Mary and Joseph were legal immigrants. They did not steal from the public larder.
If they walk over the oceans to get here, I would let them stay.
Does Jesus find a warm welcome in our communities?” Did Jesus sneak across the border or pay a human smuggler thousands of dollars,buy fake or stolen documents,not pay taxes?
Actually, they weren’t. They had gone to town to register for the census, which was basically for the purpose of paying taxes.
I’m very much in favor of reviewing our immigration policies and establishing a better, more liberal policy specifically for Latin Americans, btw, but this bishop is making a stupid statement that is comparing apples to oranges. It’s idiotic people like him that make it hard to work on the actual problem.
Nonsense. Joseph and Mary were complying with the law; illegal aliens are breaking it.
“What changes do we need to make here in Arkansas in order to ensure that today’s Marys and Josephs — today’s Marias and Joses”
...put a sock in it Bish! Go to the “Federation for American Immigration Reform” (FAIR) web site and read how your “flock” will be financially, ecologically and criminally raped and pillaged as a result of your pandering for money into your church. A$$HAT!
Was Joseph not born in Bethlehem? Isn’t that why they went up there, to register in the town of his birth? Or does he mean when they lived in Egypt? In any case, they were legal there as well because God told them to go there. Oh, maybe that’s it - maybe God has told all of the illegals to flock to the U.S. Got it.
I'm a Jerk!
They were travelers. I don’t think they intended to move in for good.
Where do they get these loons?
I saw a priest once say from the pulpit that our culture is not any better than anyone else’s. That they are all equal.
Actually, in the strict sense, Mary and Joseph were tourists (or maybe “migrant workers”). Immigrants plan to stay “in country”-—Mary and Joseph did not.
Nonsense.
Joesph and Mary were DIRECTED by the Government to travel, so as to be counted.
They were not immigrants in that they chose to move from their home to another place (legally or illegally
Just one more sopposed Christian trying to use the Bible to push Political Social Issues
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.
And next week, the bishop’s letter will tell his diocese how Joseph and Mary were homeless. Of course, he’ll be quoting Reverend Al Gore whose faith tradition taught him that and so much more.
In a strict spiritual sense, Jesus and his family were aliens to our world just as all Christians are. In a literal sense, they were aliens when they fled to Egypt.
God is very clear that he expected the Hebrew people to treat aliens as their own people and to provide for their needs. The reasoning he gave was because the Jews were to treat aliens better than the Pharaoh treated them.
If we trust that God is the ultimate provider and that he can provide our needs as well as the worlds, and if God directs us to care for the alien then there will be plenty for everyone including the alien.
The laws we have are opposed to the biblical instructions for treating aliens and although we must follow them, Christians should be concerned they are not in accordance with the will of God.
The hard part of accepting God’s will is too many of us believe that God will has to do with our personal bank accounts rather than the saving of souls.
Some Bishops know little about the Bible itself. Some know much but would use it for politicly correct purposes, deceiving their flocks and teaching them faulty methods of Biblical study and interpretation.
Just as the public schools dumb down children, many clergymen are dumbing down their congregations.
Hm...do you suppose this guy is an Obama voter? Inquiring minds want to know.
Joseph and Mary were immigrants into Egypt. They were refugees escaping government infanticide.
Actually, this bishop has it backwards. Mary and Joseph were going back to Joseph’s ancestral home to comply with the Roman law for tax-enumeration.
They were not immigrants, but returnees, if the Word of God is anything to go by.
Bishop Anthony B. Taylor obviously does not read the Bible or is intentionally distorting it.
1) Joseph and Mary were residents of Nazareth. Caesar Augustus then decreed that a census be taken, for which everyone had to return to their town of origin (Lk 2:1-3). Joseph was a descendant of David (Mt 1:6-16, Lk 2:4), whose hometown was Bethlehem (1 Sam 16:1-13), so he and Mary went to Bethlehem to register (Lk 2:4-5). They were fulfilling their lawful requirements and were not immigrants.
2) Illegal immigrants break numerous state and federal laws to live in the USA including identity theft, driving without a license, and lacking auto insurance.
There is no legitimate comparison between the two.
We may call Him the Savior of the world, but Jesus was a legal resident and citizen according to authorities. After all, the reason Joseph and Mary were in Bethlehem was to register with the census - a very legal act.