It seems that lines are being drawn within Christian circles with regards to immigration reform. At least one Catholic Church as well as one Lutheran Church in California are offering sanctuary to illegal immigrants. The story also mentions Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago as making news for sheltering Elvira Arellano and her son Saul Arellano.
The Orthodox Presbyterian Church is following a different line of thinking in regards to immigration. The final sentence in a report titled REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE ORTHODOX PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH TO STUDY THE PROPRIETY OF THE RECEPTION OF ILLEGAL ALIENS INTO CHURCH MEMBERSHIP pretty much sums up this denomination’s kid-glove approach to illegal immigrants.
“It seems wise that presbyteries and sessions ought to delay ordination and installation until matters relating to being an illegal alien have been satisfactorily addressed.” Source – http://www.opc.org/GA/aliens.pdf
I found the OPC document by way of La Shawn Barber’s Corner in a post titled Christians and Illegal ‘Immigration’. La Shawn has been very outspoken in favor of dropping the hammer on “lawbreaking illegals”. I don’t see the issue as cut and dry as she does and that leaves us two Christian bloggers on different sides of a very complex issue. La Shawn left a comment on a previous post here on this blog titled Amnesty for Illegals.
“Disagreement isn’t a bad thing…What I’m waiting to hear, although I think I’ll be waiting in vain, are more Christians speaking out against illegal aliens who profess Christ. How does their defying government authority and making DEMANDS on their “host” country square with their profession?”
La Shawn went own to ask a very similar quesiton on her own blog this week.
“I asked those same critics, sometimes in the post itself, sometimes in the comment section, if they’ve ever admonished illegal aliens who say they’re Christians, and if not, what they’d say to them about crossing our borders in violation of our laws and showing little compassion themselves.”
I want to offer a response to La Shawn’s questions. First, there seems to be an assumption by La Shawn as well as a host of other Americans that illegals in this country had prior knowledge of the US immigration law before entering this country. Let’s make a different and probably more accurate assumption by putting ourselves in their shoes prior to entering the US. To do this, take a moment to write down on a piece of paper some notes from your knowledge of the immigration policy of any other country on this planet. The average American will likely not leave a single mark on the paper during this exercise.
Is it the fault of the illegals that our borders were not protected? Is it the fault of the illegals that the system allows for them to drain tax dollars without contributing in all the ways the rest of us contribute? Is it fair that many illegals have taken more than they have contributed. Ask your average native American Indian if they feel like their ancestors were given a fair deal during the forming of this country. Ask them if they think the settlers gave much attention or even had knowledge of tribal laws of immigration during the settling of the Americas. No one wants to talk much about how the settlers busted in on the native American Indians for some reason.
Let’s consider another question. How many Christians complain about aliens families taking their tax money yet wouldn’t think twice about filling the offering plate to help the same families if they were still suffering in their own country?
As Christians, how should we be responding to illegals in this country? The answer is simple. We should be displaying the character of God as seen in his son Christ Jesus. How? By rejecting the prideful, selfish, judgmental, condemning and unforgiving attitudes that are dominating the fight against illegals.
Do my suggestions mean that I believe we should continue to allow illegals to pile into this country? Absolutely not! We have learned in recent years how bad border security really is and we need to fix it. We also need to work on streamlining a process to make legal all those who want to become legal. I have used the word amnesty and that may be a little strong. As Christians trying to operate in a Christ-like manner, we need to exercise forgiveness ahead of admonishment.
I suggest that many illegals immigrants may not understand that the average American tax payer is bearing the burden for the services that they are receiving mostly for free. I say “mostly for free” because even illegals have to pay some taxes (i.e., sales taxes) that do end up funding some of the services they are using. Even if they do understand now that the average American is footing the bill, it is entirely possible that they had no idea how our government was structured and funded prior to their arrival into this country.
The bottom line on this whole issue is that many Americans, Christians included, are making a boat load of assumptions about who knew what and when. What we as Christians can do is demonstrate a face of forgiveness and comfort to these illegals and let God worry about who sinned when and how bad. For those Christians who disregard any notion of forgiveness in this immigration issue and are dead set on punishing these illegal alien lawbreakers, I repeat the words of Jesus in John 8:7 (NLT), “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!”
I poked fun at him and told him all I wanted to know was the GPS coordinates of where he caught this beauty, the bait he used, etc. I am still waiting. 
