Christians 101

Immigration

You've probably heard about the letter on immigration that over 50 evangelical leaders sent to Bush last week. The letter cited support for a bill which would allow citizenship for undocumented immigrants, according to WashingtonPost.com. This issue is yet again dividing the evangelical church, as it is much of the rest of the country:

Among the signers was World Relief, the humanitarian arm of the National Association of Evangelicals. But the NAE itself did not sign the letter because its members are divided on how to deal with immigration, said the Rev. Richard Cizik, the NAE's vice president for governmental affairs.

Polls show that about two-thirds of white evangelicals consider new immigrants a burden on society, compared with about half of all Americans who hold that view. On the other hand, Cizik said, most evangelicals realize that Latino immigrants are the fastest-growing part of their church.

"Evangelicals are a lot more sensitive to the plight of immigrants than outside observers might think," he said. "When you put together the biblical mandate to care for the alien and the receptivity of the Latino community to the evangel, to the gospel, you have a sensitivity factor that almost outweighs the traditional evangelical concern for law and order."

Some predominantly white evangelical groups, such as the Christian Coalition and Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum, have strongly opposed the Kennedy-McCain bill, labeling it an "amnesty" package. They support a House-passed measure that would concentrate on sealing U.S. borders and enforcing existing immigration laws.

A post on the Think Christian blog shows some of the discussion going on around the issue:

As we read in the passage from Leviticus and in many other Biblical texts, God requires that immigrants be treated with love, justice, and equality. Yet the aliens in ancient Israel did not have to contend with the legality of border crossings or the bureaucratic complexities of green cards or visas that today’s migrants to the U.S. face. Immigration in a complicated issue: undocumented workers enter and reside in the U.S. illegally but the American economy is dependent on their cheap labor. How can Christians navigate these tricky waters that pit a Biblical duty to love against ethical qualms about a system where workers and employers defy the law?

Another blogger, Jeff Doolittle, cites the same verse:

I’m intrigued at the thought of how American Christians might view the immigration debate if they took this command from God seriously:

“When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.”

Leviticus 19:33-34 (ESV)

It makes you think. Are we Americans first, or Followers of Christ first?

posted by Elizabeth @ 11:18 AM