The Matt Walsh Show - October 24, 2018


Ep. 130 - Should Christians Support Open Borders？


Episode Stats

Length

24 minutes

Words per Minute

179.37299

Word Count

4,457

Sentence Count

298

Misogynist Sentences

6

Hate Speech Sentences

30


Summary

As a migrant caravan makes its way toward the US border, should these men stay in their own countries and fight to rebuild their own country? Also, what position should a Christian take on all of this? Finally, why is it offensive for a white person to dress as another race for Halloween but not offensive for non-Irish people to dress up as leprechauns on St. Patrick's Day?


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Today on the Matt Wall Show, the migrant caravan makes its way to the border, but
00:00:03.900 if you look at the footage, it seems like a great number of the migrants are grown men.
00:00:08.520 So should these men possibly be staying in their own countries and fighting to rebuild
00:00:13.380 their own countries? We'll talk about that. Also, what position should a Christian take on all of
00:00:17.860 this? Finally, why is it offensive for a white person to dress as another race or culture for
00:00:23.360 Halloween, but it's not offensive for non-Irish people to dress as leprechauns on St. Patrick's
00:00:28.320 Day? That seems like a bit of a double standard. We'll talk about that as well. All of that coming
00:00:32.520 up. You know, I have to tell you, I realized yesterday that my Jewish friends are absolutely
00:00:39.580 right, absolutely right when it comes to shellfish. I had a fried oyster for the first time, and it's
00:00:47.860 clear to me that these vile creatures were not meant for human consumption, and that's probably why God
00:00:55.200 buried them at the bottom of the sea. I mean, I think that was probably a hint. You've got these
00:01:00.860 mucusy, slimy, gelatinous, salty slugs covered in a hard shell, buried in the sand, covered in hundreds
00:01:08.280 of feet of shark-infested waters. Maybe that's a sign that we're not supposed to be eating these things.
00:01:16.340 And I really do wonder, who was the first person who dove to the bottom of the ocean and found this
00:01:21.740 brown rock and brought it to the surface, cracked it open, and saw all that salty snot and said,
00:01:27.840 oh, maybe I'll try that? And then how did that ever catch on? I don't understand. Now, look,
00:01:32.520 cows, on the other hand, cows live on the land. They're dumb. They're slow. They're delicious.
00:01:39.740 Plus, they come with their own beverage. They come with a side beverage. So it's like,
00:01:44.460 obviously, God has practically put a neon sign on cows saying, eat me, but shellfish,
00:01:50.760 not so much. So I think I'm going to go kosher. Kosher, except for the not eating bacon part.
00:01:57.520 I'll still do that. But as far as shellfish goes, I'm on board. All right. The so-called migrant
00:02:06.060 caravan containing about 7,000 or so Central Americans is continuing. It's marched north
00:02:13.440 the United States, still many hundreds of miles away. I don't think there's any official demographic
00:02:19.140 count for the caravan, but just looking at the footage, there appear to be quite a few grown men
00:02:27.860 in the crowd. This does not seem to be a caravan of women and children, despite how the media may
00:02:34.440 portray it, this would seem to be predominantly a caravan of physically capable adult males.
00:02:42.320 And that's the first point I want to focus on here. Okay. This is the kind of thing people get
00:02:48.240 offended or whatever when you say this, but then people get offended by everything. So who cares?
00:02:54.700 These people are leaving their homelands because their homelands are dysfunctional and destitute.
00:03:00.500 Okay. Uh, but as much as, and you see some of this footage, they're waving their national flag,
00:03:06.160 their flags of origin, they're waging, waving as they march. Uh, but they're marching away from
00:03:11.880 their country. So, so how proud of your country can you really be if you're abandoning it? How
00:03:17.660 patriotic can you really be if you're leaving your country? And I think that's a big part of the
00:03:22.580 problem. Um, and this is a part of the discussion that people don't really want to have, but maybe
00:03:29.460 these, maybe we should consider the possibility that these countries are destitute and dysfunctional
00:03:36.640 because, or in large part, because significantly because they're physically capable adult males
00:03:45.140 keep leaving, you know, you, you can't, how are you going to have a country of your own? If all of
