Dobson doesn't speak to or for the good, suffering, decent people who are fleeing horrors or who simply desire what our forefathers did, once upon a time. Instead, he speaks of the "many" (whom he describes in the most alarming terms) while calling for an address to stop them. He tells us how good we've been BUT maybe shouldn't be, can't afford to be now.
Dobson plays to the selfish impulse in us by reducing their plight to an imagined and overwhelming cost and their cause to utility instead of humanity, or our Christian obligation to our neighbor and brother.
Er, no. It is costing hundreds of billions of dollars. Will it bankrupt us? Maybe we need to be bankrupt. When I read this, I read a concern, not a 'Lets do nothing' comment. I've linked what his ministry is doing as well as what others can do to help. Has he done better than you? Have you done anything other than leave them there? I've not. I've prayed, hurt, maybe I should be proverbially horsewhipped too.
I WANT to do something. For my birthday I started a Compassion International drive. I made $27 that will go directly to children in need including some of these. $20 of it was mine and it still isn't enough (I get a paycheck in a few weeks and will add more).
In this effort he fails his calling and your trust. It's one of the least Christian things I've ever read from a pastor, and telling me earlier how bad some of it made him feel doesn't alter that later call. In fact, were he someone who didn't care at all it would be a neat trick to convince those moved by his call and by fear and their pocketbook that they were, in some form or fashion, actually doing the right thing. I'm not saying he is that wolf, but when you could write what he did to accomplish the wolf's aim without altering it, he and those who admire him need to seriously rethink what he wrote.
Again, read 'into' his letter. You decided what it meant, filling in the pieces to do so, I believe. I've been through this letter 5 times now, partially a sixth as I've read your comments.
So a person who struggled on the point could say, "Well, pastor Dobson has a point. I mean, he's a good man. You could see how those children moved him. But this, this worldwide flood--he's right. They're dangerous to us. It's our duty to protect ourselves from that element. We're a good, Godly people and he's a good, Godly man. I'm sorry for those people, I am. But it's like the pastor said, can we afford it? And with so "many" dangerous people among them. We should build the president's wall."
...or, we should build a wall to discourage kids from taking these dangerous journeys, many abused and dying. It doesn't talk about the ones who are here already, but rather, something else we should do. You are putting words in his mouth.
Look.
Read. See. Hear.
When someone invites harm to others they also invite a likened judgment, even if their harm amounts to a public, rhetorical excoriation and embarrassment, which remains a lesser thing than the harm he advocates. When a pastor does it, or anyone who has a good reputation that can work to move people in support of that, it's far worse.
Building the wall wasn't the action he requested. He requested prayer and said Trump was the only one he knew of that might be able to do anything. Clearly, Democrats did block aid for a long time. Pelosi made a statement about the children during the government shutdown, and called for her own party to 'stop' blocking aid.
