Letter: ‘Love thy neighbor’

The recent rhetoric about immigration, my faith, my experiences as a soccer coach, and conversations with my own three boys has made me feel morally obligated to state what I once would have thought was an inconvincible statement: Immigrants are not poisoning the blood of the U.S.

You can replace the word “immigrants” with your choice of race, political or religious affiliation and the ignorance of that statement — by and large — holds true. No group of people can, or should, be broadly dismissed as a caricature based on traits beyond their control and design.

As a person of faith, I cannot square the recent rhetoric with the great commandments of Matthew 22:35–40 that I was taught as a child and hold as an adult (love God above all else; love your neighbor as yourself). I do not recall from Sunday school any teachings about rationalization or sermons on justification.

As a soccer coach, I work with kids who are also the same immigrants denigrated in the rhetoric. I cannot fathom how someone can characterize them as poisoning the blood of the U.S. There is not an age where that simply and suddenly changes, and adding a modifier to the offending sentence will not change the hollowness of it — nor will it make it any more accurate or acceptable.

People want to be an American for reasons just as simple as “I can be myself.” They are not the threat to what made us the shining city on the hill that grew from the Sermon on the Mount.

Rich Crowley
South Portland