Why Building a
Border Wall Is a Morally Good Action
Wayne Grudem|
Posted: Jul 02, 2018 11:47 AM
Is building a wall on our border a morally good action?
As a professor who has taught biblical ethics for 41 years, I think it is – in
fact, the Bible itself repeatedly views protective walls with favor.
Walls gave peace and security. In the world of the
Old Testament, people built walls around cities to protect themselves from
thieves, murderers, and other criminals, and from foreign invaders who would
seek to destroy the city. People could still enter the city, but they had to do
so by the gate, so that city officials would have some control over who was
coming in and going out. Today’s debate is about a larger area – a national
border, not a city – but the principles are the same.
A strong wall gave peace and security to the city, and
one prayer of blessing for a city was, “Peace be within your walls and security
within your towers!” (Psalm 122:7). There was also a spiritual component, for
the Lord himself strengthened the gates in the walls so they would protect the
children and the peace and prosperity of a city:
Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion!
For he strengthens the bars of your gates; he blesses your children
within you. He makes peace in your borders; he fills you with the finest
of the wheat (Psalm 147:12-14).
After King David established his capital in Jerusalem, he
prayed, “Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of
Jerusalem” (Psalm 51:18) – God’s blessing would include strong walls!
After David came King Solomon, who finished and strengthened the wall around
Jerusalem (1 Kings 3:1).
But the people of Israel strayed from God, and he brought
judgment in the form of Babylonian invaders who broke down and destroyed the
city wall: “And they burned the house of God and broke down the wall of
Jerusalem and burned all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its
precious vessels” (2 Chronicles 36:19; cf. Jeremiah 52:14). God’s judgment
removed the walls! As long as the wall around Jerusalem was broken down, it was
a mark of shame and derision: “The remnant . . . who had survived the exile is
in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and
its gates are destroyed by fire" (Nehemiah 1:3).
The pathetic shame of a city without walls is also
evident in this proverb: “A man without self-control is like a city broken into
and left without walls” (Proverbs 25:28). The implication is that such a
man and such a city are both headed for destruction.
After 70 years of exile in Babylon, the Jewish people
were able to return and to rebuild Jerusalem’s wall. Nehemiah asked the Persian
king Artaxerxes to give him the timber needed to build the wall and its gates:
“And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon
me” (Nehemiah 2:8). In this case, God’s blessing was evident when the
leader of the government authorized the allocation of materials to build the
wall.
Then Nehemiah needed laborers for the massive task of
rebuilding the wall. He challenged the people, “Come, let us build the wall
of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision” (Nehemiah 2:17).
Fortunately, “the people had a mind to work” (Nehemiah 4:6), and an entire
chapter of Nehemiah is devoted to recording the names of people who rebuilt the
wall, specifying the section that each person repaired (Nehemiah 3). Such a
record – having their names forever in the pages of the Hebrew Bible – was a
significant honor for those who repaired the wall. It was a morally commendable
act.
There was a great celebration when the wall was
completed: “And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought the
Levites . . . to celebrate the dedication with gladness, with thanksgivings and
was singing, with cymbals, harps, and lyres . . . . Then I . . . appointed two
great choirs that gave thanks” (Nehemiah 12:27, 31).
There is another wall in the Bible – at the very end of
the New Testament. The apostle John has a vision of the New Jerusalem, a great
city that comes down from heaven, and it includes a wall: “It had a great,
high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels” (Revelation
21:12). Whether this is literal or simply part of a symbolic prophetic vision
(I don’t know), it is clear that the wall protects the peace and security of
those who are within.
My conclusion from this overview is that the Bible views
border walls as a morally good thing, something for which to thank God. Walls
on a border are a major deterrent to evil and they provide clear visible evidence
that a city or nation has control over who enters it, something
absolutely essential if a government is going to prevent a nation from
devolving into more and more anarchy.
Objection: “We should be a nation that welcomes
immigrants.” I agree wholeheartedly – if they come legally. But it is no
kindness to them if the lack of a wall tempts them to risk death by walking
across miles of parched desert, at the mercy of violent gangs, and then come
into the US without legal documentation, only to live here as a permanent legal
underclass, easily exploited, living in constant fear of discovery. In
addition, it diminishes respect for the law and destabilizes the nation when
millions of people exist in the shadows, living outside the legal recordkeeping
functions of the nation.
