It personally baffles me why anyone would forgo an opportunity to learn, to go to school, to listen to a learned scholar or artist, to travel or try something new. I hear about students using ChatGPT to do their homework and it saddens me, for whom the work of learning – memorizing multiplication tables or verses from The Ancient Mariner or the Creeds of the Church or the periodic table of the elements – brought with it a sense of empowerment.

My family’s relatively short history in America may inform this view. After decades of war with Sweden, Norway was decimated. Life under Swedish oppression (which ended May 17th, 1905) was tough – Norwegians including my forebears, spent life proscribed by their overlords in myriad ways, including who could get an education and to what level. Despite this, they found a way. The church played an important role in educating my Norske ancestors. Martin Luther, the father of the Protestant Reformation, made the education of both boys and girls key to reading and understanding the Scriptures and creating vocations for all of God’s children. Not seeing an end to life under the boot heel of oppression, part of my family tree fled Norway to freer shores, which is why I am an American.

Now free in the new world, education in any form was a blessing of God and a treasure, worth any sacrifice. Especially with the ‘younger’ generation who were privileged to be born here, they were held to high standards. Keen to secure their futures in the new world, and particularly when it came to college, they studied things like engineering (to this day the family is absolutely lousy with engineers), architecture, accounting – the things that would secure proper, fulfilling professional lives. But practicalities aside, they certainly treasured their agency, to think and choose freely, to learn, speak without fear of reprisals, to wonder and dream – “what if?…”

Tracing the path trod by my immigrant ancestors (who I knew as a young person, I am ‘not that far from the boat’) I learned to read before I started school, got my own public library card in 1st grade. In the Protestant tradition, and when I was in 3rd grade – the age judged to be sufficiently competent to read the Holy Word – I received my own Bible in church. Learning was 24/7. I love to learn things. I love to rediscover things that I had learned but forgotten, when I stumble upon an occasion to revisit a topic.

I came of age before cable news, the internet, smartphones, Twitter, Insta, on and on…and when the free press was flourishing. While not immune to the seductive charms of social media, I believe I can still see when something is just not right.

When I was a pupil in Illinois, to graduate from 8th grade and rise to high school, one was required to pass the Constitution test. We had Civics (also called Social Studies). Several times a day, usually when I make the mistake of looking at the news on my phone or laptop, I have had occasion to wonder if some of our politicians have any idea what the Constitution says. As it is 2024 and we are headed into an election year, am going try to stay out of commenting on national politicians. An example from Chicago, Illinois:

With the unprecedented surge of irregular migration at the southern US border, mainly via Texas, Arizona and California, governors are overwhelmed and giving migrants transport to go elsewhere. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is struggling with an influx of migrants to the Second City, as are other mayors throughout the US. Mayor Johnson first tried to build migrant camps in various wards and to commandeer community resources – without notice or input or engagement by the communities.

The Constitution came to mind when Mayor Johnson took over one such Chicago neighborhood Park District facility where senior citizens received nutrition support like subsidized meals, pupils with special needs attended after-school programs, and the community had spent out of their own pocket to do repairs and maintenance because the City wouldn’t pony up to fix things. Johnson seized it, locked out the citizenry,

Understandably, this met with significant opposition from the community. In addition to seizing something that belongs to the citizenry and residents – many of the neighborhoods Johnson has inveighed upon have already suffered from decades of disinvestment. They were outraged Mayor could somehow find hundreds of millions of dollars for new migrants (Illinois Gov. Pritzer going the the state’s ‘couch cushions’ for emergency funds, much of which was leftover COVID relief money) – but could not find money for addressing the longstanding needs of Chicago residents and taxpayers that he has pledged to support.

In this context, here is an exchange reported in the Chicago Tribune, January 23, 2024:

“Pritzker called out the plan as flawed and said Johnson has not pinpointed ways state funding can help shelter and support asylum-seekers.

“The city has not told the state where they would like us to put our resources to build new shelters,” Pritzker said during an unrelated event in Chicago on Monday. “So we can’t help if they don’t identify those locations.”

