What would Jesus do? On the border, most Americans don't seem to know

Yet, on a personal level, many of my fellow Catholics and I have ignored the current crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border. We've left it to our leaders to orchestrate a response. Many of us have, as individuals, done next to nothing. Worse, as the survey points out, many Catholics have lost our way; about half of us failed the course on how to treat refugees.

The Bible is clear about how we ought to treat the stranger. There is no spin, hedging, mincing of words. This isn't some nonbinding resolution that is open to interpretation. For people of faith, this is the word of God.

Look at Exodus 23:9. "Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt."

Or Matthew 25:35: "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in."

Or Leviticus 19:34 -- "The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God."

Or Jeremiah 22:3 -- "Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien."

Americans tend to worry about the wrong things. We hear a lot about how the number of Americans who attend church is down. But, as this survey points out, what should really concern us is not who is attending services but whether anyone is actually listening and taking to heart what is said there.

What good does it do to sit in the pews if we're not paying attention to the sermons? Why read the Bible, if we don't take seriously its commands?

There's the real crisis. And it's terrifying.

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Ruben Navarrette's email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com. His daily podcast, "Navarrette Nation," is available through every podcast app.