[Raycpa]

Exodus 22: 21 "Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt.

Leviticus 19: 33 " 'When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. 34 The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

Deuteronomy 14: 28 At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year's produce and store it in your towns, 29 so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

Deuteronomy 16: 13 Celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. 14 Be joyful at your Feast—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites, the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns.

Deuteronomy 24 14 “You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether one of your brethren or one of the aliens who is in your land within your gates.

Ezekiel 47: 21 "You are to distribute this land among yourselves according to the tribes of Israel. 22 You are to allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the aliens who have settled among you and who have children. You are to consider them as native-born Israelites; along with you they are to be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. 23 In whatever tribe the alien settles, there you are to give him his inheritance," declares the Sovereign LORD.

Malachi 3: 5 "So I will come near to you for judgment. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me," says the LORD Almighty.

[radar101]

Yes, but when this was written, Aliens were one or two people, usually passing through.
What we have here is the poor segment of Latin America--about 85% of the population of those countries--coming here to get on Uncle Sucker's Gravy Train.
Two Liberal hallmarks: Fantasy and Hypocrisy. Fantasy--"Oh, yeah. if they are willing, let them come". If Hispanics, why not oppressed Tibetans, people from Mynamar (Burma), the Sudan, etc, ad infinitum.
Hypocrisy: Let's see how many of those are allowed to settle in the gated communities where Libs live.

[MineralMan]

Thanks for those quotes. They point out a gap between what many religious people believe and the laws of the land. That's always a problem.

Here in the USA, our secular laws most often outweigh religious beliefs, especially when crime is involved. However, there are exceptions. For example, priests (and other ministers, by extension) may keep confidential confessions given to them in their official duties. So, a law that requires reporting, say, child molestors, may be ignored by priests who find out that a confessee has broken those laws.

The law isn't clear, however, on things like reporting illegal aliens. Many priests, ministers, and other religious folks do not see it as their responsibility to report illegal aliens they serve. They can cite, for example, some of the verses you quote, along with many others.

This raises a real dilemma for many Christians, who believe that their deity's laws are above all others. It has caused problems in right-to-life issues, immigration issues, sovereignty of family issues, etc.

It's not a simple question. Many believe that their deity requires them to aid the poor, whether illegal or not. What are they to do?

[Scotsman will be Free]

Isn't that nice. Shall I quote Romans 13 for starters?
I'm tired of liberals claiming that they are above the law because they are practicing their "faith". A selective practice, I might add.

[Rockitz]

This is why I prefer going after those employers who hire illegals. These employers provide the carrot that causes illegals to sin. These employers take advantage of illegals by paying them low wages and no benefits as well as taxpayers who ultimately foot the bill for those benefits such as education, insurance, health care, and infrastructure.

This is ultimately redistribution of wealth from those who don't hire illegals to those that do. Employers who hire illegals should be jailed and have their property siezed and redistributed back to those taxpayers who don't hire illegals. Hiring an illegal is equivalent to stealing from taxpayers who don't hire illegals.

[raybbr]

I don't read the Bible. Now what?

[GarySpFc]

I have reviewed many sources, and attempted to carefully seek the Lord's will on this issue. The best source I have found to date is The Anchor Bible Dictionary from which the following is taken, and reprinted with permission. Please note the sojourner was expected to obey the law, and I hope I do not have to bring up the penalities for their disobedience under Biblcal law.

SOJOURNER [Heb gēr (גֵּר); Gk paroikos (παροικος)]. A foreigner who is traveling through a land or one who has taken up residence in that land. The key is that the sojourner has no familial or tribal affiliation with those among whom he or she is traveling or living. The Hebrew word derives from the root gwr. It is a common Afrasian root which appears in Egyptian and in the Semitic languages Phoenician, Ugaritic, Old South Arabic and Aramaic as well as Hebrew. In all of these languages, the meaning is generally agreed upon. The nominal form of the root applies to someone who is not native to the area, and the verbal form means “to travel,” “to sojourn,” or “to stay in a foreign territory.” However, there is some variation in the way lexicographers have tried to capture the meaning of gēr, and suggestions have included “sojourner,” “foreign resident,” “stranger,” “foreigner,” “immigrant,” “client,” and “resident alien.” Sojourner is used most often because it conveys the idea that the individual is not a permanent member of the community in which he or she lives. The term client is frequently employed to indicate that the individual does not have full rights within a community and thus is dependent on a patron for protection.

