Posted on 07/07/2010 10:46:06 AM PDT by van_erwin
Our nation has one top priority. That priority is to survive. Without that one priority being realized, all is lost.
People will use the Bible to back whatever they want. They’ll even find a reason why abortion is Biblical. They’ll defend the Manson family based on religion. People are sick, and you’ll have to come to terms with that at some point.
Allowing people from terrorist states to relocate here, is not supported by the Bible.
Allowing our nation to be over-run, Northern White European influence destroyed, Christian religion to be relegated to subservience to Islamic beliefs, is not Biblical.
The United States has been more receptive to immigration than any other nation on planet earth.
It is not a sin to devise reasoned immigration laws, and enforce them.
It is a sin to allow your family to be destroyed, when you could stop it. And our nation is our extended family.
No ambiguity at all.
Build the wall.
Actually, we do treat immigrants as we do our own.
If you have a green card you have all the rights of a US citizen except for the vote.
And we admit a million legal immigrants a year. (Some say that double book-keeping obscures the fact that we admit many more than a million legal immigrants a year).
No other country comes close. No other country comes close.
As for illegals? They are treated humanely, and they are repatriated to their homeland. If they have reason to fear persecution, they are routinely granted asylum.
Mexico, by the way, has pride of place as the single largest quota of legal immigrant visas out of every other country. They get more visas than the next half dozen countries combined. They get about 10 or 12 times the visas that our closest partners in the world get.
And Mexico is at least nominally a Christian country. If it is being abandoned by its people at the rate of nearly a million a year, year after year (between legal and illegals combined) then something is seriously wrong. They are a major industrial power. They are a major oil producing nation. And yet their people are fleeing by the millions. There is a serious moral problem at the root of it, and the church has an important role to play there.
Mexico has become a mission field. If the church is looking for a role to play, its right there in front of them.
They’re not “strangers among us.” They’re invading barbarians. The Bible doesn’t require you, or your nation, to commit suicide.
Doesn't say that law-breaking is a-ok either.
I can tell you something as a Christian.....God is a contract, blood, covenant God. His Word is his Word. Period. He follows the Law, and His covenant's.
I suggest that we do the same...............
All that said....it doesn't mean can't help feed them love them, etc...but they are law-breaker's and must face the consequences of their actions.
Leviticus also says: "The Lord spoke to Moses saying: When any of you sin and commit a trespass against the Lord by deceiving a neighbor in a matter of a deposit or a pledge, or by robbery, or if you have defrauded a neighbor, or have found something lost and lied about it - if you swear falsely regarding any of the various things that one may do and sin thereby - when you have sinned and realize your guilt, you would restore that which you took by robbery or by fraud or the deposit that was commited to you, or the lost thing that you found, or anything else about which you have sworn falsely, you shall repay the principal amount and shall add one-fifth to it."
So if that's true too the illegals have some serious financial atoning to do.
When they quote that you might also mention that Leviticus considers women who have give birth to be unclean for 33 days and they shall not be permitted to touch any holy thing or enter the sanctuary. Oh, and it's 66 days if they give birth to a female. I bet they don't go for that part of the scripture though do they?
“I was recently reminded of the text of Leviticus 19: 33-34. Not a lot of ambiguity in this Scripture”
Leviticus also calls for killing homosexuals too, not a lot of ambiguity there or the other punishments listed for various sins.
I thought Christians believed that the Mosaic code didn’t apply to them?
I thought Christians believed that the Mosaic code didn’t apply to them?
When all else fails scream "racism".
Looks like a lot of people are much more comfortable making Scripture say what they want it to say than I am.
The responses I’m reading here sound a lot like the ones I hear from liberals who want to ignore the parts of the Bible that deal with homosexuality.
....if a stranger dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him.The locus of attention in that verse is the behavior of existing residents of the land. Now consider that Mosaic Law demanded that all Israelite laws apply to anyone and everyone within Israel's borders. Once your Levitical stranger steps foot across Israel's borders (legally or illegally), said stranger's presense within those borders makes them subject to all of Israel's laws (including any that might govern citizenship and government handouts)....
The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
-- Leviticus 19: 33-34
...when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.The question that the "open borders/amnesty" crowd needs to answer is what constitutes "you shall not mistreat" behavior when confronted with a lawbreaking stranger in your gates?
Gather the people together, men and women and little ones, and the stranger who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the LORD your God and carefully observe all the words of this law,
and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God as long as you live in the land which you cross the Jordan to possess.”
-- Deuteronomy 31:11-13
I am glad you have broken free of that . . . organization, but with what have you replaced it? God is still relevant even if most denominations aren’t.
FYI, the “National Catholic Reporter” is a dissident publication. Its writers are no more Catholic than Obama is.
If you don't want to listen to the responses given, then why did you post this to begin with? God tells us that governments established on Earth are established by Him. We are to obey them. Our government has laws against illegal entry into our country. Those laws must be obeyed. Nothing ambiguous about that.
If you still have a problem with illegal-immigration (which the passage you quote really doesn't address), then I suggest you consider some other forum.
The problem here is they lump “illegal” aliens in together with legal immigrants. Without making the proper distinction.
Nothing in the Bible says we are mandated to be accomodating with services or benefits, to those who have willfully broken the law, shown contempt for this country’s sovereignty, and trespassed our borders.
They are pulling Scriptures out-of-context from the Bible, as many with a nefarious agenda often do, in order to support open un-secure borders, and amnesty for illegals which will encourage and result in more illegal immigration.
Jimmy Carter and other politicians have often quoted the verse “Blessed are the Peacemakers”, out of context in support of a political agengda.
