My FOX & FRIENDS Comments -- Compassion vs. Compassion
My wife liked what I said because she wants other people to think I am as nice a guy as she considers me to be! And she felt that my TV comments sounded nice and empathetic in conceding that religious leaders are not hard-hearted toward unemployed Americans but just driven more by their compassion for foreign workers (including illegal ones).
Other viewers, I'm sure saw me as going a little squishy on the national TV appearance Sunday morning.
My time was cut much closer than promised -- typical when I get the opportunity for a network appearance to talk about our issue. And I didn't know the time was cut until I'd already had my one chance to speak.
I was asked why the Catholic bishops are pushing for more immigration while the Zogby poll showed hardly any Catholics support that.
I was taken aback a little because I had not planned to be the one explaining the behavior of these bishops and those of several other denominations. As you watch my body language, you can probably see me struggling to get my mind to work fast enough to catch up with my mouth.
In those couple of seconds, I first thought about how increasingly angry I have felt toward national religious leaders over this last year as they have taken the side of what I consider some of the most exploitative and inhumane entities in the country . . . and have encouraged more and more rapid population increases that make environmental sustainability impossible. As a person of faith, I have found what I consider their lack of intellectual curiosity and integrity on matters of immigration to be an embarrassment to the faith, besides being a threat to our country.
People commenting on my blogs have have made some pretty rough speculations of their own. And I have been inclined at times to go along with many of them.
But at the end of the two seconds when my mouth had to say something fast or lose its turn, I felt this strong need to be as honest -- and generous -- as possible.
Just as I don't believe that most immigration-reductionists are hard-hearted toward foreign workers who wish to come here, I really can't say I have evidence that the national religious leaders intend any harm on unemployed Americans and their families as they advocate for illegal workers and more foreign workers.
I am sure that most of these religious leaders are convinced that their advocacy for massive population growth and flooding U.S. labor markets with foreign workers really isn't related to any negative effect on the environment or our most vulnerable citizens.
For those of us who DO see intense connections, it can be hard to believe that anybody could miss the problem without really bad motives. But for the most part, this is probably mostly a case of compassion vs. compassion. And the religious leaders have a different kind of compassion than most of us in the pews.
Which is what I said to the national audience.
It isn't that most members of churches and synogogues lack compassion for those in other lands struggling to come here. It is that they have MORE compassion for the 15 million unemployed Americans and their children who are their neighbors, living in their national community.
And it isn't that the national religious leaders don't care about the unemployed Americans. But their compassion for people in other countries and from other countries (including those who broke the law to get here) is so much greater.
This puts the religious leaders in a direct collision course with the people in the pews.
Both sides claim very high values, but they seem contradictory to one another.
In the hallway after leaving the TV set on New York's Sixth Avenue, I conversed a bit with my "debate opponent" who represented the religious leadership. Earlier in the Green Room, we had had a fully pleasant 45-minute discussion about our choice of congregations, neighborhoods, etc. But afterwards, we couldn't seem to find any common ground.
Compassion vs. compassion. Value vs. value.
Our republic was set up with exactly these sorts of clashes in mind. In the end, it is not a king, or a president, or a small number of elites or the religious leaders who will decide what is the right choice. They can try to influence (but the Zogby poll indicates they are not having much success with their flocks).
But in the end, the people can decide which value prevails -- if they pay attention and get engaged.
And if that happens, the power is in the pews -- not in the pulpits.
ROY BECK is Founder & CEO of NumbersUSA