"Government of the people, by the people,

and for the people, shall not perish from the earth”

Lately it seems that some Christians believe that once something is legal, or constitutional, enacting it becomes moral, and that our lawmakers, and executive rise above moral responsibility when they act within the law. This is dangerous non-sense. 

Lincoln’s words at Gettysburg pose the most ethically challenging description of a democracy in the modern era. They underscore this simple fact: In the United States the people, the voters, bear direct moral responsibility for the actions undertaken on their behalf by the government. They created the government and they have to own its actions. 

Of course the term “government” is misleading. It isn’t just the voters who are responsible for government. The government itself is made up of elected individuals. Because legislators have the power to create, change, and end laws they individually bear moral responsibility for their actions as law makers. 

And even the executive branch cannot evade moral responsibility in its enforcement of the law, because the legislators have given the executive branch wide latitude in exercising its judgment in how to best enforce the law.

In short, and to repeat, there is no such thing as “government.” It is a meaningless abstraction. There are morally responsible (or irresponsible) people making and enforcing laws.No one of voting age in the United States and no one elected or appointed to office can reasonably speak of the behavior of "the government," or "the law," as something separate from their personal moral behavior and responsibility.

I make this point as we focus our attention on the present situation with migration and immigration. Legislators are personally morally responsible for their failure over decades to pass reasonable legislation addressing the challenge of economic migrants and asylum seekers in relation to American aspirations to be a moral nation. Because the laws they pass affect many countries outside the US, they bear moral responsibility for having helped create the need for economic migration and asylum on countries outside the US, and for America’s economic need for workers. 

At the same time the executive branch is morally responsible for the policies it has created as the chief agent of foreign policy and their negative impact on people outside the US. And it bears responsibility for implementation of recognizably problematic immigration laws, particularly in areas where it has the power to determine when, how many, and under which circumstances to issue visas or deportations.

And yes, that is as true of the past voters, legislatures and administrations as it is true of those currently in office. 

But finally it is you and I, the voters, who are morally responsible for what is happening on the border. We elected our legislators and our president, we have access to them to influence their decision making, and we will vote to change them. 

Nor does our moral responsibility end just because we didn’t vote for the winning person or party. None of us is a moral island who hasn’t influenced and been influenced by our neighbors. We are responsible for the sins and righteousness of our society even if we didn’t directly commit the former or encourage the latter. “Ask not for whom the bell tolls. . . .” Its worth looking up. 

I suggest that instead of moaning and pointing fingers of blame at “the government” or even a particular political party, (and parties are also a moral fiction hiding individual responsibility,) we get to work changing things. Protest if that’s your thing, write letters to the editor, call your congressman, volunteer for any of the groups that aid migrants and their families, do business in Latin America in a way that resolves rather than creating social problems if you have the capacity, run for office yourself. But most of all VOTE and encourage your neighbors to vote.