FrankRep
07-21-2009, 04:41 PM
Immigration of the Stranger (http://bounddragon.com/?p=491)
Bound Dragon
Christians who identify themselves with the Right in general, and the Republican Party specifically, can tend to align themselves with certain positions held by the GOP without regard to Biblical teaching on that topic. One of those positions would be that of immigration. The GOP favors limiting immigration (at times to the nice low level of none), and by their rhetoric creates an unhealthy suspicion among Americans that leads to all immigrants being looked at or treated as if they were illegal. Their position may include something as seemingly innocuous as “building a wall” to protect our southern border, or as severe as sending “immigration” police around to gather up all of the illegals and send them back to their “own” country.
Constitutionalists, Christian and non-Christian alike, will also hold to this position as if the Constitution itself makes immigration illegal. Coincidentally, the Constitution does nothing but authorize the federal government to make laws on naturalization, and to protect our border from foreign invaders. Immigrants are then identified as invaders simply because we don’t want them here.
Christians should be more careful to consider the Biblical teaching on the stranger or sojourner before being so quick to jump on the conservative bandwagon and opposing immigration. Let us begin by noting a few basic principles regarding the stranger:
1. The stranger is protected from being wronged (Lev 19:33-34 (http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?go=Go&q=Lev+19%3A33-34)).
2. The stranger is allowed to prosper among us (Lev 25:47 (http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?go=Go&q=Lev+25%3A47)).
3. The stranger is protected from hasty judgment, vengeance (Num 35:15 (http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?go=Go&q=Num+35%3A15)).
Now, with these points in view, let us consider, briefly, immigration in general. Immigration allows people to come into another land and live according to and with the protection of its laws. These people come to participate in the economy of that land. For example, in the United States, immigrants come here to work, receive an education, and better themselves and their families. Having workers in the United States, especially workers who will accept a wage lower than we might, only strengthens and grows our economy. The more efficiently a producer can produce an item, the stronger that producer becomes, and the greater the impact he has on our economy. This is generally why conservatives oppose minimum wage and unions – because we inherently know that they make us less efficient. But the efficiency argument cannot stop there; it must be applied to any and all workers if we are to be consistent. Our economy is further strengthened by these immigrants when they become educated and are able to contribute more than just unskilled labor to our economy. Eventually, they begin investing their own capital and may become producers themselves.
An obvious objection to this argument is that they do not keep the money they earn in our economy but they send it back to their families in their homelands. While this may be true, the argument assumes a) that all immigrants do that with all of their money, and b) that this is somehow wrong. First, we cannot assume they all do it, and we can know that those who do aren’t sending all of their money back – else how would they live themselves? Second, where are those American dollars spent once they send them back to their homeland? Simply put, only one of two things can be done with American dollars outside of America. They can either be put into reserves (like the government of China does with the billions—if not trillions—of dollars they possess), or they eventually make it back to America and are spent here. Sure a family in Mexico may find a merchant there who will accept their U.S. Dollars, or a money exchanger who will take them, but those people accept them because they know they will eventually be able to get them back to the hands (their own or others) of people who will use them to buy American products. Their eventual return to America does then have a positive impact in America because they are being spent on goods or services in our economy. Even in the case of storing them in reserves we can find a net positive for the American economy. The value of the U.S. Dollar is directly affected, like all prices, by supply and demand. The greater the supply of U.S. Dollars, the cheaper (or less valuable) they are. Stockpiling our dollars helps to minimize the increase in supply and thus stabilize the value of the U.S. Dollar. This is why we would be bankrupted by hyperinflation if the Chinese government were to unload the massive quantities of U.S. Dollars they possess.
Interestingly, the Bible takes a strong stance in favor of immigration and towards the treatment of strangers living in the land. As noted above, Lev 19:33-34 (http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?go=Go&q=Lev+19%3A33-34) forbids treating a stranger wrongly. But it goes further than that, it commands the stranger to be treated the same way a native is, it commands the stranger to be loved as one loves himself. And why? Because the Israelites were strangers in Egypt?
The Israelites were saved from death by famine because they were accepted into Egypt. However, once there, the Israelites were eventually mistreated and enslaved by the Egyptians. But this is why they were to be able to treat the stranger with dignity and respect. They knew how important it was to their own survival, and further, they knew what it was like to be mistreated as strangers. As a result, this injustice towards them should have created a thirst for justice for them in the way they treated others.
We know that immigrants come here to find a better life (just as Israel went to Egypt for life), and we know immigrants are mistreated as they sojourn among us. This should create in Christians a desire to receive these immigrants and to treat them kindly and with love.
We may respond that I am writing under the assumption that all immigrants come here to work hard and this just isn’t true. I agree. But why do those immigrants come here? Certainly they come here because they know that welfare, education, and healthcare will be made freely available to them. They know, as well as we do, that America has become a great nanny state, putting everyone on the public dole. But this isn’t a problem with the immigrant; this is a problem with the state.
Neither Christians nor Americans should seek to criminalize immigrants because they come here seeking what our government freely offers. Instead, we should seek to end those handouts, and thereby end the long line of freeloaders streaming across the border. In this way, we can be Christian in receiving the stranger, and be Christian in the way we help the poor.
