Bill Muehlenberg's commentary on issues of the day...

Security, Walls and Common Sense

Jan 13, 2019

“Walls are immoral.” “Walls don’t work.” “Walls are unjust.” How often have you heard these and similar statements made by those on the left? Like so many moral platitudes, they may give warm fuzzy feelings to the ones making such claims, but they have little basis in fact and reality. To demonstrate this, let me ask a few questions.

Why is it that just about everyone and everything is entitled to some common sense protection and security, but the United States of America is not? Why is it that the overwhelming majority of Democrats, leftists and progressive Christians who scream the loudest about America putting up a wall along its 2000-mile southern border have their own security, their own fences, and their own protections?

They are simply being hypocrites and worse when they denounce Trump and the US, while enjoying plenty of their own walls and security. Almost all of these folks have locks on the doors of their homes, and they most likely keep those doors locked 24/7.

Indeed, the wealthier these leftists are, the more likely they will have very elaborate and very expensive security systems set up, complete with cameras, direct links to security companies, and plenty of high walls and guarded fences. Are they all being immoral, unloving, and unChristlike, by having these locks and other security measures?

Are they being hard-hearted, denying others justice, and being horrible conservatives to live with all this protection? Indeed, why stop with their own homes? Let’s look at countless other areas where they most certainly utilise security and protective devices.

Do they have locks in their cars? Do they use those locks? When they take luggage or briefcases with them, do they lock them? Do they use combination locks and the like to prevent others from gaining access? And what about their mobile phones? Do they have passwords or security codes of various kinds to protect their privacy and content?

Do they have website accounts, email addresses, and other internet items that they protect with user names and passwords? Do the banks that they keep their money and other types of wealth in have plenty of proper security, walls, and various forms of heavy duty protection?

When they pay their bills electronically are there plenty of security checks they readily make use of? When they log on to their Facebook or twitter accounts, do they have basic forms of security in place? Do they microchip their pets so that if they are lost or stolen they can be more easily retrieved?

And these individuals who denounce conservatives for wanting a secure border also spends their lives making use of other goods and services which have walls and other forms of security. They send their kids to schools that more than likely have walls and fences.

They attend sporting events in walled arenas that keep non-ticket holders out. They go to nightclubs, discos and concerts with security guards and bouncers. They often go to private hospitals which are members-only. They belong to various groups and clubs that are members-only.

When they fly somewhere they have to show some identification and prove that they and they alone are the proper ticket-holders. When they go to the workplace, many have guarded entry points – certainly for government workers, including politicians.

We can keep going on like this all day. The world of the leftists is every bit as full of security, of protection, and even of walls and fences as that of any conservative. They utilise such security around the clock just like everyone else. Yet they want to condemn conservatives for doing the exact same thing with America’s border with Mexico? Really?

Let me bring in here two articles written last year, but still well worth running with. Both pieces appeared last July, but with the various migrant caravans now at or approaching the US border, they have an even more urgent role to play in this debate.

The first article, “Why Everyone (Really) Believes in Secure Borders and Why America Needs Them,” is by Frank Turek. He says in part:



And I’m not just talking about your physical security, but also your economic security. People want to come here for the freedoms and prosperity we have in America. This has become the land of opportunity and the most prosperous nation on earth, which would have been impossible without secure borders. Open borders would destroy the very reasons people want to come here in the first place.

The second piece is by Wayne Grudem: “Why Building a Border Wall Is a Morally Good Action”. He first discusses a fair amount of biblical material, rebutting Christian leftists who think that there should be no walls, and then looks at four common objections. Here are the first and last of these:







Both of these articles are well worth reading and passing on to others. They make a solid case for walls and security, and refute so much of the sloppy thinking from those on the left. In sum, let me offer some wise words of a friend which I just spotted on the social media:

It actually shocks me that anyone would ever entertain the idea that ‘walls don’t work’. Zoos have them, homes have them, prisons have them, secure businesses have them, government buildings have them, and your own home has them, unless you live permanently in a tent. And I’d venture a guess you lock your doors regularly.
The phrase ‘walls don’t work’ is to social and geographic considerations the equivalent of 2+2=5, but in a world where people have begun to officially accept the idea you can change from male to female and vice-versa, such obvious untruths will become sadly more commonplace. If walls don’t work, no-one in history would EVER have built one (Incidentally, I’ve been to the Great Wall of China).

