assignment

We can have different viewpoints.  Let's debate but respect each other. 

Anonymous Posting:If you would like to remain anonymous to class, feel free to post anonymously. You won’t be anonymous to your professor and our teaching fellow RJ. We will still be to credit your work.

Debates on Refugees and Immigration on the Border

Context: “The pope made his first official trip outside the Vatican, outside Rome, and he used the trip as a means to draw attention to a continuing humanitarian problem while chiding the world for its indifference. The number of people having to flee violence, having to flee economic desperation, having to try to find a new life: the whole world seems to be ignoring them. We have the situation in our country: the whole immigration problem, which we seem unable to really respond to in a way that, if we listen to God speaking in our hearts announcing the law of love in my own heart, we would have to respond as Pope Francis suggests.

Here are his words when he got to the place where these refugees had been trying to cross. They're stopped at a small island short of Italy and held there until some are sent back, some are finally allowed into Italy and so on, but many, many died. Thousands died because they come in boats that are not really seaworthy in any sense of the word, and so many die on the way. "These brothers and sisters of ours," Pope Francis says, "were trying to leave difficult situations to find a little security and peace. They sought a better place for themselves and their families, but instead they found death."

Can't we say the same thing about those people trying to enter our country, especially on our border in the south? They're leaving situations of desperation -- sometimes violence, but mostly economic desperation -- and we've responded, as Pope Francis says, with what he called "the globalization of indifference that is widespread among too many others. We have forgotten how to cry for migrants lost at sea or for migrants trying to enter our country.

"We've forgotten how to take care of each other," the pope says, "and the numbers of those who are lost are those of a war, but a side of war that no one speaks of except a few blogs that no one reads." Those are the words of the pope. Now if we really try to update the law -- love the lord your God with your whole heart, mind and soul, love your neighbor as yourself -- would it not be right here in this situation?

Gumbleton, T. (2013, July 19). Pope Francis provides modern-day example of the Good Samaritan. Retrieved March 22, 2020, from https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/peace-pulpit/pope-francis-provides-modern-day-example-good-samaritan

Assignment: Would you like America to follow Pope suggestion in terms of refugee and immigration on the border?

Initial Thesis Propose your thesis.

Step Through MENTAL-State TEST Consider the doctrine of double effect regarding your thesis. Here you need to exercise MENTAL-State TEST as discussed in the video lecture. For example, given your thesis, what bad effect(s) could there be? If America would take ACT A, then would an alternative act avoid the bad effect? Please step through the test and follow the format in our lecture slide.

Interview Family or Friends Talk to 2-3 members of your family or friends about your thesis and how you exercise the MENTAL-State TEST. Briefly describe your discussions. Point out whether well-meaning people interpret consequence to be good or bad differently. When this happens, do your discussions resort to intention or principles or consequences?

Final Thesis Now your interview and discussion are done, do you modify your thesis? Describe the characters of the people you talk to. Do you find their characters have an impact on your thesis?

Class Discussion:  Respond to two peer postings.  Each of these two postings has taken a standpoint different from yours. Challenge them.  Please provide reasoning, which can include evidence based on your experience.

Format Expectation:

Give section heading to each part of your assignment (e.g., Initial Thesis).

When you perform MENTAL-State TEST, make sure you will list each step described in the lecture first. Then you elaborate what you do at this step.