As regular readers will know we have spent a good chunk of this year focussed on planning and fundraising to get to the USA to speak at conferences in South Bend, Indiana and in San Francisco. Yesterday we should have been on a flight heading to the USA but we had to make the tough call to cancel Madeleine’s planned when Madeleine’s non-immigrant visa failed to come through in time.
Twenty years ago, when Madeleine was 18 and not a Christian, she committedwhat she calls “an act of teenage stupidity” and was convicted of theft and had to do some community service. In New Zealand this conviction is covered by clean slate law but this law does not apply to other countries and the US ask all their visitors seeking visa waivers “have you ever been convicted of a crime of moral turpitude?” Anyone answering “yes” has to apply for a non-immigrant visa. Now Madeleine applied for one of these last time she went to the US some 13 years ago and was granted it in 2 days. This time she phoned up and was told provided she applied about 4 weeks out from her planned date of travel she should be fine – especially as her conviction is now 20 years old and she has never been in trouble since and she has been granted a visa before. She applied with nearly 6 weeks in hand but at the point we had to make the call, her application was still “pending” (and it still is as I write this). In addition, the American Consulate are still holding her passport so they can put her visa in it… With no passport and no visa she could not get on the plane.
Given that we were going to Indiana because Madeleine was speaking at Notre Dame and now she is not we decided to change my trip so that I will now just go to San Francisco and deliver all my planned talks (I will now give our joint talk to the SBL by myself). I now will not leave New Zealand until Tuesday 15 Nov.
We have been able to get a lot of refunds thankfully with not too much in the way of penalty fees and we were able to get a new flight for me at the same ticket price so once we know what it will cost for me to go, any left-over donated monies will be held over to next years cluster of EPS and SBL conferences, as at the very least I expect to be travelling to the US to speak at them – Madeleine will come with me if the US Department of State have actually processed her visa application by Nov 2012… (You can check the status of her application by going here and clicking on the link in the right hand column under “CASE STATUS CHECK” and using “control F” and entering: 20112782761 – that is her)
As you can imagine we are deeply disappointed by this turn of events and we have had a fairly flat few days as a result. I am pleased to be able to share that there is some good news to among the bad, Madeleine was last week offered a job in a law firm working part-time for an employer who understands and is willing to accommodate her pain disability caused by her car accident in 2008. Her trip being cancelled has meant she has been able to start proper this week so that has given her something to focus on.
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Aw, that’s such a huge bummer! So sorry you’re not able to make it to the States. For what it’s worth, I’m an avid reader of your work here on this site, and it has personally challenged my thinking in a number of areas. I’ve shared many of your thoughts with my students in a high school Bible class. Keep up the good work!
I extend my sympathies.
If all middle-aged adults were held to account for our teenage stupidity, we’d all be grounded!
My friend who is an American Born Muslim of Turkish/German descent had a hard time getting a visa for his second wife(he is divorced not a polygamist) and he had to jump threw a lot of hoops to get her into this country.
She wasn’t even a Muslim she is an Orthodox Christian.
Post 911 paranoia.
“when Madeleine was 18 and not a Christian,”
Lol, because people who are over 18 and who are non-Christians never get in trouble with the law…
Try being a bit more humble with your approach to people who are different from you. I find the arrogance that most Christians have is disgusting.
Go luck on leaving NZ though.
Oops, I misread the age section, but my criticism of the religion section still applies. Shame.
I think you misunderstand the comment. As a Christian Madeleine holds herself to a higher standard of behaviour and respect for others than she did previously.
Far from being arrogant it is a recognition of her own natural failings.
No, what she is saying is that she is a better person than non-Christians solely because she believes in Jesus and all the nonsense that goes with it. Its arrogance plain and simple. I can see it here, I can see it with the Pope and I can see it with the American Christian Right. All Christians think that they are superior to other people and it is disgusting.
Dicky P, Actually Madeleine said none of the things you attribute to her. It sounds a lot more like you have a stero type of Christians and you choose to project it.
More like she has a stereotype of non-Christians and treats them with distain.
What is it with Christians and thinking that they have all the answers and are better than everyone else? It is not as if they have any evidence or reasons for their beliefs. Please explain.
Dicky P, when you can actually provide a cogent response to something someone actually said, rather than simply mouthing off accusations with little or no basis for them then I’ll discuss matters with you.
Matty F, I could say much the same for your approach to reality.
@Dicky P, do you actually know any Christians? None that i know think the way you acuse them off.
Obviously i am somewhat thick , so could you explain to me in simple words how Madeleine owning up to the fact that her teenage stupidity went further than most peoples to the point where she got charged and convicted of theft, is in any way symptomatic of arrogance or thinking herself better than others or superior to them?
Of recent times the people i know of with a superiority attitude are the New Atheist movement who formed a group and had the cheek to call themselves the ‘Brights’.
Jezza, can we be friends on Facebook? Then maybe I could get to know some ‘Christians.’
If want, no problem.
Well at least one Christian can be friendly. I once asked Glenno and he declined.
Sorry to hear about the spanner in the works. Great to know we have a Sovereign God!
Question about your “the number of the beast” in Investigate Dec 2010:
Most scholars seem to think that Revelation was written towards the end on the 1st C. That makes your statement about Nero being the “sixth who now is” invalid – the dates do not line up. Any comment?
Peter, there are two major dates for Revelation one dates it late around 90 the other dates it to Nero’s time.
One determines dating in a large part by the content of a book and matching it to known external events.
If my interpretation is correct this is evidence for the earlier dating.
Wow, sorry to hear about this. Makes you think does’nt it? about mercy and grace I mean. America’s “Christianity” does’nt extend to historic misdemeanors. What a bitter irony- here is Madeleine prepared to defend the historic view of the American Constitution against the warped ideas secularism is doing to it and she can’t get in the door. (Perhaps that’s why!) Hope your talks go well Matt. Congrats on the job Madeleine.
What a major bummer 🙁
“What a bitter irony- here is Madeleine prepared to defend the historic view of the American Constitution against the warped ideas secularism is doing to it and she can’t get in the door. (Perhaps that’s why!)”
WTF????
Sorry to hear this, have they given you a date when your visa will arrive? My husband has to apply for one of these too! God bless.
“You do the crime you do the time” “Shouldn’t be given a slap on the wrist with a wet bus ticket” “Sensible sentencing” “Throw away the key” … etc etc etc
😀
Hopefully by now you have been able to get things straightened out. We all (or at least me) have done some dumb things in youth. It’s a shame that it is in the way now.
This is a late comment, but I am sorry to learn about this, Madeleine. It would be interesting to learn if the consulate ever followed-up with you (even after it was too late). If not, I wonder what happened?
It would seem like for an ancient conviction, there should be a process where it is at least possible to get this expunged from your record, so that you don’t have to deal with this in the future.
Hi Jeffery, in NZ your record is expunged after 7 years, provided the offence is minor and there is no reoffending. The problem is that this law only applies in the US.
We are still waiting on the visa waiver, they are good for a year and Madeliene had to hand the consulate her passport so getting it remains a priority.
I read you work all the time and it makes me sad to hear you are not going now. Tace care and keep up the great writing.
you should have put down that you have no criminal record…i know people that have done it to get into the usa – no problem
if a country has a stupid law then its not worth following…i apply my own morals to my life, not those of the american elite…that would be a stupid thing to do
Fortress America sometimes can be quite paranoid, unfortunately so
It appears that they were simply backlogged. I got my visa for entry into the United States approved (finally) in early January.
So are you going on a holiday now to Amerika?
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