Why Religious Freedom Includes the Freedom to Give to the Poor

In the year 257 AD, the Roman emperor Valerian stepped up the persecution of Christians, especially in the city of Rome itself. The principal targets of his campaign were the clergy and laity who came from the upper classes of Roman society.

One of those caught up in Valerian’s persecution was a deacon named Lawrence. Lawrence was in charge of the Church’s property used to support Rome’s poor. Lawrence was offered a deal: in exchange for turning over the property, he would be spared arrest and execution. He agreed, adding that he needed three day to collect the church’s riches.

On the third day, he gathered the sick, aged, widows, orphans, and the poor of the Church, presented them to the official and said, "These are the treasures of the Church."

Those who would interfere with our providing for the least of Jesus’ brethren—that is, “the treasures of the Church—are opposing God every bit as much as those who would have us change our message and teaching.

Case in point: Last month Fort Lauderdale became the latest American city to limit the ability of churches and nonprofits to feed the homeless outside of certain designated areas.

Think about that, folks. In some places, if a homeless person tells you he’s hungry and you buy him a sandwich and give it to him, you are breaking the law.

Supporters of the law argue that “allowing ministries and others to hand out meals aggravates homelessness because it lures homeless people away from city-run programs.”

Opponents of the law insist “that the cities that have or are trying to pass these laws . . . are doing it because they want to scrub their neighborhoods clean of homeless people, making [those neighborhoods] more appealing to businesses.”

Either, neither, or both of these explanations may be true. But what is definitely true is that the Church must reach out to those in need of our help.

The first people to be arrested for feeding the homeless in public were two pastors and 90-year-old Jim Abbott, who runs an organization named “Love Thy Neighbor, Inc.” According to Abbott, one of the arresting officers told him to “ ‘Drop that plate right now,” ’ as if Abbott were carrying a weapon.

As I record this broadcast, Abbott and the two ministers face a possible sixty days in jail and a $5000 fine.

“Drop that plate” sounds like a line from a Saturday Night Live skit, but it was the voice of the state telling believers that they could not do what God has commanded them and all of us to do.

Folks, this is every bit as much a violation of religious freedom as the HHS mandate or the New Mexico law that punished Elaine Huguenin for not photographing a lesbian commitment ceremony. And how can we forget what just happened in Houston, where the mayor dared to ask pastors to turn in their sermons.

In all of these instances, the state is daring to tell us what our mission is and how we should or should not perform it.

If Christians don’t protest this intrusion, we’re validating our opponents’ claims that our rhetoric about religious freedom is really about the loss of some privileged status or, worse, all about sex.

And if that happens, we’ll miss an opportunity to show that religious freedom is about our ability to show the world what treasure worth having looks like.

Before I leave you today, I want to invite you to check out our website, BreakPoint.org. We’ve got all kinds of first-rate articles, blog posts, and news on cultural trends and events that should be on the radar screen of every Christian. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Please, visit BreakPoint.org today.

BreakPoint is a Christian worldview ministry that seeks to build and resource a movement of Christians committed to living and defending Christian worldview in all areas of life. Begun by Chuck Colson in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today’s news and trends via radio, interactive media, and print. Today BreakPoint commentaries, co-hosted by Eric Metaxas and John Stonestreet, air daily on more than 1,200 outlets with an estimated weekly listening audience of eight million people. Feel free to contact us at BreakPoint.org where you can read and search answers to common questions.

In my post, I make a distinction between being friendly with otherwise law -abiding aliens while they are in your midst and adhering to a reasonable law that says they should be deported. Violent or thieving aliens should be treated in the same manner as all violent or thieving criminals.

So, I have no objection to the law of deportation. If you don’t understand that, then you haven’t understood what I’m saying.

It is contrary to the gospel, however, to be mean-spirited with otherwise peaceful aliens while they are in your midst. That is straight from the bible. Aliens are to be treated respectfully. That does not mean that they should be permitted to continue in this land.

Exodus 23:9 “Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt.

Jeremiah 22:3 This is what the LORD says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of his oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the alien, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.

Hebrews 11:13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.

Hebrews 13:2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.

Over the years I have faced just about every excuse for being sympathetic to the plight of illegal aliens. I've been called a racist, xenophobic, uncaring, inhuman, mean spirited, angry... you name it. So when a person comes up with a new angle, I just laugh and realize that people will always drag out Bible verses to justify their unjustifiable actions. It's part of Satan's plan. Beat righteousness with God's own word.

Is it good for the United States a Christian nation, the last refuge of decent men on planet earth that can make a global difference, to be occupied and conquered? My answer to that question is no. And so it is, I oppose there being a presence equal to 10 to 15% of U. S. Citizens here in the U. S. of foreign nationals. I oppose it because it's against the law, they are voting, and our nation cannot survive this. If this nation falls, Christianity on this planet will go from mainstream to almost non-existent.