00:03:52.420 your, if all your guys keep leaving you, um, maybe if those men were to stay behind in their own
00:03:59.340 countries and work to rebuild their country and rebuild the way of life, maybe then there wouldn't
00:04:06.140 be a reason to come here. You see, it seems like the pro illegal immigration side, they kind of lose
00:04:13.220 either way because, um, you know, we know they got very upset when Trump infamously said that
00:04:18.640 these countries aren't sending their best. The other side says, well, yes, they are. Okay. But
00:04:24.960 either way it, it doesn't work. You see, because if these aren't their best, if these really are
00:04:30.820 criminals and, and, and, uh, and so forth, if these are the, the dregs of their society,
00:04:36.860 then obviously we don't want them here. But if they are the best, um, if they are hardworking and
00:04:45.400 competent and capable people, that's all the more reason for them not to come here and stay and fight
00:04:51.620 for and rebuild their own countries. We don't want a country sending us their worst, but it's madness
00:04:58.980 for a country to send their best. Your worst, you shouldn't be allowed to dump on another country.
00:05:03.500 You know, I made this point yesterday and some, some people told me that, uh, well, well, the only
00:05:13.420 reason they're coming here is because we ruin their country. Their countries are destitute and
00:05:18.620 dysfunctional because of us. It's our fault. It's our fault. Our government's policies cause these
00:05:23.160 problems. Now, I think that's a weird kind of paternalism. Um, here, here again, you see this sort
00:05:30.640 of white savior, uh, bigotry that's so common among, among white liberals. You're said you're
00:05:39.200 suggesting that these people have no say over their own lives, that, that the, the fate of their
00:05:43.940 country has nothing to do with them whatsoever. They have no control, no say at all. That's what
00:05:50.340 you're saying. Um, you, you are relieving them of, of blame, which is what you want to do, but you're
00:05:57.640 also relieving them of agency. You're having, they have, they have no agency over themselves,
00:06:02.600 over their countries, over their lives. It's, it's all the fault of the white man. The white man,
00:06:07.040 um, in, in America caused the problem and the white man in America is the only one who can solve it.
00:06:13.120 That's what you're saying. I find that extremely, extraordinarily racist.
00:06:17.500 And, and besides, even if that were true, which it isn't, but even if it were true that this is all
00:06:26.220 America's fault and we destroyed the entire hemisphere, all the countries, we destroyed all
00:06:31.480 well, um, then that would mean that these men are fleeing their homelands and coming to the country
00:06:40.400 that destroyed their homeland. I mean, how do you, that's what you're saying. You're saying that we,
00:06:48.520 it's our fault. We did this. We're the big, bad, evil villains. And so they're coming to us.
00:06:54.260 Wouldn't that be an act of enormous cowardice in that case? I mean, wouldn't that be traitorous to
00:06:58.400 your country? If a foreign country destroyed America and left it destitute, would you leave here
00:07:06.040 and go to that country that did this thing? Or would you stay and fight for your home?
00:07:12.440 Now, you know, I don't think that the United States is responsible for destroying Central
00:07:17.080 America though. Though I, I agree that, uh, some of our policies dealing with the war on drugs and
00:07:22.220 the cartels and so forth have been terrible, but to put the blame entirely on us is simplistic and
00:07:27.820 absurd. And it doesn't undermine the point that I'm making here. In fact, it strengthens the point
00:07:31.860 that many of these men should be staying in their own countries either way, no matter how you
00:07:36.020 slice it. Right. I just think this is a really important point to emphasize, because if we're
00:07:40.980 looking for long-term solutions to the immigration problem, uh, well, then I think those long-term
00:07:45.920 solutions have to involve these countries keeping their own labor forces rather than, uh, sending
00:07:52.980 them all to us. I just think that if we're, if we want, if we want these countries to get on their
00:07:57.440 own feet, as it were, then it has to involve that. Second thing about this, anytime immigration's in
00:08:03.760 the news, you always have people claiming that, um, Christians are compelled by the Bible,
00:08:08.860 by Jesus, by our teachings to support unfettered immigration. Um, this is one of the only subjects
00:08:17.000 where the left suddenly likes to talk about the Bible. Usually they hate the Bible. They hate
