City Council hypocrisy on sancutary

In December, the Olympia City Council unanimously declared Olympia as a ‘sanctuary city’ in defiance of President Trump’s position on immigration. Intriguingly, many protesting adherents to the ‘sanctuary’ movement, both here and across the nation, often carry placards proclaiming, “Jesus was a refugee”.

Such declaration used to justify illegal immigration fails to consider that, while ancient immigration laws are unknown, evidence indicates that borders have existed throughout world history--a most inconvenient truth to the sanctuary movement. For example, the Great Wall of China predates the time of Christ by hundreds of years and was built to keep out nomadic incursions. Many major cities of Jesus’ era had walls to protect their people from invasion, and city gates controlled entrance as attested to by myriad archeological sites.

Further complicating protesters’ assertions, one must remember that Jesus’ ‘refugee’ status was of temporary duration. The family returned to their country of origin where Jesus grew up, learned a trade, and participated in his native society during the remainder of his life.

The sanctuary movement would do well to reconsider citing an event from Jesus’ life as justification for aiding and abetting illegal activity and flaunting the immigration laws of this nation.

Section 2 Olympia City Council — General Powers and Responsibilities indicates that the City “…values personal honesty and integrity….” Do they really?

This story was originally published February 11, 2017 at 6:42 PM with the headline "City Council hypocrisy on sancutary."