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Not all share my opinion that the Dream Act was not window dressing for a hidden amnesty agenda, but a reasonable step in confronting the complex issue of how best to deal with the millions of undocumented immigrants who now call America home.
The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, one of the most articulate and compassionate Christian voices for Latinos in America, has stressed that Christians must embrace "a solution that emphasizes assimilation and justice."
Others, like Alan F. H. Wisdom, vice president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, argue: "Alongside the biblical teachings about hospitality to strangers also stand the teachings about the rule of law."
Surely, Portia's famous lines from Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" come to mind, as she declares that mercy "is an attribute to God Himself," and further cautions Shylock to:
Consider this,
that, in the course of justice, none of us
should see salvation. We do pray for mercy;
and that same prayer doth teach us all to render
the deeds of mercy.
Of course -- as many others have pointed out -- Portia seems to forget her very words when she later joins others to lash out at Shylock, who responds to their attack with:
I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes?
Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions,
senses, affections, passions?
fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons,
subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means,
warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer,
as a Christian is?If you prick us, do we not bleed?
If you tickle us, do we not laugh?
If you poison us, do we not die?
We cannot read these lines and not be tempted to rephrase the speech and ask, "Hath not the undocumented eyes?" Will they not "bleed?"
Source: CNN | Belief Blog