00:08:20.640 Christianity. They think the Bible is a book of fairy tales, but when it comes to immigration
00:08:24.500 and, uh, and you know, a few other issues like gun rights or, uh, you know, the welfare state,
00:08:30.400 then all, all of a sudden they're, they're opening that book of fairy tales and, um, insisting that
00:08:36.780 clearly we must, we must hold their position if we want to be Christian. Well, that's, that's
00:08:43.500 obviously not the case. Christianity is not a political platform. It does not give us policy
00:08:49.400 proposals. Um, it's, it's not like the Republican or Democrat platform where you can go and they've got
00:08:55.820 a position on every single, you know, social, cultural, political issue. That's not the way
00:09:00.780 Christianity works. Um, and in fact, the faith allows, I think for quite a bit of intellectual
00:09:09.120 diversity. It is, if you like, an open-minded faith. We're supposed to be open-minded. Well,
00:09:15.560 Christianity is very open-minded. Now, obviously the fundamental doctrines of the faith are not
00:09:20.780 negotiable. We're not open-minded about that, but as for political and cultural issues, all we can do
00:09:28.940 is apply Christian principles to the issue and see where it lands us. That's, that's what we can do.
00:09:35.760 Um, on something like abortion or gay marriage, these principles will unavoidably land us completely
00:09:41.800 on one side every time. So if you're applying Christian principles, obviously you're going to be
00:09:47.300 against killing babies. There's just no way to get to the pro baby killing side. If you're starting
00:09:53.300 with Christian principles, you just can't get there. Um, if you want to get there, you're going to have
00:09:57.600 to throw the Christian principles aside or, or it's not going to work. But on issues like immigration,
00:10:06.320 uh, taxes, gun rights, foreign policy, economic policy, healthcare, et cetera, faithful and devout
00:10:14.680 Christians can come to a variety of different conclusions. Um, it's, it's, it's possible to,
00:10:25.400 you know, hold many different positions on those kinds of issues on immigration. As far as I can see
00:10:33.240 it, the only completely unacceptable view for Christians is the one that supports all forms of
00:10:39.500 illegal immigration without restriction. The one that says, we'll open up the borders, let everyone in,
00:10:44.080 forget about the law, forget about the borders, forget about all that. That's not a Christian,
00:10:47.960 you know, that's, that's not a Christian perspective. That's a, that is a Marxist utopian
00:10:52.420 perspective. Um, a Christian with that view is supporting criminality, illegality. He's undermining
00:10:59.760 the authority of the state and authority that we're told is given to the state by God. So that's not an
00:11:05.860 acceptable view for Christians. But aside from that, there is a spectrum of positions a Christian can hold.
00:11:12.080 One of those positions, which happens to be mine, mine is that, um, rampant immigration legal or
00:11:18.760 illegal is bad for almost everyone. It's bad for America. It's bad for the countries that are being
00:11:24.520 abandoned. As we've talked about the only person who might benefit is the individual immigrant, but
00:11:29.880 I don't think it's in this situation. I don't think it's ethical or moral, moral or logical or prudent
00:11:35.400 to put one person on a pedestal above everyone else. I don't think you can put the interest of this
00:11:41.000 one person above everyone else above the law itself. I don't think we can do that. Now, clearly when
00:11:47.380 you're weighing, you know, the individual versus the collective, you're not always going to come
00:11:53.200 on the side of the collective. If this is a life or death issue, if for instance, um, directly and
00:11:58.840 intentionally murdering an innocent person might benefit the collective, well then that still is not
00:12:04.140 okay. It's not okay to murder the person. This is an argument that people make for abortion
00:12:07.460 all the time. They say, well, you know, these babies are unwanted. They're just going to be poor.
00:12:11.760 They're going to end up in jail. They're going to commit crimes. It's already where the world is
00:12:15.460 overpopulated. No, it's not. That's a myth, but the world's overpopulated. So for the, for the sake
00:12:20.160 of the collective, we should have abortion. Well, that is a morally unacceptable position. Um, we can't
00:12:27.840 go kill an innocent person for the sake of the collective, but we're not talking about murdering
