How would God have had Israel treat their strangers?
There are lots of scriptures addressing that...
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"God, send me anywhere, only go with me. Lay any burden on me, only sustain me. And sever any tie in my heart except the tie that binds my heart to Yours."
--David Livingstone
"To see no being, not God’s or any, but you also go thither,
To see no possession but you may possess it—enjoying all without labor or purchase—
abstracting the feast, yet not abstracting one particle of it;…."
--Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, Song of the Open Road
I'm not for opening our borders and allowing anyone who wishes to cross unchecked. However, those immigrants who are already here, working, taking care of their families, etc., who aren't threatening their communities in any way, or being lazy and feeding off the state--I don't believe that rounding them all up and plopping them in jail or sending them home is the right answer.
IMO, the borders should be tightened up, but those who are living here peacefully already should be given legal status so they can be counted and so they have to pay taxes.
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"God, send me anywhere, only go with me. Lay any burden on me, only sustain me. And sever any tie in my heart except the tie that binds my heart to Yours."
--David Livingstone
"To see no being, not God’s or any, but you also go thither,
To see no possession but you may possess it—enjoying all without labor or purchase—
abstracting the feast, yet not abstracting one particle of it;…."
--Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, Song of the Open Road
This problem needs good, reasonable, humane answers--not rash action or vigilante justice.
I hear Christian people talking about illegal aliens, "wetbacks", "rats", and other choice names, and it disappoints me. It reminds me of the racist rhetoric I heard often when we lived in Louisiana. Whether immigrants are here legally or not, they are still human beings, and God loves them. Our first responsibility is to react to them as Jesus would. Like it or not, defending the sanctity of our country's borders should come second, from a biblical perspective. (Maybe even a distant third, behind treating those who are in need charitably.)
Currently, our church has a large number of Burmese believers who left Myanmar due to religious persecution. I have not asked a single person if their green card is valid, and quite frankly, I don't care, and won't ask. We have English classes for them on Monday nights, our pastor and his wife have tried to help them with doctor's appointments, getting jobs, etc.
I PROMISE you that if I found out one of them was here illegally (or even had an expired card) I would NOT report it.
I agree, besides, I think the opening story presents an inaccurate scenario. I don't see Jose Illegal making $15.00 an hour. Maybe picking fruit for $3.00 an hour.
People who hire undocumented workers do so because they are easily exploitable, which means they will pay them the absolute minimum they can get away with.
I also don't think "free" services for undocumented laborers are as accessible as the anecdote implies.
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Last edited by John Atkinson; 04-14-2010 at 07:38 AM.
I'm not for opening our borders and allowing anyone who wishes to cross unchecked. However, those immigrants who are already here, working, taking care of their families, etc., who aren't threatening their communities in any way, or being lazy and feeding off the state--I don't believe that rounding them all up and plopping them in jail or sending them home is the right answer.
IMO, the borders should be tightened up, but those who are living here peacefully already should be given legal status so they can be counted and so they have to pay taxes.
There are a number of issues involved in making them legal.
1. It does nothing to prevent a new wave of illegal imigrants
2. It rewards those potenial immigrants who don't follow the immigration rules by allowing them to become legal citizens before the potential immigrants who are trying to follow the rules.
3. No one is sure of what making them legal will have on their hireability. If they can't be hired then the government will be paying for them to live here.
4. No one is sure of what making them legal will have on the the hireability and payscale of current citizens that work in the job markets the current illegals will be seeking employment in.
I agree, besides, I think the opening story presents an inaccurate scenario. I don't see Jose Illegal making $15.00 an hour. Maybe picking fruit for $3.00 an hour.
People who hire undocumented workers do so because they are easily exploitable, which means they will pay them the absolute minimum they can get away with.
I also don't think "free" services for undocumented laborers are as accessible as the anecdote implies.
I agree. Most construction workers (at least around my area) do not get paid that much. The brick masons or machinery operators might, but the regular ole joe who is there as a helper and to do the hard manual labor generally makes much less. Now if the legal citizen makes much less than 25 dollars an hour, then the illgeal citizen probably makes between 3-6 dollars an hour. Or more likely they pay them by how many blocks get laid or something along those lines.
Illegal is illegal. Which means you are breaking the law. So if they will break the this law, what makes anyone think they will not break other laws?
Tell me what other nation would allow illegal immigrants into their country?
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