Crossing the Lines: Border Issues (OnewayPurpose.com)

Well, this morning I happened to land an appointment with my brother to answer a question placed on his blog. So this is what I've been up to.

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A couple days ago, Deborah a reader of Oneway Purpose asked me:

I was wondering what your thoughts were on the border issue in the USA, and if and what you think would be the best course of action.

Thanks for asking Deborah, I’m going to introduce my brother, Isaac Boskovic of Principle Thing and together we’ll take a shot at your answer. Isaac is actively involved in commerce and trade, and is adeptly aware of the deeper things behind border-security.

Isaac, tell us, how much does border security really mean to a country?

Well, after that introduction, I’d better have something good to say. I’m assuming that the question was asked more specifically about Canada - U.S. border issues, and probably entails trade issues as well, but I’ll start by dealing with border security.

There are two things which will forever be at odds with each other in terms of domestic policy – freedom and security. Security will always come at a cost to some freedom, somewhere. The important issue – in Canada and the United States – is that we bear in mind that we are defending freedom, not security.

If at any time we begin to promote security as the principal issue for society, then the only thing that has happened is that we have become that which we are fighting against. We start out trying to protect our freedom against terrorist threats and attacks, and end up sacrificing freedom for the sake of security. This may not necessarily be a planned agenda, but it is simply a pitfall to beware of when considering where to apply security in defending freedom.

The borders of a country are the property lines, and every country has the right to secure its borders. If we are truly defending the freedom of citizens within the country, then the place to apply security checkpoints is at the borders, not on your street. The simple freedom of being able to cross the border incognito is what is being sacrificed for security, and freedom within those borders is to be maintained, and I believe that is an indication that the security priorities are – at least in this case – in the right place.

Passports are now requested/required to cross the Canada – U.S. border, both for Canadian and American citizens. It is a visible, noticeable measure of security, and a visible, noticeable removal of the level of freedom our border-crossing once was. If it becomes necessary to escalate security for the preservation of freedom, that is the appropriate place. And notice that I said ‘necessary’, because it is important that we establish security only to the degree appropriate, and sacrifice freedom only to the absolute necessities.

However, as I said before, the nasty draw of degradation requires a warning that too often we become that which we fight against. What we need to be doing, and not just think we are doing, is to simply preserve freedom, and be discerning as to what really are the threats to our freedom, rather than fight against every foreign threat to our security.

Far more insidious, and far more sinister than requiring passports at the border, would be a plan to create borderless borders. (As has been done in the European Union) Such an arrangement would remove the place and possibility of establishing security without sacrificing freedom. Indeed, the only way to have security would then be to remove citizen freedom. There would need to be security in the towns, cities, buildings, streets, and country backwoods in order to have ‘freedom’ at the border. Therefore, it is obvious that in order to maintain freedom and security in the country, the established border can not be diminished, but rather strengthened.

Thanks Isaac, you’ve captured the issue and frisked it better than I could have done. Tell me, what spiritual parallels are there here to take notice of and apply to the Christian Life?

Did you ever hear people say that having standards of what we wear, what we do, where we go, etc. is ‘keeping you in bondage’? I mean, how can you be free when you have all those rules!?

The truth is that those rules and borders, those standards and principles, are there for the preservation of our Christian freedom. Without them, there are only two things that will happen: The world will come in until all allegiance to our Lord is displaced, or, great security and scrutiny will be required on every street corner of our life, so removing either our Christianity or our Christian freedom. The borders! Those standards are our security for the preservation of our freedom, and for the preservation of our faith!

That is so true, setting principles and sticking to them and guarding them well will save us a lot of trouble. It’s so much easier to nab a criminal when he’s going through the gate than when we have to call in the FBI to track him down inside the walls.

And another important fact I’d like to add: Our borders will not get rusty, in fact we need to have them well guarded at all times. Satan constantly tries to penetrate those walls with every possible means, sometimes through individual agents who aim to sneak past the guards, sometimes through open assault. We however can withstand every one of these attacks, because, after all...

We have Air Support.

Isaac, thanks so much for joining me today on this critical issue. It’s been a pleasure to have you as a guest and I believe the readers of Oneway Purpose will be greatly benefited by your insight.

Thanks David, you're welcome of course. Having touched upon border security issues this morning, I’ll have to leave the next part until later, which will be ‘cross-border trade’. See you then.

You broke the secret, see you then!