CR Blog: Inside churches, inside ministries, inside politics—if it’s happening, it’s here

As the president of China dines with Bill Gates and visits the White House, one can’t help but wonder where Google executives are. Perhaps they are in a closed-door meeting discussing ways to expand their Chinese license or perhaps they are discussing additional excuses for protecting online predators. In order to gain access to the Chinese market, the Chinese government asked Google to censor search results. Google agreed to create a new address to ensure the Chinese would not get access to information that President Hu’s regime deemed threatening to the government.

With this new license in place, Google users in China can now learn that Taiwan is part of mainland China, gain no access to information about the Tiananmen Square Massacre, have no knowledge of forced abortion policies, of jailed dissidents, of religion and many other topics that will be censored at the direction of the Chinese government. Strange isn’t it? An information services provider censoring information.

While Google executives are busy placating the demands of the Chinese leadership, they are simultaneously thumbing their nose at the United States. As government officials in this country are frantically trying to get a handle on the issue of child pornography, the Justice Department recently asked all search engines to provide search pattern information on child pornography. Yahoo, MSN and AOL all agreed to do their part in safeguarding our children. Google, citing privacy concerns, opted not to aid the Justice Department in its search for online predators. Ironically, the government was not looking for details about personal usage, simply search patterns.

Child pornography and its availability online is a threat to the safety of our children. We know from recent arrests that many pedophiles hunt for their victims online. We know that many of the children end up as victims of serious crime, some end in death. So why then would Google cite privacy issues to protect potential child predators?

As evidenced by the above actions in China, Google is exclusively about one word – profit. While supporting repression in China and protecting child predators, all I can say about Google is one word – Yahoo.

Jason T. Christy is the CEO of Christy Media, publishers of The Church Report and the CR Daily, as well as Executive Director of Impact America.

This is Not Ellis Island

As Phoenicians prepare for a second onslaught of immigration demonstrations through the streets of Phoenix, I am again faced with the oddity of trying to understand why rally organizers feel that encouraging children to walk out of class and workers to walk from their jobs, while waving Mexican flags, is evidence of them wanting to continue to reside in the United States. This type of activism has turned the legal residents of Phoenix against them. This “show of force†is meant to intimidate and threaten the very people who have offered jobs, provided low-income housing and given a helping hand.

Residing in Phoenix for over 30 years, I have witnessed first hand the crippling effect that illegal immigration has had on our state: from a reported $31 million in healthcare costs in 2005, to over crowded jails, $5 million in welfare and food stamps just last year, public education issues, increased crime rates and much more. It is for these benefits that illegal immigrants stream through the border of Arizona, not because they desire to become citizens. There are current laws and offices already apportioned to help law-abiding immigrants attain visas and citizenship in the United States right here in Phoenix.

Solving the immigration crisis is about national security. In order to protect our economy and protect our legal citizens, the government must offer a multi-faceted plan that both punishes immigration of illegal aliens and prohibits the hiring of such people by U.S. companies. Requiring employers to verify citizenship through a Social Security database is a positive step in the right direction. If illegal immigrants learn that getting employment in the United States is no longer such a simple task, I am confident that it will greatly reduce the flow of those crossing the desert every day.

However, penalizing employers is not enough. Increased security measures at the border are crucial to any type of legislation that will be successful. In addition to the construction of a border wall, we must also increase the number of border patrol agents and make use of our military technology. But still, this is not enough. Penalizing employers, increasing border patrols and building a wall are all significant steps in the right direction- but we must do more. We must also enact legislation to do away with “anchor babies.†This practice, wherein a child born in the United States of an illegal immigrant receives citizenship upon birth, only adds to the burden of states, like Arizona, to provide healthcare, food stamps and housing and further encourages the illegal immigrants to cross the border to have families.

