Images of numerous people crossing our southern border manufacture within me many conflicting emotions and questions: What are we going to do with the vast numbers? How do we weed out the bad actors? How do we avoid cruelty as they are herded into cages? How do we support landowners and the state of Texas who are inundated with thousands of crossings?
When I'm confronted with such questions, I cling to scriptures that challenge me to not judge, be compassionate, and love my neighbor. It is a challenge at times, especially when I'm asked to be compassionate toward a "neighbor" who humiliates others. I've heard some rather rough language directed toward people seeking a better life in America--even those who arrive legally. Each person has a story.
I am acquainted with a Mexican-born woman who succeeded in crossing the southern border nearly twenty years ago. It took her three tries. Since then, she and her husband have started separate businesses. They pay taxes and are raising two boys who make straight A's in high school. The woman has a sweet smile and speaks in broken English. Her tamales are heavenly, made with organic tortillas and antibiotic-free chicken. Sadly in front of her children, she has been accosted by people in the Walmart parking lot--people who know nothing about her background--calling her names and telling her to go back home.
Of course, not everyone who enters our country becomes a model citizen like my friends, and the immigration issue is complicated, but should we solve the problem with cruelty?
Below are six strong suggestions--mandates?--of how Judeo-Christians should treat immigrants, with a reminder to Christians that our spiritual ancestors (Hebrews) fled an oppressive regime (Egypt).
Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (Complete Jewish Bible translation)
1. Exodus 22:20 (or vs 21 in other versions) "You must neither wrong nor oppress a foreigner (also translated as "alien," "immigrant," "stranger") living among you, for you yourselves were foreigners in the land of Egypt."
2. Exodus 23:9 "You are not to oppress a foreigner, for you know how a foreigner feels, since you were foreigners in the land of Egypt."
3. Leviticus 19:33-34 "If a foreigner stays with you in your land, do not do him wrong. Rather, treat the foreigner staying with you like the native-born among you--you are to love him as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am ADONAI your God."
4. Leviticus 24:22 "You are to apply the same standard of judgment to the foreigner as to the citizen, because I am ADONAI your God."
New Testament (Revised Standard Version)
5. Matthew 25:35: "for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me."
6. Hebrews 13:2: "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."
7+. Also see Psalms 146; Deuteronomy 1:16 and 24:17; Ezekiel 22:29 or any scripture highlighting love for others, including our neighbors. Some websites list 30 scriptures with a similar altruistic focus on immigrants.
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Americans have always had a "border crisis" and prejudice toward newcomers. When politicians stoke those biases with loaded, emotional rhetoric like "poisoning the blood," we end up with policies that separate children from their parents and people thrown into jails without due process. I even heard the words "concentration camps." Vitriolic words hurt everyone.
Mostly I regard the majority of undocumented immigrants as desperate people with dreams of a better life.
If you are like me --a Caucasian living in the U.S.--we are descendants of immigrants. Some of our ancestors escaped persecution and immigrated to America, including the Irish Catholics before 1850, German-Russians during WWI, and refugees from German-occupied Europe during WWII. And that's an extremely short list of European immigrants.
Conspiracy theories fomenting hatred among U.S. citizens toward foreigners are nothing new. See "When America Despised the Irish: The 19th Century Refugee Crisis" on history.com.
The scriptures remind us to remember our immigrant ancestors when we encourage our leaders to solve the immigration crisis. ". . . .treat the foreigner staying with you like the native-born among you--you are to love him as yourself, for you were foreigners . . . ."
--written by Grandmother Windsong, a somewhat sassy septuagenarian with roots in Kansas, Colorado, North Carolina, Great Britain, Poland, Ukraine, Ireland, Germany, and maybe even India.
Illustration from Pixaba.com. Free download.
1 comment:
Thank you for this! My thoughts exactly. I believe there are close to 81 scriptures addressing the need to care for the immigrant, foreigner, alien, stranger in the Bible. My people are the Irish immigrant and the German Russians you mentioned. We have to do better as a country. There is a need for regulation on the border, but it must be done humanely. People forget that Jesus himself was a refugee.....
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