SOURCE:
http://bounddragon.com/?p=491
Bound Dragon
Christians who identify themselves with the Right in general, and the Republican Party specifically, can tend to align themselves with certain positions held by the GOP without regard to Biblical teaching on that topic. One of those positions would be that of immigration. The GOP favors limiting immigration (at times to the nice low level of none), and by their rhetoric creates an unhealthy suspicion among Americans that leads to all immigrants being looked at or treated as if they were illegal. Their position may include something as seemingly innocuous as “building a wall” to protect our southern border, or as severe as sending “immigration” police around to gather up all of the illegals and send them back to their “own” country.
Constitutionalists, Christian and non-Christian alike, will also hold to this position as if the Constitution itself makes immigration illegal. Coincidentally, the Constitution does nothing but authorize the federal government to make laws on naturalization, and to protect our border from foreign invaders. Immigrants are then identified as invaders simply because we don’t want them here.
Christians should be more careful to consider the Biblical teaching on the stranger or sojourner before being so quick to jump on the conservative bandwagon and opposing immigration. Let us begin by noting a few basic principles regarding the stranger:
1. The stranger is protected from being wronged (Lev 19:33-34 (http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?go=Go&q=Lev+19%3A33-34)).
2. The stranger is allowed to prosper among us (Lev 25:47 (http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?go=Go&q=Lev+25%3A47)).
3. The stranger is protected from hasty judgment, vengeance (Num 35:15 (http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?go=Go&q=Num+35%3A15)).
Now, with these points in view, let us consider, briefly, immigration in general. Immigration allows people to come into another land and live according to and with the protection of its laws. These people come to participate in the economy of that land. For example, in the United States, immigrants come here to work, receive an education, and better themselves and their families. Having workers in the United States, especially workers who will accept a wage lower than we might, only strengthens and grows our economy. The more efficiently a producer can produce an item, the stronger that producer becomes, and the greater the impact he has on our economy. This is generally why conservatives oppose minimum wage and unions – because we inherently know that they make us less efficient. But the efficiency argument cannot stop there; it must be applied to any and all workers if we are to be consistent. Our economy is further strengthened by these immigrants when they become educated and are able to contribute more than just unskilled labor to our economy. Eventually, they begin investing their own capital and may become producers themselves.
An obvious objection to this argument is that they do not keep the money they earn in our economy but they send it back to their families in their homelands. While this may be true, the argument assumes a) that all immigrants do that with all of their money, and b) that this is somehow wrong. First, we cannot assume they all do it, and we can know that those who do aren’t sending all of their money back – else how would they live themselves? Second, where are those American dollars spent once they send them back to their homeland? Simply put, only one of two things can be done with American dollars outside of America. They can either be put into reserves (like the government of China does with the billions—if not trillions—of dollars they possess), or they eventually make it back to America and are spent here. Sure a family in Mexico may find a merchant there who will accept their U.S. Dollars, or a money exchanger who will take them, but those people accept them because they know they will eventually be able to get them back to the hands (their own or others) of people who will use them to buy American products. Their eventual return to America does then have a positive impact in America because they are being spent on goods or services in our economy. Even in the case of storing them in reserves we can find a net positive for the American economy. The value of the U.S. Dollar is directly affected, like all prices, by supply and demand. The greater the supply of U.S. Dollars, the cheaper (or less valuable) they are. Stockpiling our dollars helps to minimize the increase in supply and thus stabilize the value of the U.S. Dollar. This is why we would be bankrupted by hyperinflation if the Chinese government were to unload the massive quantities of U.S. Dollars they possess.
Interestingly, the Bible takes a strong stance in favor of immigration and towards the treatment of strangers living in the land. As noted above, Lev 19:33-34 (http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?go=Go&q=Lev+19%3A33-34) forbids treating a stranger wrongly. But it goes further than that, it commands the stranger to be treated the same way a native is, it commands the stranger to be loved as one loves himself. And why? Because the Israelites were strangers in Egypt?
The Israelites were saved from death by famine because they were accepted into Egypt. However, once there, the Israelites were eventually mistreated and enslaved by the Egyptians. But this is why they were to be able to treat the stranger with dignity and respect. They knew how important it was to their own survival, and further, they knew what it was like to be mistreated as strangers. As a result, this injustice towards them should have created a thirst for justice for them in the way they treated others.
We know that immigrants come here to find a better life (just as Israel went to Egypt for life), and we know immigrants are mistreated as they sojourn among us. This should create in Christians a desire to receive these immigrants and to treat them kindly and with love.
We may respond that I am writing under the assumption that all immigrants come here to work hard and this just isn’t true. I agree. But why do those immigrants come here? Certainly they come here because they know that welfare, education, and healthcare will be made freely available to them. They know, as well as we do, that America has become a great nanny state, putting everyone on the public dole. But this isn’t a problem with the immigrant; this is a problem with the state.
Neither Christians nor Americans should seek to criminalize immigrants because they come here seeking what our government freely offers. Instead, we should seek to end those handouts, and thereby end the long line of freeloaders streaming across the border. In this way, we can be Christian in receiving the stranger, and be Christian in the way we help the poor.
SOURCE:
http://bounddragon.com/?p=491