Ultimately, the United States must hold the Mexican government accountable for its encouragement of illegal immigration. A reported $17 million is pumped into the floundering Mexican economy by illegal immigrants sending money home each year. The government must be held accountable for creating substandard living conditions and an economy that cannot support its own people and end its addiction to illegally obtained U.S. funding.

Finally, a guest worker program – or as Congressman Tom Tancredo calls it, the “McKennedy Plan†– is simply an amnesty program dressed up. The current plan unveiled this past week calls for illegal immigrants here since 2004 to go home immediately. Anyone with five to ten years must pay fines, taxes, learn English and then them may apply for citizenship. Proponents of this plan who feel that those in the under two-year category will simply pack up and go home are deceiving themselves and all Americans. Again, there is no mention of enforcement and no motivation for these illegal immigrants to do so. Furthermore, history has shown that guest worker programs do not work. From the recent riots in France, where unemployed Muslim guest workers residing in Paris ghettos rallied against the government, to Saudi Arabia and its reported six million guest workers, these programs have never worked. Guest worker programs create caste systems in societies that eventually erupt into social unrest between the castes.

As the protestors march through the streets of Phoenix, I will wave my American flag. I will file my taxes next week and I will continue to try and educate those who think this is a humanity issue – it is not. It is about protecting our borders, protecting our economy, and offering hope and opportunity to those people who wish to migrate here legally. This is not Ellis Island, as many immigration protestors would have you believe; rather, this is about people evading arrest at the border and taking advantage of our economy.

Last week I was criticized in a predominantly Catholic blog for comments I made about Cardinal Mahoney and Bishop Slatterly with respect to illegal immigration and about the recent protest march in Phoenix. As I am sure you are now aware, both of these Catholic leaders called for the breaking of Federal laws with respect to aiding illegal immigrants. Regardless of the small amount of criticism I received, I still remain staunch in my beliefs that their comments were irresponsible and meant only to incite further civil unrest.

I had the opportunity to sit down with Congressman J.D. Hayworth this week. He was aware of my comments regarding the lack of sound advice from Catholic leadership and the perceived silence from the Evangelical community on this hot button issue. Congressman Hayworth astutely remarked, “the bottom line is that there is false of compassion, a misplaced compassionâ€, he explained. He went on to say, “there is nothing compassionate about treating people as a commodity, about exploiting their poverty and giving them substandard living conditions.†Of course, Congressman Hayworth was pointing out the flaws in the proposed guest worker program, which does nothing but create a second class of citizens. The Congressman stoically remarked that we are headed down a path of creating a 21st century American caste system based upon misplaced compassion.

Congressman Hayworth adeptly pointed out that even the Apostle Paul, in his writings, spoke about respect and accordance with the laws of the time. Ultimately, it was Paul, who, himself, asked to be tried as a Roman citizen. Today in America, the great paradox in Washington politics could be summed up, as Congressman Hayworth said, “cheap labor or cheap votes,†depending upon what side of the aisle you are seated. He concluded by adding: “what we are seeing is non-voters being treated as a voting block. It can only be assumed that this being done so as these people are being treated as if they are going to be granted the full fruits of citizenship.†This type of amnesty only encourages disrespect for the law. Hayworth concluded by saying, “the law exists for a reason and borders exist for a reason.â€

In Phoenix, the March of April 10 cost taxpayers $300,000. The slogan of the march, “today we march, tomorrow we vote,†was as misguided and misrepresented as the compassion of those in support of the amnesty program. Of the reported 150,000 protesters, the county recorders office only received 121 new voter registrations. Much could be said about this poor showing; unfortunately, the glaring fact is simply that the vast majority of these protesters were illegal immigrants! Furthermore, these people, not being U.S. citizens, did not even have the right to protest to begin with!

It is time for all Christians to be heard on this issue. We have a voice that is powerful. We have a voice that is respected and as citizens of this country and Christians, we need to be aware that misguided compassion is not the answer to solving illegal immigration. Rather, it is about protecting our border and protecting our legal citizens.