What would Jesus do about illegal immigration? (Religious leaders & lawmakers trade Scripture)

McClatchy on Yahoo ^ | 7/14/10 | William Douglas

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON — Religious leaders and lawmakers traded Scripture passages Wednesday at a congressional hearing on whether there's an ethical imperative to overhaul the nation's immigration laws.

Arguing for a comprehensive immigration package with a guest-worker program, Richard Land , the president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission , quoted from Matthew, Leviticus and Micah in pressing for action on the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants currently living in the U.S.

[Steely Tom]

I dunno.

I think I do know what he'd do about abortion, though.

[Beowulf9]

“Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and give to God what is God’s.”

Meaning obey the laws of the land. He would recognize them as trespassers.

[muddler]

Enforce the law.

[silverleaf]

Well, Jesus might set off down to Mexico with some loaves and fishes to help people and teach them to make Mexico a kinder gentler more prosperous place so they can just stay there

If leaving Mexico is leaving a place of despair, whose neglect and inaction and lack of civic courage made it so?

[Rockingham]

My version of Catholicism accords high value to the rule of law. And unless Mexico and the rest of Latin America are a Hell hole that merits denunciation as a moral abomination — and the Catholic bishops decline to say that — then it is perfectly acceptable to send illegals back to where they came from.

[5thGenTexan]

Jesus spoke on multiple occasions about respectfully submitting to those in earthly authority over us.

How can Christian leaders have missed those parts of the Bible? Or, can they not equate to two situations because they are all wrapped up in feelings for the people committing the crime of illegal entry into this country?

[stanz]

He would say, “There are too many of you.”

[Bryanw92]

>>Southern Baptists respect and strongly support upholding America’s laws, he said, but they “also recognize a biblical mandate to care for ‘the least of these among us’ (Matthew 25:34-40), to care for the ‘strangers’ who reside in our land (Leviticus 19:34; Hebrews 13:2) and to act justly and mercifully (Micah 6:8),”

This is all true, except that the illegal immigrants have a country of their own. They aren’t being oppressed there. They aren’t having their religious liberties taken from them at home. They are just migrating here to take our money and send it home. We could help them a lot more by overthrowing their corrupt government, prosecuting the military officers that work for the drug cartels, and destroying the cartels themselves than we ever could by bankrupting ourselves to give them freebies.

These aren’t refugees. They are invaders.

[missnry]

... the nation's immigration ENFORCEMENT system is broken and that the federal government has abdicated its responsibility over the years by not seriously addressing the issue. allowing the creation of sanctuary cities and doing everything possible to reward lawbreakers with US Citizenship.

[HerrBlucher]

What DID Jesus do about anything political? Nada! He wasn’t political, it was all salvation.

[NeverForgetBataan]

OK. Say you have a christian heart and you see a homeless Hispanic family. You offer to let them live in your spare bedroom while they get on their feet.

(stay with me on this)

Now you see another homeless Hispanic family and you offer to let them live in your backyard in a tent. You have no more bedrooms available but, they can come inside to use the bathroom and kitchen though, or just hang out on the couch.

Now what have you done here...... Through your Christian charitable heart you have ruined life for your own family and MORE IMPORTANTLY ........... you have ruined the quality of life for the ORIGINAL homeless family you were first trying to help, because of taking on WAAAAY more than you could handle.

I think this is exactly what illegal immigration is doing to us. Being a christian DOES NOT mean that you are obliged to help without common sense limits.

[mjp]

"Let every person be subject to governing authorities."

Government was ordained and established by God to manifest and preserve His justice on earth. This is government's central purpose; as such, the state should concentrate on enforcing justice and avoid meddling in other institutions' business.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

Jesus would build the fence. No question. Then he’d deport all illegals who were criminals and make the others go to the back of the line to get citizenship. He’d probably also make them pay taxes, or at least deny them benefits until they became citizens.

[ROTB]

What DID Jesus do about anything political? Nada! He wasn’t political, it was all salvation.

**************

1) Called Herod, a political figure, a “fox”
2) Said we should pay taxes
3) Said we should obey the laws

[Brilliant]

I don’t think that Jesus had a position on every political issue.

[Secret Agent Man]

Exactly. It’s not like America has no LEGAL immigration paths. Yes they may take a long time.

Its extremely hypocritical of the left to only enforce the laws they like even when most people oppose them (healthcare reform, abortion, hate crimes, gay rights) and ignore and/or not enforce those they don’t like even though the majority supports them (immigration, laws banning gay marriage, 2nd Amendment).

[huldah1776]

Scripture must be divided into law for the nation, law for the family and town, law for the individual. God did not forgive the NATION of Israel for child sacrifice and other abominations, but He did forgive the King who practiced this and realized his error and repented, stopping the practice.

The law says not to repress the alien - give him work, it does not say to give him everything you own.

[fr_freak]

What would Jesus do about illegal immigration?

Wrong approach, as if illegal immigrants were an immutable force of nature.

The better approach is to view the illegal immigrants for what they are - trespassers and thieves. They cross the border illegally, then make use of various social services and facilities, such as hospital emergency rooms, at the expense of US taxpayers who were paying into a system set up to help Americans. Once the situation is put in that proper context, it is clear what Jesus would do. All you have to do is ask how Jesus would view trespassers and thieves.

[Sybeck1]

As a Southern Baptist, I called the convention in Nashville and talked to a sweet lady about leaving the convention over Land’s stand with Obama on this. I perplexed her and all she could tell me was to talk with my pastor, but just wanted to get something started in Nashville.