Ouch! Is Rev. Bob Edgar saying what I think he’s saying?
Let’s talk about immigration. But first, here’s a word from our sponsor, the God of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachel and Leah.
“When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.†(Leviticus 19:33-34)
That seems pretty clear. Don’t you think?
There are a half dozen similar verses in the Hebrew scriptures. But Americans who are so riled up over this immigration situation seem to ignore these words.
Hmm… “Love your neighbor as yourself?” Yeah that’s an easy one to overlook. It’s only the second greatest commandment.
Edgar continues:
These are the same folks who trot out the very same Bible to damn gay marriage and justify anti-gay legislation in several of our states. But when it comes to more biblical evidence about how we should treat those non-citizens living among us, they are curiously silent about the several verses that seem fairly direct in how God wants us to act toward these human beings…
Most of the attention has been placed on our southern border and on building a fence. Little attention has been paid to our northern border. Yet a foiled terrorist attack of someone trying to cross into our country happened in December 1999, on the Canadian border. An alert Customs officer arrested a man trying to cross into Washington state on his way to bomb Los Angeles International Airport on New Year’s Day 2000.
How is your church choosing to tackle this issue? Or are we just ignoring the problem?
Thanks to the DMN Religion Blog for the article.
