When citizenship was a big deal

I feel that citizenship is not such a big deal anymore. The prevailing winds of legal permissiveness and laxness have successfully eroded the frisson of the words “American citizen” in my breast—as they were calculated to do by people with agendas.

It is interesting that there was a time when citizenship meant something. And it was in an age and place that many of the “sophisticated” people in our modern country would consider backward compared to 21st century America. The Apostle Paul was arrested in Jerusalem one day in the first century A.D. and hauled off to jail. Here is what happened next:

“But when they had stretched him out for the whips, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, ‘Is it lawful for you to flog a man who is a Roman citizen and uncondemned?’ When the centurion heard this, he went to the tribune and said to him, ‘What are you about to do? For this man is a Roman citizen.’ So the tribune came and said to him, ‘Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?’ And he said, ‘Yes.’ The tribune answered, ‘I bought this citizenship for a large sum.’ Paul said, ‘But I am a citizen by birth.’ So those who were about to examine him withdrew from him immediately, and the tribune also was afraid, for he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him” (Acts 22:25-29).

If citizenship is no longer a big deal, maybe we need to apologize to all the people in history and even today who have done it the right way and followed all the protocols. If all it takes to be an American is to walk across a porous border, I would feel a little foolish if I were a European going to my local embassy or consulate to submit a petition, to prove my age, to produce financial documents and character documents, to pay fees, to prepare Form N-400 and if applicable, N-648, to get my passport photos, to arrive on time for my biometrics appointment, to submit to interviews, to get fingerprinted, and to wait on a list for years and hope the government has generous quotas for my particular country.

The Apostle Paul felt that civil citizenship was important enough that he resorted to arguing for it in his favor when the law had treated him unfairly. And at the mention of it the authorities trembled.