And there has to be some limit on the number we
admit each year. I would like the number to be higher than it is, but a
complete “open borders” policy would overwhelm the country. The US population
today is 328 million. The population of the world is 7.6 billion, or 23 times
the US population. If we allowed in everyone who wanted to enter, as many as
half the world’s population might want to come – giving us over 10 times
our current population. Even if only 10% of the world (a very low estimate)
came in through open borders, the US would suddenly confront the impossible
task of trying to assimilate 760 million new immigrants into a nation of 328
million. “Open borders” is not a realistic solution or one that could ever get
enough popular support to pass Congress and become law. Building a wall with
well-regulated gates declares that while we welcome immigrants, we – not they –
are going to decide which ones, and how many.
The US currently admits over 1,000,000 immigrants per
year who come legally and stay permanently – far more than any other nation. If
you think that number should be even higher (as I do), then suggest a higher
number to your congressman and talk to your fellow citizens. Persuade people to
agree with you, and work for a change in the law. But don’t oppose a border
wall, for that is just promoting more lawlessness.
Objection: “The Bible tells us to care for the
sojourner.” I agree – but we still must have some means of regulating
how many “sojourners” we allow into the country and who can qualify to enter –
and a wall is the most effective way to do this. When the Bible says, “Love the
sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of
Egypt” (Deuteronomy 10:19), Old Testament professor James Hoffmeier has demonstrated
that these “sojourners” (or “resident foreigners” in one translation; the
Hebrew term is ger) were people who had entered another country legally,
with the permission and knowledge of the country that admitted them. (The
unmodified term “foreigner” in some translations is not specific enough to
translate Hebrew ger.) A foreigner who had entered a country by stealth
and did not have recognized standing as a resident alien was not considered a
“sojourner” (Hebrew ger) but simply a “foreigner” (Hebrew nekar
or zar).
Objection: “These are good people who are just seeking
a better life.” Yes, many of them are, and we should welcome them – if they
come legally. But we can’t ignore the fact that many others will not become “good
neighbors” – some are drug runners, gang members, and even terrorists. A wall
makes it possible to screen out the people who have previously been deported
for felonies and others who are most likely to commit crimes or simply become a
drain on the economy rather than getting a productive job.
An effective border wall would also be the best way to
keep children together with their parents. Under the present system, families
(1) enter the US illegally and (2) are caught, then (3) they plead for asylum, and
(4) they are incarcerated until their asylum petition can be evaluated. But if
we had a completed wall, such requests for asylum would be decided at the
border, before they ever entered the US. We would never have to detain either
parents or children on US soil in the first place.
Objection: “Walls don’t work.” That objection is
not true. Sections of high, effective walls and fences have already transformed
whole regions of San Diego and El Paso from high-crime zones into peaceful,
much safer cities.
A high, double wall with modern electronic equipment to
detect tunneling would stop perhaps 90-95 percent or even more of illegal
border crossings. Once such a wall is complete, most Americans would feel that
the border is finally under control, and the remaining questions about
immigration could be resolved in an atmosphere of far less tension and
animosity.
Walls that already work: In fact, we already have
a highly effective system of “border walls” that nobody argues about – in our
airports. Every time I return to the US from a foreign country, I have to go
through customs at the airport, and so does everybody else. The room where
people wait in line to see a customs officer has walls to make sure that
all arriving passengers have to go through passport control. I’ve never seen
anyone protesting the existence of walls in the customs area or demanding that
a section of the wall be removed so that people who don’t want to go through
passport control can simply walk into the country whenever they want. That would
be an open invitation to terrorists and other criminals, and it would make it
impossible for the US to place any limits at all on the number of people who
came into the country and stayed without legal documentation.
Yet demanding “no passport controls at airports” is, it
seems to me, exactly parallel to saying that we should not build a wall on our
southern border. Why should airports be any different from other border entry
points? Yes, we are a nation of immigrants, and we should eagerly welcome numerous
immigrants into the US every year, but they must come in legally, through
the gates in the wall, not illegally and dangerously across an open desert.
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