:::snip:::

In biblical texts the term gēr is used in two basic ways: to describe the experiences of the Israelites themselves when they are living among foreigners; and to describe those non-Israelites who live among the Israelites. However, this distinction becomes confused when the claim is made that the Levites are gērı̂m (sojourners) among the Israelites. In all of these cases, there are certain expectations of both the native population and the sojourners.
In a number of places, Israelites are said to sojourn in a land. Abraham, because of a famine in Palestine, sojourned in Egypt (Gen 12:10), and, in one version of the “sister–wife” story, Abraham sojourns in Gerar (Gen 20:1). Apparently Lot’s criticism of the men of Sodom is seen as a violation of his role as sojourner (Gen 19:6–9). It appears that because of his status as sojourner, Abraham must make a specific request for permission to purchase land from the Hittites in Canaan in order to have a place to bury Sarah (Gen 23:4). In another version of the “sister–wife” story, Isaac is a sojourner in Gerar and is protected by Abimelech (Gen 26:3, 11). Gen 32:4 indicates that Isaac sojourned with Laban; Gen 36:6–7 tells of Jacob and Esau sojourning in the Canaan; and Gen 47:4 reports that Joseph and his brothers requested permission of the Pharaoh to sojourn in the land of Goshen. When the Israelites finally settled in Canaan, it was in the land of their sojourning, which God had promised to them (Gen 17:7; Exod 6:4). This understanding of the Patriarchs as sojourners is also found outside of the Pentateuch (cf. Ps 39:13—Eng 39:12; 105:12; 1 Chr 29:15).
The second way in which “sojourn” is employed is to describe foreigners who live among the Israelites. Often these foreigners are subject to the same laws as the Israelites (Exod 12:49; Num 15:16). Thus, the sojourner shall observe the day of atonement (Lev 16:29) and Passover (Num 9:14); shall refrain from consuming blood (Lev 17:10); shall not blaspheme the name of Yahweh (Lev 24:16); shall observe the statutes relative to the ashes of the red heifer (Lev 19:10); and shall receive equal treatment under the law (Deut 24:14). Only occasionally is there a law which makes a distinction between Israelite and sojourner (cf. Deut 14:21). The reason given for this equal treatment is that Israel was once a sojourner in the land of Egypt (Exod 23:9; Lev 19:33–34; Deut 10:19; 16:9–12).
While equal treatment for the sojourner is the norm, it is clear that the sojourner does not enjoy the same social status as that of the Israelite. This realization emerges initially when one sees the way in which the sojourner has to be singled out in biblical legislation. The sojourner is not a full member of Israelite society but someone of different and lower status. The same perspective appears when one looks at the reference to the sojourner in the Ten Commandments (Exod 20:10). The sojourner is listed after sons, daughters, servants, and cattle. This secondary status can be seen in that the most frequent context in which the “foreigners” are mentioned includes mention of widows, orphans, and the poor (Lev 23:22; Deut 10:18; 24:17, 19; Jer 7:6; 22:3; Ezek 22:7, 29; Zech 7:10; Ps 94:6; 146:9). Widows, orphans, and the poor are to receive special consideration by the Israelites because of their lack of means of support, and so too are the sojourners.
So, like the widow and the orphan, the sojourner is in a distinct social class, part of a group which requires special care and protection. The Israelites are expected to provide this care and protection for these foreigners who live among them, because they too were once foreigners sojourning in a strange land. As is stated in Leviticus 19:34, “The stranger who sojourns with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am Yahweh your God.”
In the NT (and in the LXX) the Greek word paroikos is used to translate the Hebrew gēr and to convey the idea of a sojourner or resident alien. It appears only four times in the NT. In StephenÂ’s speech in Acts 7, he uses the word to refer to AbrahamÂ’s time as a sojourner (v 6) and MosesÂ’ sojourning in Midian (v 29). In Ephesians 2:19 the writer states that those who join the “household of God” will no longer be sojourners. In 1 Peter 2:11 the writer beseeches the sojourners “to abstain from the passions of the flesh.” These usages are consistent with those of the Hebrew Bible which see gēr as a sojourner in a foreign land.

[freedumb2003]

So, no borders for you, eh?

I hope you have a BIIIIIG checkbook to pay for your adherence to your passages. Oh, yeah, and when people DIE because the local hospital closed down (which it did), I'll send the family to you and let you explain that their loved one died for your scriptures.

As far as I am concerned, you and people like you killed them.

[CowboyJay]

Notice those nice passages apply to aliens, not illegal aliens. This country treats legal aliens better than any country on earth. Law-breakers are another matter.

[The Cuban]

Don't agree with you on much else, but sometimes your out of context Bible quotations happen to make sense.

[holyscroller]

Hey Raycpa, sine you 're quoting scripture about Illegal aliens, here's another one for you:

John 10:1 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. (KJV)

[freeangel]

"the alien livingg with you must be treated as one of your native-born"

US citizens are jailed for breaking the law. I think we should go right ahead and do that.

[norton]

Sorry Ray,
But 'aliens' in your quotations refers to those of another religion, not to foreign nationals being urged to slide in and mail a check home every thursday.

[amihow]

I do not believe that alien is synonomous with ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTs on American soil.

I think alien just means foreigner.

Regarding the illegals here, we should feed them, clothe them, give them medical and financial help and send them home unless they are political refugees or truly coming for their lives.

No one has a right to take from others to the point they are becoming impoverished, which is what is happening to the lower and middle class in America. Every year a million more people go on the poverty rolls, as a million illegals come in.

[humblegunner]

Exodus 22: 21 "Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt.

Never been to Egypt.