00:12:34.080 immigrants here. This is not life or death. We're talking about simply not allowing them to come
00:12:40.440 here. And in that situation, I do think we have to weigh everyone's interests and go with the strategy,
00:12:46.380 go with the policy that benefits the most people. I just want to emphasize this for a moment,
00:12:51.360 a moment, because this is important. The options when it comes to immigration,
00:12:55.780 the options are not let them in or kill them. Okay. Now the way people talk about this issue,
00:13:04.420 you would think those are the options. Like if you don't let them in, then it's, it's, then we're,
00:13:08.100 we are rejecting, um, their very lives. This is, you hear people say that, uh, well, if you're really
00:13:16.440 pro-life, you would be pro-immigration. What, what does that have to do with anything? What does pro-life
00:13:23.380 have to do with this? If the other option was killing them, then yes, this would be a pro-life
00:13:27.880 issue, but that's not it. We're simply saying that we should enforce our laws and not let them
00:13:32.860 in. They can go back and live in their own countries. They can go to any country that will
00:13:35.620 accept them. This is, this is, this is, that's all. As for us, we have laws, we have a border and it
00:13:45.020 should be enforced. There is nothing in the pro-life platform that should make us opposed to law and
00:13:51.300 order. In fact, we should be in favor of law and order because the whole, the whole reason why we
00:13:55.140 have laws and why we have order is for the sake of us, for the sake of human beings, because we
00:14:01.840 recognize that human life is sacred and precious. And so we need laws to protect those lives and to
00:14:07.740 establish order. Um, siding with law and order on the immigration debate is not the same as siding
00:14:15.100 against the very existence, the very lives of these people. We are not denying the sacredness,
00:14:22.740 the sanctity, the preciousness, the value of their lives. When we simply say we have laws and we're
00:14:29.100 going to enforce them. All right. Um, one other thing I want to talk about on a different note,
00:14:36.820 Megan Kelly had a conversation on her show yesterday where they were talking about offensive Halloween
00:14:42.360 costumes. And she remarked that in her opinion, she doesn't see why it's offensive for a white
00:14:50.020 person to dress as a black person. If the, if they're dressing as a black person, they admire
00:14:54.960 in order to pay tribute. And she gave the example of a white woman dressing as Diana Ross. Well, of
00:15:00.120 course this sparked outrage and, um, and people were offended and hurt and traumatized and, uh, and it
00:15:07.100 made their tummies hurt that she would dare to utter this opinion about costumes. And then later on in
00:15:13.420 the day, she issued an apology. I don't think she owed an apology for two reasons. Number one,
00:15:18.660 and I feel like a broken record here. I'm saying this all the time, but I think I just,
00:15:21.980 I feel like it needs to be said over and over again that, um, you cannot ignore a person's intent
00:15:31.240 when they say something. So if somebody says something and you know that their intent was
00:15:39.600 perfectly innocent, that they were not trying to be offensive. They were not trying to say anything,
00:15:43.600 uh, hurtful. If you know that, then there's no reason to be offended. Even if what they said was
00:15:51.260 clumsy, uh, inartful, whatever. If you know that they weren't trying to be offensive, if you, if you
00:15:57.200 know what they meant, then there's no reason to be offended. And if you get offended anyway, it's
00:16:03.360 because you wanted to be offended. It's because you are a cynical opportunistic jerk looking for a
00:16:09.980 reason to be offended. That is the only excuse to be offended by something. That's the only reason why
00:16:16.180 a person could be offended by something that they know was not intended to be offensive.
00:16:22.000 Megyn Kelly is just another example. You can disagree with her position about costumes,
00:16:29.360 whatever. She clearly was not trying to be racist, that she did not consider this to be a racist
00:16:35.180 comment. There was no racism underneath it. So if you say, well, I know you didn't mean it as racist,
00:16:40.780 but I'm going to take it as racist. Well, then you are a liar and a fraud. If that's what you do.
00:16:46.920 Well, I know you didn't mean it that way, but this is how I'm going to take it.
00:16:50.220 Well, you know what? Then you should apologize to her. If you're doing that,
00:16:53.620 you should be the one apologizing. In fact, you should, you should be, she should be saying
