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The Christian Thing to Do (Defends Glenn Beck on the young illegals issue)
Red State ^ | July 10, 2014 | Erick Erickson, editor

Posted on 07/10/2014 9:59:28 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

“He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.” Deuteronomy 10:18 (ESV)

Christians are used to hearing people say “it’s the Christian thing to do.” Most often, it is by people deeply hostile to Christianity who say it. I get this all the time — even more so since I announced I am going to seminary. Liberals with no sense of Christianity want to tell Christians how they must behave and, by and large, hate us when we behave as Christians.

Now, I know many of you do not share my faith. But there is a larger point that must be made here so bear with me. Tolerance is not a Christian value. It is necessary in the course of civil and democratic society to be tolerant of other people’s ideas and opinions, but tolerance for the sake of tolerance is not a Christian value.

Charity and mercy are Christian values. I look at the deep and hostile reaction to Glenn Beck’s effort of late to provide charity to the illegal immigrants at the border and I am shaking my head at some of my fellow Christians and fellow conservatives.

I do not think the government should be helping these people stay here. I do not think the government should be bussing them to other places. I do not think we should let these people stay here. But I think while here we should, in private charity, show mercy and give comfort where we can.

I think of the Emma Lazarus poem, “The New Colossus,” at the base of the statue of liberty.

Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

I am a citizen of the United States and I appreciate people are yearning to breathe free in America. But I am a citizen of the United States and want our laws enforced, our borders secured, and these illegal aliens — some not yearning to breathe free, but here with other motives — sent home.

I am also a citizen of the Kingdom of God. And I want these people, particularly the children, to know Christian charity and love and to go home understanding that we are willing for them to come — but to come legally and lawfully through secure borders.

What Glenn Beck is doing is the kind thing to do. He is using his own money, while calling on the government to enforce the law. Conservatives and Christians can both want American borders secured and our laws enforced. But we should also be willing to show personal and private grace, mercy, and charity to the many troubled souls who have come here as they have.

I hope you might consider donating to Samaritan’s Purse to help.

People are fond of asking “what would Jesus do” in these types of situations. As my friend Mollie Hemingway has pointed out before, we already know. Jesus would submit himself to torture, be crucified, and die for us. Then he would conquer death itself and through his act save all of us who accept him into our lives.

So the question should not be what would Jesus do, but what would those of us who love him do.

I think we would honor the law and want others to honor the law, but would also show faith, hope, charity, grace, and mercy to those who need it as we work to send them home. And we would do so on our own without needing government spending to pave over the government incompetence that got us to this point.

“The native people showed us unusual kindness, for they kindled a fire and welcomed us all, because it had begun to rain and was cold.” Acts 28:2 (ESV)


TOPICS: Current Events; Moral Issues; Religion & Culture; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: aliens; charity; christianity; erickerickson; glennbeck; illegalaliens; illegalimmigration; immigration; obama; redstate
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What say you?
1 posted on 07/10/2014 9:59:29 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I am fine with helping the children who are younger than 10 years old. Then shipping them home to their country of origin...


2 posted on 07/10/2014 10:01:20 AM PDT by GraceG (No, My Initials are not A.B.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet; All

By using summer vacation empty Public School classrooms as holding pens for the Illegal Hispanic Children Invaders, Obama has insured that these classrooms will not be de-loused and fumigated in time for Public School to start by Labor Day, 2014.

This planned disruption of the normal Public School year was carefully timed to disrupt the Fall Election Campaign, on a number of different topics, not the least of which is to provide a major distraction to numerous Obama scandals, mismanagement, and the total six year failure of the Democrat Party’s Obama as a leader, both Foreign and Domestic.

Did Obama time this Illegal Alien Invasion with the cooperation of the Mexican Drug Cartels, or was this just careful planning by Obama, and staff?

If so, how many US Taxpayer Dollars were paid to these Mexican Drug Cartels?

Should Speaker Boehner begin Articles of Impeachment on Obama before or after OUR children start Public School after Labor Day?


3 posted on 07/10/2014 10:02:32 AM PDT by Graewoulf (Democrats' Obamacare Socialist Health Insur. Tax violates U.S. Constitution AND Anti-Trust Law.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“What Glenn Beck is doing is the kind thing to do.”

Sure, it’s kind. However, being kind to those who participate in an organized invasion of your nation is called “giving aid and comfort to the enemy”.


4 posted on 07/10/2014 10:04:51 AM PDT by Boogieman
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Ship them back to their parents.