Those that take of the U. S. will not be Bible thumping Christians. They will be atheistic communists, Marxists, or followers of Islam.

And to help facilitate this by quoting Bible verses? You should be ashamed..

In my post, I make a distinction between being friendly with otherwise law -abiding aliens while they are in your midst and adhering to a reasonable law that says they should be deported. Violent or thieving aliens should be treated in the same manner as all violent or thieving criminals.

Every illegal alien here is a thief. They have come to our nation against our laws. At the very least they are stealing a birthright from us. There is no such thing as an innocent illegal alien. They are all abusing our system by being here. What part of this do you not quite grasp? Living two or more families in a single family dwelling destroys the individual home, lowers the property values, and increases crime in the area. Their willingness to work for slave labor wages displaces our middle class workers. It is destructive to the cornerstone of our nation. It puts additional stress on families in the U. S. It causes stress on our hospitals and schools. It causes increased stress on our infrastructure, that cannot be supported by people who make 25 to 50% of what the middle-class workers did, and quite often don't even report that. So the normal tax stream is also thwarted. Roads, libraries, public services all take a hit. Then we wonder why.

What you do by harboring illegal aliens, is facilitate them making connections here, get a foot-hold here, and remain in our nation. And you do this quoting God's word in the process.

So, I have no objection to the law of deportation. If you don’t understand that, then you haven’t understood what I’m saying.

I'm not misunderstanding anything. You are by your own admission harboring illegal aliens, feeding them, and facilitating their smooth transition into permanent illegal alien residents in the United States.

It is contrary to the gospel, however, to be mean-spirited with otherwise peaceful aliens while they are in your midst. That is straight from the bible. Aliens are to be treated respectfully. That does not mean that they should be permitted to continue in this land.

It is not contrary to the Bible to develop sound laws that protect your nation and your citizens from the blight of massive numbers of foreign nationals that are here illegally.

This is destabilizing our society. Nowhere in the Bible does it suggest you should commit national suicide to facilitate the crimes of foreign nationals. And anyone here illegally, is a criminal. They have broken the law by just being here.

Exodus 23:9 “Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt.

We're talking the global environment in excess of 1,000 year before Christ here. The global population was extremely sparse compared to what it is today. Borders were not restricted to travel. Joseph and Mary a thousand years later would travel freely freely to Egypt and remained there. There weren't laws against it. Many of the people of those days were nomads. They moved freely. Transition forward from the story of Exodus three thousand years to modern day, and you think that Bible verse addressed precisely our situation today. It doesn't.

Today we have borders that are clearly defined. They are supposed to be enforced. The sheer numbers of illegals in the United States puts to rest the idea these are casual travelers. We have from 25 to 40 million illegal immigrants inside the United States, and they are disrupting in mass across our nation. They are not simple visitors from abroad. Those people are here on passports, LEGALLY. Those are the aliens that should be treated with respect, and we do.

The law breakers do not qualify for respect or kit glove treatment. You are facilitating a crime.

Jeremiah 22:3 This is what the LORD says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of his oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the alien, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.

Once again, the alien spoken of here is an alien living by the rules of that time. They are essentially legal aliens. The equivalent today would be an alien here on a passport. Illegal aliens are not here legally. They have no rights here. They should not be helped to break our laws.

Do you have any concept of what good Citizenship is? As a Christian are we to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's? It's a phrase meaning that even under occupation, you respect the rule of law in place. There are things we should not render unto Caesar, but those are related to our religious beliefs. And no, we can't support murder in the name of religion, so there are acknowledged limits to what we can claim is protected under the name of Christianity. Housing and feeding illegal immigrants is against the law. Those laws were established to protect the sovereignty of our nation. That is a reasoned goal, that benefits Christians more than any other people. If our nation is conquered, is Christianity going to remain viable in the public arena?

What takes the place of our present Constitution and rule of law, if we are conquered? We see it already by the softening of the laws of our nation, which now allow people to get away with things that are very destructive. If our government falls, will the next iteration be better? Most of us think our nation was drafted by very wise men. The next draft may very well be a bunch of Leftists that make today's Leftists look tame. The will be doing it in the presence of anarchy. Good luck with that.

Do you think this is God's plan for us? I do not!

Hebrews 11:13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.

This addresses the perception of Christians that they are God's people, living in a sinful world. It is not addressing an alien from another nation or region. We are set apart, living Christian lives, in effect God's people and not people of this sinful world.

It's a spiritual context. It is not addressing a physical location, but more a mental state of being.

Hebrews 13:2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.

So it's your interpretation that Angels traveling legally during Biblical times, were actually illegal alien parasites eating away at the fabric of the nations of the day.

You have some interesting observations, interpretations, and beliefs there.

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