Saturday, July 13, 2019

When mere law is inhumane

In the world in which we live, nations have the right to protect their borders and to exercise control over who crosses them. But nations also have at least as important a responsibility to treat those who come to their borders as humanely as possible. I’d even go so far as to suggest that the responsibility to be humane toward all is more important than is the right to control borders.
Separating children from their own parents except in cases where the child’s fundamental well-being is at risk is inhumane. It is the most extreme and harmful inhumanity of a number of inhumanities our government is reportedly visiting upon people being detained now, apparently with many more detainees to come. If we must round-up human beings, then we must have adequate and humane means prepared to house them. Unless, of course, as one Facebook commentator called them, you consider them to be “cockroaches.”

It’s the law, some claim. We are only enforcing the law.


But there are limits to the law. At least the Christians among us know that…don’t we?

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