No one can argue that Ronnie Floyd, senior pastor of Cross Church of Northwest Arkansas, shouldn't be counted among the most influential people in Arkansas and, perhaps, the nation. He ministers to one of the largest congregations in the country through Cross Church's five campuses, and he recently was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant Christian organization in the U.S.
To be sure, when he speaks, many people listen.
What’s the Point: A local pastor’s experience at the border to meet children fleeing oppression in Central America reminds everyone that people, and not politics, are what really matter.
Like any religious leader, he has his detractors. And like the rest of us, he's not perfect.
But it was hard to find anything wrong with what he has to say this week after visiting with some of the unaccompanied Central American children and teenagers who recently fled their home countries and ended up in the United States.
The children say they are fleeing drug wars, gang violence, human trafficking and poverty that threatens their lives. Some 57,000 of them have made the dangerous trip across the border from Mexico since October 2013. More are expected.
Their presence in the U.S. has been, to say the least, controversial. Emotional debates over whether the children should be permitted to stay in the country, perhaps with family members who are already here, or whether they should be sent back to their home countries despite the purported dangers there, rage almost daily.
Is this a humanitarian crisis or a dangerous lapse of border security? Arguments play out across television screens and the Internet constantly while government officials play political chess, using these kids as pawns in a larger ideological game.
Floyd and Russell Moore, the Southern Baptist Convention's chief ethicist, waded into the fray on Tuesday when they traveled to south Texas with the goal of seeing for themselves what was happening.
What they found was not a political issue to be resolved or an argument to be won. They found children, isolated and afraid, in need of compassion, support and dignity.
Floyd said meeting these children made a tremendous impact, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
"I saw those children up close, and that changes everything," he said.
On his personal blog, Floyd later wrote of how the experience personalized the situation on the border for him, and how he hoped that reading and praying about it would do the same for others.
He also called on Christians to help comfort and care for the children while a resolution is sought, and reminded everyone that keeping their hope alive for them is of paramount importance.
"People will go a long way and tackle obstacles when they feel that hope is possible," he said. "They are hoping for a better life."
Floyd stopped short of endorsing any kind of political solution, according to the Democrat-Gazette. He called for a spiritual awakening among those able to help and prayer for government leaders so they'll make the right decisions. He also reminded anyone willing to listen that the first obligation we have to each other is compassion and love.
No matter who you are or where your from, it's hard to argue with that.
Commentary on 07/25/2014