Am I Two-Faced?

     I was seated in a modern living room, but the conversation transported me back to the the world of “To Kill a Mockingbird” in the 1930s. In that book, a Southern ladies’ missionary circle sips tea and chats about how to raise funds to support a missionary working with an uncivilized tribe in Africa, while they complain about having to pay their “darkie” maids.     
     As in that scene, I was gathered with decent people who genuinely care about the world. One woman urged us to “pray for the Guatemala missions team,” reminding us that these volunteers traveled there using their own money to build a house for a homeless family. The conversation drifted, and someone mentioned immigration. Another shot back, “It’s illegal, and that’s all there is to it.”     
     What? I thought. It’s not all illegal, and there’s much more to it. Although some view immigrants as criminals who steal jobs, studies reveal that in general, immigrants are more law-abiding than native-born Americans, and they fuel our economy, rather than sapping it.      
     But I was too shocked and tongue tied to say anything. We all bowed our heads to pray, yet I couldn’t quiet my swirling mind. Why do we feel great about being charitable toward needy people at a distance, but turn our backs when they grow desperate and flee here? Are we as two-faced as those 1930s ladies? And here’s the scary question: what hypocrisy am I blind to?     
     Solutions to our immigration crisis are complicated, but one thing is clear: Whenever I care for “the least” in this world - the hungry, the thirsty, strangers, those needing clothes, the sick, even those in prison, Jesus said I did it for him.     
​     Am I willing to put aside my prejudices and do good for Jesus?