Posted on 06/15/2007 2:21:03 PM PDT by berstbubble
How many religious leaders have you heard address the topic of immigrant rights? How many sermons have you heard on immigration reform? If there were a scripture-to-sermon ratio test, one would expect to hear about 50 sermons on immigrants for every one sermon on homosexuality. That's roughly the ratio of biblical utterances on the two topics.
The overall theme of the Bible's teaching is summed up in Exodus 22:21, "You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt." Reminding the people of biblical Israel that they had been slaves in Egypt, the Hebrews are enjoined to treat aliens, foreigners and sojourners in their midst fairly and with respect. Leviticus 19:34 echoes and expands upon the Exodus teaching. "The alien who resides among 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." From the New Testament Letter to the Hebrews we hear, "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing so some have entertained angels unawares."
What is posted is two of the first three paragraphs of a much longer article (I haven’t acquired the Posting Muscles yet and I don’t know about stepping on copyright so I am trying to be careful).
Yes, but those aliens were not invading illegally. We have specific avenues by which immigrants are allowed to cross borders. Those avenues are based on securing the rights of citizens already present. To circumvent that basis is to abandon all premise of a free society.
And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, “O Lord, bless this Thy hand grenade that with it Thou mayest blow Thine enemies to tiny bits, in Thy mercy.” And the Lord did grin and the people did feast upon the lambs and sloths and carp and anchovies and orangutans and breakfast cereals, and fruit bats and large chu... [At this point, the friar is urged by Brother Maynard to “skip a bit, brother”]... And the Lord spake, saying, “First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin, then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it.” Amen.
The alien who resides among 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.Ummm, yeah, only most had to wait 4 generations before they could become members of the congregation, some had to wait 10, and others could never become members for all eternity. The primitive Hebrews were many things, but they were not assimulationists--rather they were commanded to jealously guard their cultural identity (Full disclosure: I'm Jewish.) Hence: many of those they displaced, they destroyed.
I had the Catholic channel on last week...EWTN, Raymond Arroyo’s show — Worldview. He interviewed a Heritage Foundation scholar for the better part of an hour. Very anti-illegal immigration. No pious statements by Catholic prelates, thank you. Simple common sense, bottom line cost to the American taxpayer. What this bill will cost you and the country if not stopped. I loved it.
How many references to illegal aliens?
Shouldn’t we still render unto Caesar what belongs to the nation? Or are we biblicly instructed to choose which laws we will honor and which we will reject?
Amen to that. The Bible was never meant to be a basis by which to run a tyrannnical nanny state using Biblical law.
The biblical plagues of locusts more accurately describe our present situation.
Jesus himself obeyed laws that he didn’t agree with and he encouraged others to do the same.
Render unto Cesar....
How many times do I have to say it? Context. Context. CONTEXT!!! This was referring to legal aliens with a Z-visa.
Culturally, the context of these verses are significantly different from today's situation. Borders were more fluid and there was no massive WELFARE system that the aliens felt they were entitled to. Second contextural aspect was that they were there within the bounds of the law at that time, yet the sovernity of the country they were in was supreme, not being perverted as in today's setting.
From the New Testament Letter to the Hebrews we hear, "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing so some have entertained angels unawares."
An individual who enters your home in the middle of the night is a thief, a lawbreaker, not subject to this passage. Showing hospitality to a 'stranger' does not even come close to today's situation as in most instances these 'strangers' were often just passing through the area on a pilgrimage or business trip. Remember too, there were no Motel 6s with their lights on, and travelers relied upon the hospitality of the locals.
The current leader of Venezuela says “Render unto Caesar”!Just before he takes your oil company!
Let my people go!
The overall theme of the Bible's teaching is summed up in Exodus 22:21, "You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt."I smell ozone.
"Resident alien" just sounded a little too much like American legalese.
I checked, any one know which version uses "resident", or is it the writer's spin?
The Bible demands of the stranger and those who come to sojourn that he act moral. Those who enter illegally and thereafter remain illegally fall outside and are beyond our own moral obligation to follow these Biblical precepts.
And lets not forget the Tower of Babel
Another take:
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/191/story_19129_2.html
and
http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=MWU0Y2Y0ZWNkZmE2OWI1Mzg4YmI1ZmMzY2QzMzA5ZTA=
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