Serving Bread

In Part III of this series, I looked at pull and push factors that cause people to migrate. In this post, I will specifically look at the pull factors. Over the years, I have learned that in nearly every situation, it is wise to first look at my contribution in conflict rather than lay the blame on others. I guess I am learning how to apply Matthew 7.1-5, where we are to judge ourselves before judging others.

As Americans, we are excellent marketers and proselytisers of the American dream. The image that the rest of the world gets from America may be very different from how the ordinary American feels about his or her country. For example, many in the Muslim world believe that America is a Christian nation. While many of us will contend that we are far from being a Christian nation, that is not the image that the rest of the world may have of us.

One image that we produce is the economic mobility that the American dream offers. “If we work hard enough, we can be anything we want” is our motto. Yet that is often far from the truth. Many people come to the United States in search of the jobs and the mobility that is only found in Hollywood movies. Unfortunately, over time they realize that the American dream is just that, a dream.

I think of the character Colonel Behrani in the book (and movie) House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III. Behrani flees Iran with his family during the Iranian revolution in the late 70s. He comes to the United States, believing in the American dream of a new and better life for his family, only to quickly confront racism and classism and a way of life that is foreign to his Persian culture.

The discourse on immigration spends far too much of its energy confronting “those illegals” (or even “legals”). We blame the very people that catch the bait that the American dream offers. We are successful at prosletyzing this dream, but once they are here, we don’t want them here.

As Christians and as the American Church, we have to be wary at what we embody to the rest of the world. Are we ambassadors of Christ or are we propagators of the American dream?

It seems that there are several ways that American Christians contribute to the Hollywood image of America. We lack a healthy theology of suffering. We escape or medicate suffering so that we suffer no more. When that is our theology, we invite people to come to a “better place” which is here and not there.

Second, we confuse American with Christian. We are quick to address synchrotism in other cultures but we forget that our version of Christianity might be mired in Americanism and Westernism that is not necessary Biblical. And as we send people on (short-term) mission projects, we may be inviting people into Americanism rather than Christianity.

The discussion and debate on immigration is complex. There are many issues, and it would be amiss if we did not recognize how we contribute in painting a (false) picture of the American dream.

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