This post houses links to my posts regarding illegal immigration, civil disobedience, and American Christian responsibility in the world in which we’ve been called. Beside reading the series, you can also download the e-book.
Theologically Necessary Posts
My thought model sort of worked. It allowed me to see the driving principles that ran through Israel’s treatment of immigrants while yielding some information about how those principles might be applied today; but it kept catching one snag. Our problem isn’t immigration—it’s illegal immigration.
Because of that, I had to reflect on human laws, authority and a Christian’s responsibility.
Christians love Scriptural commands; it makes things easy. We weigh in on an issue by citing a verse (or five) and we’re done—ding! Next problem?
So it is with immigration. We surf through our New Testament and then pause, sighing thankfully that there is a verse that seems to deal with illegal aliens, or at least strangers: “The stranger that you invited inside, fed, and clothed his nudity…it was me, Jesus. When you rejected that stranger and left him imprisoned; you rejected me, Jesus1.”
Well, we blush; it’s not as good as an explicit command. The passage is totally about interaction at the personal level and it doesn’t offer anything in the way of “thou shall”—especially not on the national level.
Ignoring the other post-worthy problems up above, I think there’s a proper goal in finding what Scripture says in regard to immigration. Surely, not for the purpose of finding a new law (wrongheaded, that), but for the purpose of discovering operating principles.
For that, we need to construct a thought model.
With Obama’s Health Care Reform being discussed, special interest groups have started calling for Immigration Reform that would coincide with a public health plan. Noting the finances involved, other interest groups state that this isn’t fair to Americans and has called for stricter Immigration rules. This has reignited old political questions while introducing American Christians to an ethical quagmire.