P
PaulinVA
Guest
Okay, they are criminals. They are illegal immigrants.This illustrates my point. If the proper term is criminal what is the objection to using it? It is precisely that it presents illegals in such a way as to minimize sympathy for their situation when the objective of many is to maximize the sympathy. This is the attractiveness of the benign phrase “undocumented people.”
In fact they are criminals by the natural definition and use of words. A criminal is one who has committed a crime. A crime is the commission of an act forbidden by - and punishable by - law. The fact that the term illegal aliens is typically the harshest phrase in use illustrates the slow creep of euphemistic distortion. This is precisely why people who favor the legalization of abortion call themselves pro-choice; it sounds so much more reasonable than pro-abortion.
Ender
We are not, as people of God, absolved of loving people who are criminals.
We are not given a pass to not feed them at the soup kitchen, or give them food from the food pantry.
I think the quandary is when our actions as the Church facilitate the illegal immigrant to live illegally in a country.