[CS-FSLUG] [OT] The Bible on How to Treat Aliens (or immigrants)

[Stephen J. McCracken]

doc wrote:
>>> I expect to be held accountable to the law wherever
>>> I am, so did Jesus, or have our social-revisionists
>>> also done away with 'Render unto Caesar that which
>>> Caesar's and God's what is God's'?
>> A gentle question, Sir: What if Caesar trespasses God's law? Does Romans 
>> 13 apply also to Stalin? For many in Christ today, what we see before us 
>> in US government may well be not so far different from Stalin, Hitler, 
>> Pol Pot, et al, in significant ways. I worry you come too close to 
>> stating your position so strongly you assume your position is the only 
>> one possible for anyone who loves Jesus. Do you realize to some readers 
>> you would sound bitter and hateful?
> 
> No, Romans 13 does not apply to those who directly
> violate God's law.  This is not such a case so the
> point is moot.

I think there are more sides to this.  My thoughts (please bear with me,
they may not be completely coherent) are these:

[For those that don't know, I am a US citizen who is a missionary in
Ecuador.  (I'll also throw my notice out here like others have that we
are looking for more financial and prayer supporters to be able to
continue our work.  Contact me offline if you want more information.)
My wife is Ecuadorian.  Our kids are dual citizens.  We have been trying
to work through the US Immigration Laws to get my wife citizenship in
the US.  It is expensive, convoluted, and full of red tape (even for a
citizen spouse).]

I think the issue is complicated.  I think there is law breaking going
on.  I think some of these should be punished.  I think there are
desperate people involved.  I think God calls us to show mercy.

On the first point, who is giving these people the jobs?  If there was
no demand, there would be less influx.  Those providing the jobs are
most probably US Citizens breaking US Law.  Punish them.  They are US
criminals knowingly breaking and flaunting US Law.

Many of the countries, especially to the south of the US don't have good
welfare/social security systems.  And unemployment is higher than the US.

In Ecuador, in order to try to stabilize the economy, the economy was
dollarized (they switched to use the US dollar as their currency) in
2000.  The next couple of years, there was inflation of near 100% while
the inflation in the US was near 3%.  This caused Ecuador to become the
most expensive Latin American country in which to live and work.  The
"poverty line", last I heard, was at about $380 salary per month.  A
teacher's salary is about $200 per month.

Ecuador, along with Bolivia, routinely ranks toward the bottom of the
Corruption Index put out by Transparency International ranking countries
and the corruption level of the country.  (
http://www.transparency.org/policy_and_research/surveys_indices/cpi )

The president boasted in 2003 (I think) that unemployment had actually
gone down in the past year and therefore the economy was improving.  You
could truthfully say that the reason that unemployment had gone down was
the economy.  But it wasn't what you would think.  It was that there had
been a mass exodus of people to Spain, Italy, and the USA (many of them
"illegal").  Before we left for furlough in September, you would still
hear of fishing boats being caught in the Pacific between Ecuador and
Guatemala carrying 100-200 people trying to reach the US.

Many from these type of countries are willing to leave their family and
all they know because there is no hope where they are.  (My wife's
father (who she doesn't really know because of a divorce when she was
young) is retired in Ecuador and trying to live on something like a $40
monthly pension.  My sisters-in-law are trying to help him out because
most of them are in what would be considered the middle class.

If someone comes upon one of these that has no hope for a job in his
corrupt home country, are you going to follow Rom 13, quote part of
James 2.16 ("Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,") and feel
that God is pleased?  Or would that person remember the Good Samaritan
and Matt 25 ( http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mat25.31-46 )?

Does this mean that we let them stay?  I don't know.  It's not an easy
answer.  Especially after a few years here when that immigrant has
become accustomed to the lifestyle here in the USA and then has no
intention of returning.

I will add that both my wife and I are annoyed by the protests going on
about the House bill and immigration.  I do not think it right that many
feel it is a "right" to enter or stay in the USA.  I thought it
especially distasteful to see many of them waving Mexican flags rather
than American flags.  The USA is not Mexico and they need to realize
this.  I didn't like it when I heard that Vicente Fox has said that he
will try to help curb the gun and drug traffic that flows through the
border, but will not do anything about the human ("illegal immigrant")
traffic until there is a bill for temporary workers passed in the US.
This type of blackmail disgusts me.

Anyway, that's probably a little more than my 2 cents, so I'll stop there.

sjm