what do we do?

Leviticus 19
33 " 'When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. 34 The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

Romans 13
1Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.

OK, so here are two words from God. What do those who follow Jesus do?

First, the Leviticus passage is speaking of a specific nation, Israel, and is not a generalization for all countries. Yet, for the sake of exploration let’s use ancient Israel as our model. To treat the person who is here illegally as native-born would be equivalent to a guest worker visa where taxes are fully paid and benefits are available. At the same time, just like the native-born in Israel, those who could work but refused or those who are criminal would be exiled from the community. This is more like deportation.

A biblically informed response may be to try to influence legislation that would secure the borders of our country and allow guests who have gainful employment. The tension occurs with what you do with people who are here illegally already. Are those who are felons deported? Modeling ancient Israel, yes. What about if you have been here working and you are not a felon?

Consider this. Uprooting someone from a life they have been living where they have been a benefit to our society because of their hard work and their children are improving their chances to be contributing citizens of this country in the future…

vs.

Haitians, people from India, Laos and such who are trying to get here legally and who may be spending 20,000-30,000 dollars to get through the red tape it takes to even become a “resident alien,” waiting patiently for years, and their only mistake is they didn’t just cut to the front of the line, break the law and come here illegally.

Who said it was an easy decision…

The Romans passage revisited tomorrow.