That is the Christian thing to do.


5 posted on 07/10/2014 10:04:54 AM PDT by SoConPubbie (Mitt and Obama: They're the same poison, just a different potency)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
When you reward something, you get more of it. Almost none of these "children" are going back to their home countries. They are being reunited with their illegal alien relatives in the US.

More are on their way knowing full well that as long as they get here, they will be received and allowed to stay. This has nothing to do with border security since the "children" are walking up to the border patrol and turning themselves in. We can add more BP who will act as the welcoming committee along with the hundreds of lawyers who will defend them at taxpayer expense. The average case takes over 500 days.

6 posted on 07/10/2014 10:05:25 AM PDT by kabar
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
I say we shouldn't assume that all, or even most, of these 'children' are arriving yearning to 'breath free'. They are being attracted by the carrot being offered by our government.

Nor should we assume that most of them are even 'children'.

No law, no country, anarchy. Bottom line.

7 posted on 07/10/2014 10:05:50 AM PDT by skeeter
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
The Christian thing to do is obey Caesar - the laws of the country you're living in.
8 posted on 07/10/2014 10:07:08 AM PDT by SkyDancer (If you don't read the newspapers you are uninformed. If you do read newspapers you are misinformed)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I say people are misunderstanding the Scripture on this - the word sojourner in the Bible means one just passing through - not staying permanently in a country. Once again - the bleeding hearts use the Bible to justify what they do.


9 posted on 07/10/2014 10:07:27 AM PDT by Catsrus (A)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Beck is not a Christian anymore. He is a Mormon.


10 posted on 07/10/2014 10:08:36 AM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I’m all for churches, groups or individuals donating to provide boxed meals and return bus trips back to Mexico. Anything more than that is aiding and abetting.


11 posted on 07/10/2014 10:09:13 AM PDT by Jane Long ("And when thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
There are those in need and there are invaders that want stuff.

Scripture commands us to watch out for the one(s) that does not enter in the proper gate.

Just as some may find divorce in Scripture (but I don't) ... there will be those that find amnesty for the criminal

12 posted on 07/10/2014 10:11:49 AM PDT by knarf (I say things that are true .. I have no proof .. but they're true.)
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To: Boogieman

The children are not the enemy.

They are true victims in every sense of the word.


13 posted on 07/10/2014 10:13:36 AM PDT by sakic
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“Look mom, free citizenship, free food, free shelter, free tuition, and now, free toys!!”


14 posted on 07/10/2014 10:14:56 AM PDT by lormand (Inside every liberal is a dung slinging monkey)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Why not the same ‘kind’ approach to real honest to God Americans.? Criminals belong in jail or back to where they came from. It is that simple.


15 posted on 07/10/2014 10:16:17 AM PDT by mulligan (I)
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To: GraceG

I agree with you. These kids are just pawns in an adult game. They need to go home, but they have already been through an ordeal. A ball or a bear will not hurt.


16 posted on 07/10/2014 10:16:51 AM PDT by defconw (Both parties have clearly lost their minds!)
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To: sakic
The children are not the enemy. They are true victims in every sense of the word.

I assume your comment excludes the "children" with moustaches and tattoos?


17 posted on 07/10/2014 10:19:31 AM PDT by LostInBayport (When there are more people riding in the cart than there are pulling it, the cart stops moving...)
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To: Salvation

He’s not a Christian and he never was a Christian. No one goes in and out of Christianity because no goes in and out of the new birth. People have either been born again or they remain dead in their trespasses and sins. The problem with Rome’s gospel is it puts salvation in the hands of the sinner. In contrast, in biblical Christianity, salvation is by God’s grace (Ephesians 2:8-9), it is “of The Lord.” (Jonah 2:9) Those truly born again “were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:13)


18 posted on 07/10/2014 10:19:51 AM PDT by .45 Long Colt
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To: lormand

Is Glenn getting the younger kids a bike and the older ones a pick-up truck? What about new clothes? iPods? Jordans?


19 posted on 07/10/2014 10:20:01 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself.)
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To: All

They are using their children as a pretense to invade our country and take it down from within. I don’t like the fact that children are being used this way but we can’t encourage this anymore. Glenn should rent buses or planes and send them back to where they came from.
The American people are fed-up.. My sympathy is all used up, my charity is all dried up and the arm on my give-a-damn meter broke off a long time ago..


20 posted on 07/10/2014 10:20:55 AM PDT by newnhdad (Our new motto: USA, it was fun while it lasted.)
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