The crisis at America’s southern border continues.  But the picture is bigger than that.   According to a New York Times article (Sunday Review, July 13, 2014), a recent survey by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees interviewed 404 immigrants from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico.  The study revealed that an alleged 58 percent of the illegals streaming into this country are fleeing to escape violence in their own Central American nations. 

The UN has an agenda, and that agenda is not necessarily friendly to the United States.  So, take the 58 percent number as subjective and with a little skepticism.  A similar survey in 2006 reported 13 percent of immigrants coming into this country were fleeing violence. 

But if we accept the 58 percent number, it still leaves 42 percent who arrive seeking benefits that the American government seems eager to bestow on anyone and everyone.  These are the ones U.S. law requires be sent back immediately.  But this is exactly what we are not doing, to the detriment of the entire American social structure.  

Of the 58 percent, the law requires that unaccompanied children be provided an immigration hearing to ascertain their actual status.  But as we have previously pointed out (see my blogs of July 9 and 16), that is not being done either.  Instead, these children (and the adults with them) are told to report for a hearing fifteen days later, and then they are released to disappear into the country.  One cannot help people who are not there. 

The stories reported by the children fleeing violence are truly horrific.  The gangs that run drugs into this country rape and murder back in the Central American villages.  Many of these children have seen family members or neighbors slaughtered before their eyes.  Forty percent of the children coming here are girls, and many have experienced rape.  Gangs recruit even elementary school children to work for them.  To refuse often means death.  So in some villages, mothers keep their children home from school.

If you or I faced such threats to our children, I suspect we would be tempted to do anything to get our children to safety.  Even if it means paying border coyotes thousands of dollars to spirit them across the U.S. border.  Even if it means that the possibility of being raped along the way might be sixty percent.  Compared to these dangers, desperation takes high risks—if there is hope that safety will come tomorrow. 

But let’s consider the bigger picture of the impoverished masses.  Jesus said, “The poor you always have with you.” (Mark 14:7)  Jesus was making two points.  The first is that poverty is part of the perpetual human condition, and therefore we must not allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by the need or stricken by guilt that we are not doing enough.  Do not beat yourself over the fact that you happen to live in relative prosperity when so many others in the world do not.  Wealth and abundance is a gift of God to those on whom he chooses to bestow it.  You may have worked hard for what you have, but God gave you the abilities you possess and the opportunity.  Thankfulness is the proper response.  And helping the less fortunate when we can

The second thing Jesus was teaching is contained in the next phrase of verse 7.  “But you do not always have Me.”  There are things more important than fighting poverty.  Things that take precedence.  In Jesus’ case, it is himself.  He is the eternal, omnipotent God over all who took on human flesh in order that the human race might be saved and that the blessings of God might be received by suffering human beings.  First things first.  As we help the needy, we must make sure God is given his rightful position in our lives. 

The end of poverty begins with the rule and the law of God applied in the lives of individuals and in the governance of nations.  The horrors in Central America have developed because governments fail and evil men have tossed away the Law of God in their quest for greed, power, or wealth.   Soon the weak and the helpless become just one more commodity to be used and discarded.

The problem is bigger than Central America.  Across the Middle East families in various places encounter almost identical conditions.  Wars rage across what once were stable countries.  Hamas perpetrates violence against the children and families of Gaza.  And fire missiles at Israel.  In Syria, millions to find some place where they can stay alive.  Go to the Sudan and you find similar bloodshed.  Or Nigeria.  Or consider the Malaysian Airlines flight shot down by Russian insurgents as it flew at 30,000 feet over the Ukraine.  The passengers thought they were safe in the womb of civilization.

This sort of brutal trouble has been occurring since the beginning of the human race.  What is it that makes the world safe—or at least part of it safe?  It is the rule of law.  And law, to be just, must be based on the Laws of God.  When law breaks down, all hell breaks loose.  Literally.  This is what governments are established by God to prevent.

And it is a sad thing to see in our own country, a concerted effort by those in power to break down the very thing that makes society work, or America a place of refuge for the war torn and weary.  We cannot help everyone.  But if we want to help any, including ourselves, it starts with upholding and protecting the rule of law.  And it is fragile, as so many discover to their lament.

Dr. Rick Perrin is a minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and Chairman of the Board of World Reformed Fellowship..  He writes a weekly blog called ReTHINK which may be accessed at www.rethinkingnews.wordpress.com. He may be contacted directly at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..