about Christians who are parroting these liberal journalists and politicians? How ‘bout you? Have you taken the time to read the legislation before organizing prayer vigils and protest marches on behalf of immigrants?

Critics of the law have targeted the phrase “reasonable suspicion” suggesting law enforcement would have the ability to arbitrarily pick Latin Americans out of a crowd and force them to produce immigration papers. As President Obama describes:

“Now, suddenly, if you don’t have your papers, and you took your kid out to get ice cream, you’re going to get harassed — that’s something that could potentially happen… That’s not the right way to go.”

What some people fail to note are phrases like “lawful contact” and “probable cause” which defines the circumstances by which the law may be enforced. University of Missouri Kansas City Law School professor Kris Kobach, who helped draft the measure explains:

“That means the officer is already engaged in some detention of an individual because he’s violated some other law. The most likely context where this law would come into play is a traffic stop.”

Since signing the bill into law, Gov. Jan Brewer has further clarified this in an executive order stating that “race, color, or national origin alone cannot be grounds for reasonable suspicion to believe any law has been violated.”

So why all the fuss? Why the venom? Why the vitriol? I think there are several things we can point to. One is politics as usual. Race is always an easy card for the extreme political left to play. “Those mean-spirited conservatives are nothing but a bunch of bigots,” the goal being to secure the minority vote in the next election.

I think another reason has to do with a certain polarization that exists between “social justice” and “legal justice”. We feel sorry for the downtrodden and less fortunate and rightfully so. We allow our emotions to justify overlooking the glut of illegals flooding our borders, because after all they’re just trying to provide a better life for their families and who among us could fault them for that. We deem that to be socially just. On the other hand we conveniently ignore the injustice of rampant lawlessness that is the result of the federal government’s unwillingness to secure our borders.

The state of Arizona faces a fiscal crisis caused in part by the burden to provide services such as schooling and social welfare for illegals and their families who consume far more than they contribute. Murders and kidnappings believed to be tied to Mexican drug cartels, nightly high-speed chases through neighborhoods where innocent people are at risk are all on the rise. But where are the Christians decrying this kind of social injustice I wonder?

There is a third factor that I believe is contributing to the backlash. Ignorance. Rather than taking the time to learn for themselves the actual content of the Arizona law, most people, including far too many Christians, have been content to get their information from journalists and politicians who have a CLEAR political agenda. This in my mind is a lack of discernment.

Proverbs 18:13 says, “He who answers a matter before he hears it, It is folly and shame to him.” We need to be careful who we listen to and where we get our information from. We need to resist the urge to speak our minds before we’ve thoroughly investigated a matter. And when we do speak we need to speak the truth in love. Because when we don’t we usually wind up looking foolish.