12 May 2021

On the May 10th edition of the Chalcedon Foundation’s Podcast “Out of the Question” (episode 138) host Andrea Schwartz interviewed pastor Ron Smith, pastor of Christ the King Church in McAllen, Texas, located close to the Mexican border. They discussed the immigration issue, the US southern border crisis and the so-called “Biblical perspective of dealing with immigration issues”. 

Pastor Smith starts off well by noting how human smugglers play an integral role in getting people to across the border illegally. He also points out how violence in the southern parts of Texas has rapidly increased because of the social destabilization brought about by the immigration process. He also rightly notes that governments are in cahoots with the cartels facilitating the process. However, Mrs. Schwartz then spectacularly, artificially and forcefully pushes the discussion in a particular direction when she asks or Rev. Smith: “Is it a proper response to hate these people [illegal immigrants]?” The extent of the cognitive leap on the part of Mrs. Schwartz here is truly enigmatic. Rev. Smith’s response is equally absurd, when he answers that he has a church member who opposes illegal immigration, whom he calls “a bigot … who needs the grace of God” and for whom he prays for repentance. 

In the most incoherent and illogical manner imaginable, Rev. Smith immediately then goes on to concede that the government has the responsibility to maintain its national borders – but Christians and the Church should apparently have nothing to do with this – a clear example of the radical two-kingdom heresy. Rev. Smith’s argument that we cannot actively oppose immigration because we believe that “God is in control” amounts to nothing less than functional pacifism and rebellion against the Biblical principle that a theoretical faith that remains unapplied in practice and human action is dead and useless (James 2:14-26). Smith then goes on to tout two debunked myths: 1) That the work ethic of immigrants is superior to that of the native population, as if homogeneous populations can never have nice things – which of course has no correlation to reality, and 2) that Latin Americans adhere to family values to a greater degree than Americans, despite the fact that these so-called "family values" manifests itself, by his own admission, in the gang culture, drug culture and radical increase in criminality now prevalent at the southern border. 

If opposing the immigration of foreigners into your country is bigotry, then so is opposing strangers settling on your property, since the nation is merely the extension of the family (Genesis 10:5). If charity entails, as mrs. Schwartz and pastor Smith claims, to show only kindness to the strangers in the land, then the same would have to apply to strangers who move into your house. That would mean not opposing people settling in your house, but giving them food, drink, beds and “the gospel” – whatever that would mean in this context. But of course, Cultural Marxism and consistency don’t go hand-in-hand. It is a truly sick and degenerate religion that pastor Smith and Mrs. Schwartz advocate—one that, to use the words of Jesus Christ—“takes the food away from children and feeds it to the dogs.” (Matthew 15:26) On the contrary, loving Latin Americans would entail not enticing them to uproot themselves and their families with false promises of a better life in the US. 

The Pactum Institute, representing members from all over the globe, including North America, Europe and Africa, laments that the heresy of open borders is now being touted by the Chalcedon Foundation, an organization that is now spitting on the legacy of its founder, RJ Rushdoony, who called the policy of mass immigration of foreign peoples into the US a “suicidal course … based on myths and illusions” – the exact same myths and lies now propagated by the Chalcedon Foundation itself. The destructive heresies now propagated by the likes of the Chalcedon Foundation amplifies the need for a rigorous academic scholarship based on traditional, historical Christian principles as founded on the Bible as infallible divine revelation. The Pactum Institute was founded last month for this exact purpose. 

Link to the podcast: https://chalcedon.edu/resources/audio/how-should-the-church-respond-to-the-border-crisis-ep-138-guest-ron-smith#fbclid=IwAR1YyJMUv_0FYKp8OjzGdSD8_bK8mV6edyfOasE-M6S0Ym7tsbDccUtmLzg