Ready or not MAGA hats, t-shirts and banners will be resurfacing again in preparation for the U.S. Presidential Election.<\/p>\n
Whether you agree or not, the above slogan speaks to Duffy\u2019s comment. \u201cOur analysis of Donald Trump’s success in the United States showed how ‘nativism’ –the sense that your own people, those born in the country, should come first – drove the president’s support more than any other single factor\u201d, p. 87. [1]<\/a><\/p>\n In a backlash to globalism, politicians are getting political milage out of the political football called Immigration.<\/em><\/strong> \u00a0The return to isolationism and the severing of international connectivity is part of the delusional palette that is being embraced by the GOP.<\/p>\n In the U.S. alone, immigration legislative action has been stymied for the last 20 years.\u00a0 It is only through the Presidential Executive orders that any movement has occurred and even then, those orders are in constant battle. \u00a0For instance (December,2022), \u201cThe U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling Tuesday, granted a GOP request to prevent the winding down of the pandemic border restrictions known as Title 42\u2026[2]<\/a>\u00a0 They went on to say, \u201cThe “current border crisis is not a COVID crisis,” Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in his dissent. “And courts should not be in the business of perpetuating administrative edicts designed for one emergency only because elected officials have failed to address a different emergency. We are a court of law, not policymakers of last resort.”[3]<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n The U.S. is not the only country that has this struggle.\u00a0 Duffy states, in Chapter 4, \u201cDisquiet about immigration, religion, and integration has helped shape the political debate in every recent European election, from the French presidential election in 2017 to the Italian general election in 2018.\u00a0 Just about every county in Europe has at least one high-profile, extreme political party that has immigration and broader cultural concerns at the heart of its offer\u2026 [4]<\/a><\/p>\n According to Duffy, two topics combine to demonstrate how \u201cWhy We\u2019re Wrong About Nearly Everything.<\/em>\u201d \u00a0Immigration and religion, he states, are two of the most divisive issues in the world today.\u00a0 Emotions are high, and our delusions, not just about the scale but the nature of minority populations, are frightening. p. 87.[5]<\/a><\/p>\n Combining these two topics, many U.S. churches are uncommitted to the refugee plight. As Cindy Wu writes in A Better Country,<\/p>\n “The nations have come to America, creating a tremendous opportunity for us to live out our faith and commitment to Christ. Yet in a 2016 Lifeway survey, pastors revealed that their churches have a sense of fear about refugees coming to the US\u00a0(46%) and some (13%) did not believe Christians have a responsibility to care\u00a0sacrificially for refugees and foreigners.”\u00a0 [6]<\/a><\/p>\n Despite the fact that there is biblical mandate to deal compassionately with the alien amongst us, Many U.S. Churches have become politicized on the topic of immigration.\u00a0 Matthew Soren\u2019s and Stephen Bauman write,<\/p>\n “Scholar Walter Kaiser notes that the Old Testament warns \u201cno fewer than thirty-six times of Israel\u2019s obligations to aliens, widows and orphans.\u00a0 Most important here, Israel\u2019s obligation is to be motivated by the memory that they had been aliens in Egypt.” [7]<\/a><\/p>\n Groups like the George Bush Institute, have produced policy recommendations called \u201cThe White Papers\u201d to draw legislators to the economic pluses of immigrants in the U.S. [8]<\/a><\/p>\n However, Duffy states,\u00a0\u00a0\u201cIt used to be assumed in some political circles that you just needed to put the facts out (for example, on immigration’s net benefit to the economy) and people would come round to a ‘sensible’ view as result, p. 107. [9]<\/a><\/p>\n Unfortunately, according to Duffy, use of just the sensible view has not been successful. He writes, \u201cThis has been rightly discredited, as the power of identity, ideology, and partisanship have been brought to the fore. p. 107[10]<\/a><\/p>\n Duffy goes on to say that, \u201cThe emphasis then shifted to focus less on the facts and more on the narrative, connecting with people through stories and emotions\u2026\u201dP. 107[11]<\/a><\/p>\n Anecdotal stories by themselves have also failed to help people cross the perceptual gap between immigrants reality.\u00a0 Stories like \u201cThe Act of Sacrificial Love\u201d \u00a0https:\/\/worldrelief.org\/the-act-of-sacrificial-love\/ March 13, 2023, fail to move opinion.<\/p>\n Chivers writes, \u201cAnecdotal evidence has a bad reputation, but it\u2019s not inherently wrong.\u201d [12]<\/a><\/p>\n Duffy adds, \u201cWe remember vivid anecdotes far more readily than boring statistics.\u00a0 And some stories are more attractive to the human brain than others, particularly those that play on our sensitivity to threats<\/strong><\/em> or danger<\/strong><\/em> – and that is often how discussions of immigration are framed in the media and politics.\u00a0\u00a0 Our delusions about immigration are systemic, not due solely to media or political misdirection on the one hand or our own wrong thinking on the other, but a result of these two groups of effects interacting,” p.90.<\/p>\n Immigration statistics are cited constantly by both parties and with pictures of asylum seekers rushing to the south Texas border gates, this has caused a visual and numerical \u201canchor<\/strong><\/em>\u201d in the minds of the public. Duffy states, \u201cAccording to research by psychologists Kahneman and Tversky, we are influenced by previously provided information, and this can have a powerful impact on us, even when that information is irrelevant, p.102.[13]<\/a><\/p>\n Duffy\u2019s Conclusion. <\/strong><\/p>\n As in all things, balance is required.\u00a0 Duffy ends chapter 4 saying. \u201cWe’re approaching a more balanced position, where both story and facts should be recognized as important to the beliefs that people hold.\u00a0 This is a good thing, not just practically but also for the type of society we want in the future,\u201d p. 108.<\/p>\n Amen.<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Bobby Duffy, Why We\u2019re Wrong about Nearly Everything: A Theory of Human Misunderstanding<\/em>, First US edition (New York: Basic Books, 2019).<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Joel Rose, \u201cSupreme Court Allows Border Restrictions for Asylum-Seekers to Continue for Now,\u201d NPR<\/em>, December 27, 2022, sec. National, https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2022\/12\/27\/1144475541\/supreme-court-decision-title-42-migrants-asylum.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Ibid. Rose.<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Duffy, Why We\u2019re Wrong about Nearly Everything<\/em>, 2019. p.87.<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> Duffy, p. 87.<\/p>\n [6]<\/a> Cindy M. Wu, A Better Country: Embracing the Refugees in Our Midst<\/em>, Second (Littleton: William Carey Publishing, 2022), 39.<\/p>\n [7]<\/a> Stephan Bauman, Seeking Refuge: On the Shores of the Global Refugee Crisis<\/em> (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2016).<\/p>\n [8]<\/a> \u201cWelcoming Immigrants Policy Recommendations | George W. Bush Presidential Center,\u201d accessed January 16, 2023, https:\/\/www.bushcenter.org\/publications\/welcoming-immigrants-policy-recommendations.<\/p>\n [9]<\/a> Bobby Duffy, Why We\u2019re Wrong about Nearly Everything: A Theory of Human Misunderstanding<\/em>, First US edition (New York: Basic Books, 2019), p.87.<\/p>\n [10]<\/a> Duffy, 107.<\/p>\n [11]<\/a> Duffy, 107.<\/p>\n