[1755 words]

22 Responses to Security, Walls and Common Sense

  • Greetings Bill, Servant to the Most High!

    Thank you — you’ve nailed it again! Your articles are so grounded in His wisdom and reality. Recently I heard Mark Taylor say, “heaven has gates, walls & extreme vetting [you have to believe Jesus died for your sins and repent].”

    Louise : )

  • Dear Bill,

    We esteem you for your solidarity in this with the courageous President of the United States, who is faithful also in upholding the Judeo Christian ethic in his presidency, and honouring Almighty God.

    Thank you, and we pray the Lord bless and protect both you and Mr Trump,

    Balfour family

  • Hey Bill, im an american and i do agree that we need a wall here. However,i saw a poll from breitbart that stated that over half of trump supporters wanted a stop to all immigration to the U.S because some people believe we’ve taken enough immigrants and we have many problems in the U.S that need to be resolve first. I’m also of the belief that some places should fix their countries (like central america). Otherwise, just moving everyone that lives in central america imo isn’t gonna solve any problems that they have there and brings the problems to america (MS13 gang members and illegals that have killed americans). I could be wrong but most of the people from central america are Catholic/Christian and love their countries as i’ve seen when they waving their countries flags, if they love their country and are Christian,why don’t they pray to God to help make their country better? Im not trying to sound like i hate foreign people but i have an aunt that came from El Salvador and i would love it if her country did fix its problems and may one day be like america. but the problem is that like i said,moving everyone thats in the 3rd world to the west doesn’t solve anything and makes things worse IMO. I just think the people in the 3rd world should fix their problems is all.

  • As usual you are right on target. The strongest opponents of a wall are those who demand the most security themselves. May God bless you as you shine a light in the darkness.

  • The wall is expensive. Comes in at around $5.5 billion. But what is the annual budget? Over $5 trillion I believe. It’s a drop in the bucket when you consider its to allow the government to do one of its most basic functions!

  • The Democrats, by attempting to impeach President Trump, are tiring to
    a) remove him from office (physical & legal removal); and
    b) bar him from further office.

    These are the political equivalents of removing a person who is no longer legally entitled to a position, banishing, removing, expelling, ousting, purging, displacing them.
    By ‘barring’ him, they are putting up a legal bar or barrier, preventing him from any further entitlement to office.

    The Democrats are therefore hypocritically attempting to do to President Trump the exact same thing that he is attempting to do to illegal aliens and those seeking entry illegally into the USA. They seek to expel him and put up a barrier to prevent him from re-entry (into political office).

    Unfortunately some Republicans (some would describe as ‘the Establishment’ or ‘Deep State’) would also seek to impeach President Trump.

    So far all efforts to provide evidence to impeach have failed, yet their fervour indicates a political agenda.

  • Walls are necessary. Without them the characteristics of nation states are lost, as immigrants tend to bring in their own culture and then try to impose it on the host nation. As has happened in Europe, and in Britain. We have the English Channel, the Irish and North Seas, but even that hasn’t prevented our little land from being inundated with unwelcome visitors. It’s not just walls that are needed but the political will of the ruling government to enforce the functions of that wall. And of course, there is very little of that in Europe right now. We envy Trump and his iron hand.

  • I recently read through Revelation 21, which describes the “new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God” (v2). A third of this chapter is devoted to … its wall (v12-21) !

    It’s interesting that God deems a wall to be necessary for the holy city, even with the new heaven and new earth (v1). So much for walls being immoral and unjust!

  • Why are the leftists not loudly protesting outside former President, Barack Obama’s wall outside his home, “Mr. Obama, tear down that immoral wall?”

  • The way I see it, every country has a right to protect its borders and if a wall does the job well, then why not have one? It makes a lot of sense to if it does the job.

  • Open borders is a manifestation of the Marxist goal of the abolishment of private property. Just as the walls of our houses protect what belongs to us individually, borders protect what belong to us as a country.

  • Could it be that a “life without boundaries” approach to personal and community relationship ethics is part of the “Y’all come!” approach to the illegal international migration of fugitives from failed and failing nation states to Western countries? Even UK is no longer protected from human traffickers by its “moat,” the English Channel.