00:16:58.200 you're welcome because, because you should be thanking her. You know, when you get offended by
00:17:03.220 something because you wanted to be offended, then you should be saying thank you to whoever offended
00:17:07.440 you because you wanted to be offended. You were desperate to be offended. You wanted nothing more
00:17:11.980 than to be offended. You're so excited to be offended. So you should say thank you to the person
00:17:16.320 who offended you. You were obviously looking for an excuse. You got it. Well, say thank you. Be
00:17:21.080 polite. Where are your manners? I just, I hate this so much. I mean, of all the things in modern society
00:17:25.840 that I can't say, this might be the thing. This might be above everything else. This propensity
00:17:30.980 that people have to get, to be offended, to choose to be offended when they know that the intent behind
00:17:36.660 the remark or the comment or the action was totally innocent. And we act like intent is irrelevant.
00:17:42.320 It's not irrelevant. Intent is the whole point. That's all that really matters in communication.
00:17:48.780 All that matters is what do I mean when I say it? And if you know what I mean, then that's,
00:17:55.000 then that should be it. We can't have communication. All human communication breaks down this way. If you
00:18:04.260 are, if you are going to refuse to receive what a person tells you in the spirit and with the intent
00:18:11.520 that they clearly meant it. Now, um, on the issue of, uh, on the issue of Halloween costumes in
00:18:20.900 general, look, I don't dress in costumes myself. I don't find it especially appealing to dress in a
00:18:28.600 costume. I haven't had the desire to dress in a costume since I was about five years old, but I do
00:18:32.720 know that the point of Halloween costumes is to have fun. Uh, most costumes are in good fun. I think
00:18:38.420 you rarely see a mean spirited costume every once in a while you do. Okay. So you see some idiot
00:18:44.500 dressed in a every, you know, you'll see, you see stories of, uh, some moron dressed in a, in a
00:18:51.380 Holocaust costume or something. Well, that obviously is mean spirited. That's not in good fun. You're
00:18:56.660 not, you're not having good fun with the murder of 6 million people. Um, but most costumes aren't like
00:19:03.200 that. Most costumes are, even if they're tacky, even if they're outrageous, even if they're
00:19:08.240 inappropriate, they're still not mean spirited. So, um, should a white person be able to dress
00:19:17.800 as someone of a different race or of a different culture? Uh, of course they should. Obviously.
00:19:25.280 I mean, don't be ridiculous. Why are we even talking about this? Clearly they can. Clearly there's
00:19:31.000 nothing wrong with it. Now. I know that when I say they can, I know that if they do, they're going
00:19:34.740 to be, uh, you know, people won't tolerate it in, in this irrational age that we're living in,
00:19:40.580 but in an ideal situation, if everyone was rational and we were all mature adults, there would be
00:19:45.740 nothing wrong with it. If it's, if it's meant in good fun, if it's meant to be a tribute, if you're
00:19:50.440 just happy, there's nothing wrong. It's, it's just like non Irish people on St. Patrick's day,
00:19:57.280 they'll dress in, in really ridiculous, exaggerated Irish themed costumes. I mean,
00:20:03.820 people dress as leprechauns for goodness sakes, people dress as leprechauns to this. And by the
00:20:09.980 way, St. Patrick's day is a, is a, is a, um, is a, a religious holiday on top of that. So you're coming
00:20:18.820 in on this religious holiday and making a mockery of the Irish dressing as a leprechaun. Well, you know
00:20:24.360 what? No Irish person gets offended by that. I think that actual Irish people in Ireland,
00:20:29.360 I've never heard of any of them being offended. I think they just laugh about it and they roll
00:20:33.400 their eyes and they kind of laugh at us. People of Irish descent in America, we don't start crying
00:20:39.000 about it. We're not offended. We laugh. We have a good time. In fact, we're, we're flattered on,
00:20:44.860 on, on, on St. Patrick's day, everybody wants to pretend that they have Irish ancestry. And so those
00:20:48.920 of us who do, we feel kind of, you know, we feel kind of good about ourselves. We feel kind of,
00:20:52.240 uh, kind of cool that everybody, everybody wishes they had the same ancestry that we do.
00:20:56.980 So you should be flattered by that. So it's the same thing with native Americans. I mean, for,
00:21:00.900 you know, a lot of white people, look at Elizabeth Warren. She's not the only one. A lot of white
