Jesus told the disciples:
“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” (Matthew 10:29-31)
Many times in the Bible, God affirms that the life of a human is worth more than that of an animal. This belief—accepted for millennia as a basic tenet of civilization—is no longer a given in American culture today. In fact, an opposite belief is now driving some opponents of a border wall.
A billboard in New York City declares, “A wall divides more than just people”; “Over 800 species share the border,” with a picture of a man holding a turtle.[1] This movement, identified on Twitter as “#KeeptheborderWILD,” opposes the construction of a border wall because it would disrupt various animal species living there.[2] They want an open border, regardless of what it might cost at the human level.
Our current porous boundary has resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of human lives. In so many areas, the statistics are too well documented to dispute.
For example, there has been a massive influx of violent gang members into America—such as the explosion of the MS-13 gang, which has been responsible for countless vicious and brutal homicides.[3] The presence of a wall will reduce the current ease with violent criminals from crossing the border.[4]
Furthermore, since 1998 over 7,000 have died while trying to skirt the immigration laws and enter illegally across the southern border.[5]
There is also a relatively open flow of deadly illegal drugs into America across the unsecured parts of our southern border, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of ruined lives and families.
The bottom line is that building a border wall will help save human lives. To argue that a wall is bad because it might inconvenience certain species of animals demonstrates the twisting of values that is currently occurring in American culture. Psalm 8:4-5 acknowledges that God “made man a little lower than the angels and crowned him with glory and honor,” and when Social Progressivism fails to reverence human life at this elevated level, society becomes regressive.
Concern for the ecosystem can be valid, but when it jeopardizes the welfare of human beings, it should never take priority. If a border wall will help preserve the health and safety of human beings, its construction should be of the highest possible importance. The value of human life should never be degraded in favor of animals.
Foundations of Truth hereby waives all claim of copyright (economic and moral) in this work and immediately places it in the public domain; it may be used, published, edited, and distributed in any manner whatsoever without any attribution or notice to Foundations of Truth.
[1] “#KeeptheborderWILD,” Twitter (accessed August 14, 2019), https://twitter.com/hashtag/keeptheborderwild?src=hash
[2] “Turtle Conservancy,” Turtle Conservancy (accessed August 14, 2019), https://www.turtleconservancy.org/
[3] Jessica M. Vaughan, “MS-13 Resurgence: Immigration Enforcement Needed to Take Back Our Streets,” Center for Immigration Studies (February 21, 2018), https://cis.org/Report/MS13-Resurgence-Immigration-Enforcement-Needed-Take-Back-Our-Streets
[4] Eddie Scarry, “MS-13 gang member, attempted murderer apprehended at Texas border lacking border wall,” Washington Examiner (January 30, 2019), https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/ms-13-gang-member-attempted-murderer-apprehended-at-texas-border-lacking-border-wall
[5] “U.S. Border Patrol Southwest Border Sectors Deaths by Fiscal Year,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection, (March, 2019), https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/assets/documents/2019-Mar/bp-southwest-border-sector-deaths-fy1998-fy2018.pdf