    The power and brutality of the drug and crime cartels in Mexico is not something anyone wants to see replicated north of the Mexican border. The opium trade into 19th-Century China left permanent scars on international politics and laid low a once mighty Chinese imperial dynasty.

  • Australia is lucky we have a “wall” of seas protecting our borders.

    But that natural barrier is useless unless we change our immigration policy to say only Christians can come to Australia permanently.

    When Australians go and vote later this year, make sure you vote for candidates and parties that support pro-Christian immigration policies.

    There is nothing more important to Australia’s survival as a strong Christian Nation.

  • Most of the Dems wanted a wall until they discovered Trump wanted a wall too. Now the Dems don’t want a wall. What Trump has to do to get the wall is to tell the Dems he doesn’t want a wall.

  • Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
    —Ronald Reagan, address at the Brandenburg Gate, June 12, 1987
    Was Reagan a “snowflake”? Is Trump insane?

  • Thanks Dominic. But that is a rather odd comment coming from you. As you full well know, Reagan was speaking about the walls put up by Communist tyrants to prevent their own people from fleeing to freedom. What Trump and most Americans are taking about of course is protecting the national sovereignty of a nation from having millions of people inundating the country. That fact that millions of people are willing to risk everything to get to a free and prosperous America is certainly telling. But certainly all nations have the basic right to determine who gets in, and how and when. So there is no moral equivalence between these two incredibly dissimilar walls.

  • There are two huge and grave threats to democracy at the moment. Firstly, the idea that nationhood is a bad thing which then leads to open borders plus the undermining of the rule of law and the power of democracy and the forced importation of demonstrably destructive cultures. People simply have not grasped that once the power of nations is undermined and we are all subject to non-democratic, global rule – all freedom is lost along with the say people were previously given through democracy.

    The second major problem is how much propaganda and obvious misinformation the public media is allowed to get away with. The current generation just does not seem to have grasped how many lives were given so that we could have freedom and democratic rule and, as a consequence, does not understand how easily it could all be lost to the wrongful and immoral ideas now being promulgated, especially by the public media. Their influence is obviously very strong which is why we see so many people today espousing completely unworkable ideas including the promotion of fundamental immorality and the shutting down of free speech. The huge irony is that it is being done on the false basis of journalistic freedom while at the same time the forces of evil have pretty much cornered the control of the public and private media. Hypocrisy much.

    Once you lose democratic power it will be incredibly difficult to win it back and the recovery will only happen through the loss of huge amounts of blood.

  • Democracy is supposed to mean that the majority rules. Many people are being brainwashed by the mainstream media. Minority groups have more power than they should. These include LGBT people especially transgender people. A wall would protect the majority local population. The local population has worked, paid taxes and voted for generations. The wealth of a country has been made by the local population. The local population should come first because they have created the wealth. If the local majority want a wall then they should be able to have it. The majority is supposed to rule the country.

  • Bill, I agree, the odious wall built by the illegitimate East German régime could not be compared to one built by a legitimately elected government. I do not say “democratically” elected because the US Constitution does not provide for a president to be elected by the people directly. unlike, say, the current French Constitution.
    The difficulty with the Trump “wall” is that it is completely unnecessary. Indeed, most American citizens agree that it is unnecessary. Now, that doesn’t mean that they are not interested in the security of the borders of their nation, they are. But misusing US$5 billion on adding a new physical wall when there are already extensive physical and electronic obstacles to prevent illegal entry is *not* what most US citizens want. No, the true purpose of Trump’s wall is different.
    You seem to like Trump… I view him like this:


  • Thanks Dominic. But a few replies if I may:

    -I offered evidence above and elsewhere that walls do indeed work and are necessary. If folks prefer to simply ignore the evidence, that is up to them. But we might take your apparent dislike of secure borders more seriously if you send us picks of your home, where you have taken down all the walls, and removed all the doors and windows – or at least all the locks on them!

    -With 22 million illegal aliens in America, and that number growing by the day, most folks would laugh to hear that current US border policies are just peachy.

    -I already said in my comments, as well as in dozens of articles over the years, that I have not been a great fan of Trump. To be honest, I have as little use for sycophantic Trump supporters who believe he can do no wrong as I do with irrational Trump haters who believe he can do not right.

    -Having my position continually misrepresented is something I expect from leftist trolls, but not from those who should know better.

Leave a Reply