Asked for a response, Johnson’s office said that Pritzker and the state have the authority to “fund, stand up and operate a shelter” in any city in Illinois, including Chicago.”

What? No. And please, before you start with the trolling, what Mayor Johnson seems to be saying is, the Governor and the state can do whatever it wants, anywhere, anytime. Governor is not a synonym for King, and if it’s true that Mayor Johnson is a former teacher, he should know that.

There is a dystopian show called “Years and Years”, set in the present/very future. In Britain, the people have lost what we would consider their Fourth Amendment rights. At one point, they are forced to share even their private homes with strangers. The government decides if you have too much space and sends over people who need housing to live with you. In other plot lines, which occur in a timeline from 2019 to 2034, these infringements on individuals’ liberties and boundaries came about because of a series of events that led countries to elect leaders who were authoritarian in different ways. No one seems to understand the concept of the rule of law and the power of the citizenry that they have unwittingly forfeited.

Today there are leaders who are saying and writing things that are simply not true, and an educated populace – not Rhodes scholars, but 8th graders who have passed the Constitution test – should be able to spot a lot of the misinformation and elevate it for reasoned debate. Instead, the ones who assert the rule of law are called inhumane and racist and the debate shifts from what is the fair and legal way to handle a humanitarian and security crisis is shifted to virtue-signaling, and abrogating of the rights of the residents, taxpayers, and citizens as well as seizure of what rightfully accrues to them. The focus on the urgent – the surge of migrants into Illinois – obscures a critical, fundamental shift that is going unchallenged. If the federal government, which is invested with sole authority and responsibility in the matter of immigration, is unwilling to provide funding for these migrants, it cannot be forced onto the backs of the states and ordinary citizens.

People of good will – Christian or otherwise – recognize their duty to help the poor and needy. However, it is not wrong to follow the law, and to distinguish between those who are simply scofflaws and desperate and needy migrants eligible for asylum under the law. Recent illegal migrants from China and Russia, for example, are not poor or needy. Indeed, a recent episode of “60 Minutes” showed Chinese migrants who paid tens of thousands of dollars to ‘coyotes’ be smuggled into the United States. The route for this deluxe illegal entry is to fly to Ecuador (no visa entry requirement), stay in hotels and be ferried by private cars to the US border, where they dump their Chinese passports by the border fence, to erase a means of verifying their identity and vetting their claims to asylum, which at this time would not be heard for years because overwhelming spike in illegal migration. Even if they were subject to removal, the Chinese government will not repatriate these citizens “because we don’t know if they are Chinese”. It is estimated 30,000 Chinese have taken this route to enter the US.

On the other extreme, politicians are talking about creating a ‘Red Army’-like paramilitary apparatus that will round up millions of non-citizens and deport them, and criminalize anyone who aids them. One can imagine a totalitarian dragnet that snares many innocent people, and creates a horrifying pall over legitimate humanitarian work out of fear of being sent to a gulag for being a good Samaritan, for advocating for the oppressed and needy, even for expressing a point of view. As I write this, a Russian-American has been detained while visiting in Ekaterinburg for donating fifty dollars to support Ukraine during the war. On it’s face, not directly about the immigration situation. But an example of the kind of tactics being openly mused over by politicians.

Pray God will guide us in our pilgrim walk, for His will to be done in all things. Lutherans have the gift of St. Augustine’s ‘City of God’, out of which Luther elucidated the “Two Kingdoms” philosophy, in the Reformation. At the beginning of this post I mentioned that Luther (along with Melancthon) was instrumental in promoting systems of literacy and education for all people, first and foremost to spread the Gospel, but also to help us understand while the Lord of all rules all, the Lord rules two kingdoms in very different ways:

• Earthly Kingdom: God governs this realm through secular government, employing law and the sword.
• Spiritual Kingdom: God’s rule in this sphere operates through the gospel.

In order to understand how we live in the Two Kingdoms, we need to turn to the Word. We pray for just government, that we may lead peaceful and godly lives. For leaders of nations to ensure the safety and wellbeing of their people. For this we need an educated populace. But first and foremost, for all people to come to a knowledge of the love of God in Christ.