00:21:04.900 people in America wish that they had native American ancestry, even if they don't. And so if
00:21:09.180 they dress up as a native American, they're paying tribute. This is meant to be flattering. You
00:21:14.260 should be flattered by it. It's, you know, for whatever reason, there are white, there are two
00:21:19.360 things. It seems that every white person in America wants to be, they want to be Irish
00:21:23.500 and they also want to be native American. Okay. So whatever, there's no reason to be offended by
00:21:29.020 that. You could laugh at it. You could say that's silly. It is, but why be offended? Um, and, and,
00:21:36.160 and look, it's not like, I know, I know you might say, well, uh, well, it's different because
00:21:40.120 black people, native Americans, they they've been oppressed. They've been persecuted. Uh, this is a,
00:21:44.940 this is a persecuted group of people. So to dress up as them is, well, I don't deny that they've been
00:21:49.600 oppressed and persecuted, but, but what do you think the Irish haven't, have you read any, do you know
00:21:54.520 anything about Ireland? Are you kidding me? I, the Irish people have not been some dominant, powerful
00:21:59.600 force in the world. We're talking about a culture that has suffered terribly, been persecuted terribly
00:22:05.260 in their own country and, and in the United States. It's been, it's been the, the, the history of
00:22:12.580 the Irish people. It's been misery after misery yet, yet they take this all in stride. So you know
00:22:20.600 what? And, and, and on St. Patrick's day, nobody is talking about the plight of the Irish people.
00:22:26.720 No one's having this conversation. Nobody's wondering whether or not Irish people are offended
00:22:30.760 by this. Nobody does. So, you know what? I have no interest in double standards. I just don't.
00:22:36.040 If it's okay to dress Irish, if it's okay for non-white people to dress as white people on Halloween,
00:22:41.380 then white folks can dress in whatever costume they want. I'm sorry. The double standard is not
00:22:46.900 working for me. I'm not going to go along with it. I don't think anyone should. If you have a double
00:22:51.960 standard, then why should, why should I care what your opinion is? If you clearly have a double
00:22:55.760 standard, why should I respect that? If you're going to go and celebrate St. Patrick's day and,
00:23:01.120 and, and get drunk in your leprechaun costume, um, making a mockery of the Irish, you know,
00:23:07.240 associating them only with leprechauns and being drunk. If you're going to do that,
00:23:11.740 then don't pretend you're a, well, that, well, that, that, that, that costume offends my cultural
00:23:16.420 heritage. Well, you can't do that. What, why should I take that seriously? Um, and by the way,
00:23:22.640 I also don't agree that the offended person is always right and should always get his way.
00:23:28.540 Well, if someone's offended by that costume, that's reason enough not to wear it. No, it's not.
00:23:32.520 It's not reason enough because people get offended by everything. So it's not reason enough to stop
00:23:38.100 doing something. Well, if someone's offended, you shouldn't do it. You shouldn't say it. Well,
00:23:40.840 that means I'm not going to do or say anything ever again, because somebody is always offended.
00:23:45.100 Maybe the offended person should stop looking for a reason to be offended. Maybe the offended person
00:23:50.340 should say to themselves, Oh, it's just a costume on Halloween. It doesn't matter. It's just,
00:23:55.280 someone is just having fun. Maybe I'll just be cool about it for once in my life and calm down and just
00:24:02.240 let people have fun without looking for a reason to rain all over the parade. Maybe we should expect
00:24:08.960 the offended person to do that. You know, what about that? In the case of an intentionally mean
00:24:14.540 spirited costume? Well, that's different. But even then, if it's intentionally mean spirited,
00:24:20.080 it means that the person's pitiful and they're, and they're looking, they're desperate for attention.
00:24:23.580 So the last thing you should do is give them attention, just ignore them. But if it's meant as a
00:24:27.600 tribute, if it's in good fun, if it's, if it's the same jokey kind of spirit as the St. Patrick's Day
00:24:33.060 stuff, then, well, maybe you should just laugh and move on with your life. Just a thought. All right,
00:24:41.180 we'll leave it there. But as I said, I don't dress in any costumes for Halloween, but I don't begrudge
00:24:45.780 those who do. Have a great day, everyone. I'll talk to you tomorrow. Godspeed.