What that verse is really addressing is fallen humanity’s need to experience “peace with God” in the soul.
It’s talking about the blessings received from turning the sinner from the error of their way, so they can be assured that when this earthly life is over, they can go to Heaven and meet the one who paid the ultimate price for “our sin”.
That verse is not about working for “peace” between warring factions or nations. As far as that is concerned, the Bible makes it clear that as long as this world continues, there is always going to be conflict.
No there's not. The Scripture does not address how you are to treat an ILLEGAL alien. If my memory serves, the good book also has a verse about "rendering unto Cesar" which requires us to live within the law.
When an alien comes into the US legally, I have no problem following the dictates of Leviticus.
“When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born.”
Cross into Mexico or go to Mexico’s southern border with Latin America, use this biblical verse and watch the reaction one receives from the Mexican police.
This should help (citation at bottom):
Our opponents who cherry pick and dumb down sacred text are shameless reductionists, and they regard one passage from the Hebrew Bible as their trump card: Leviticus 19:33-34.
“When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. 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.”
This passage expresses the ethical universalism central to classical Judaism. Many liberal adherents regard it as Judaism’s totality – though it is but half of a dialectic counter-balanced by another: strong particularism, including national and civilizational allegiances. This particularism was relied upon heavily by the Founders in their great speeches and writing who cited the Providential role of the Almighty in the particular destiny of the American people.
One of Scripture’s great expressions of human empathy, the passage from Leviticus is not a press release from God’s Legislative Affairs Office endorsing “Comprehensive Immigration Form.” It says nothing about immigration – for which there is no word in Biblical Hebrew – or amnesty, extended family reunification, bilingualism, birthright citizenship, guest workers, identity theft, ICE raids, eligibility for Obamacare, etc.
The Hebrew Bible’s authors did not anticipate the debate on immigration in 21st century America and do not address it in Leviticus. This self-evident truth should prevent clergy or lay leaders from treating it like political talking points. But they cite it to argue legislative particulars as though it were written by policy wonks. (I wonder if they’d care to cite Leviticus on gay marriage or the death penalty?) Their approach drenches political advocacy with arrogant religiosity, dangerously sanctifying partisanship.
Does Leviticus 19:33 address – let alone endorse – “comprehensive immigration reform?” Not by the most lenient interpretive standard. It commands empathy, “love” for the “other,” for gentiles, asserting humanity’s oneness and God’s omnipotence. It commands us to treat the “other” kindly, the stranger residing temporarily and lawfully among us. It commands nothing more.
Utilizing this passage as sanction for amnesty requires conscious mistranslation. This is not an esoteric quibble. The word for stranger in the Hebrew Bible is Ger v’toh-shav – “sojourner” in English. First appearing in Genesis 4:23 to describe Abraham when he dwells briefly among the Hittites in Kiryat Arba, modern Hebron, its final appearance is in the last book of the Hebrew Bible, Chronicles 29:15, when King David contrasts the transitory nature of human existence with the eternality of God on whose earth we live as temporary wanderers.
The eminent scholar Richard Elliot Friedman, Professor of Biblical Hebrew at Oxford and Cambridge universities, translates it as “alien” and “visitor.” All English dictionaries define “to sojourn” as “to stay temporarily.” Arguing some 11 million illegal aliens should remain here permanently finds no support in Leviticus.
As noted, there’s no term for “immigrant” or “immigration” in the Hebrew Bible, and the Book of Ruth is an exceptional narrative about the adoption of a new national identity. Ruth, a Moabite, determines to remain with her Israelite mother-in-law after her husband’s death and become an Israelite. It’s instructive to contrast the powerful assertion of national belonging Ruth expresses to Naomi with the apparent indifference to national identity or loyalty to a competing one that characterizes so many contemporary resident aliens. Ruth says, “Wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people will be my people and your God will be my God. Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried.” The Book of Ruth provides perhaps the most ancient expression of the ideal of patriotic assimilation.
Fewer than 25 percent of foreign-born Mexicans have naturalized. The Pew Hispanic Center reports that number dropped 62 percent in the last year; one explanation is the cost of filing for naturalization rose $265.00. In the Book of Ruth we encounter an outsider’s total identification with an adopted nation and longing for complete absorption. Among a great many contemporary transnational migrants (a more accurate term than “immigrant”) we see something very different. Whether stemming from the anomie of the deracinated, economic calculation, unwillingness to choose between identities, or more likely, an abiding loyalty to Mexico – all Mexicans remain Mexican by Mexican law – there’s scant indication of a parallel desire to embrace American identity. This is especially true when that requires paying a price for wholesale violations of American law, playing by the rules, and going to the back of the queue. A recent survey conducted in Mexico finds 69 percent of Mexicans believe their compatriots in the United States owe Mexico primary loyalty; another finds 62 percent of Mexicans harbor irredentist attitudes, regarding the American Southwest as Mexican. Can one even disaggregate these groups – Mexicans here, Mexicans there – given porous borders, their peregrinations, and Mexico’s unbroken ties – ideological and legal –on its children here?
The Hebrew Bible addresses inclusion of strangers/aliens in civil and legal terms in several places. (Exodus, 12:49; Leviticus, 24: 22; and Numbers, 15:14). It proclaims: “One law for the citizen/native and the alien/stranger that dwells among you.”
But this is no Bill of Rights for sojourners. The Bible demands strict obedience to Israelite laws and norms. Aliens gain rights only through lawful residency. While “aliens” need not convert, they must embrace monotheism, the bedrock of Judaic civilization. The punishment for idolatry is death. Strangers had to pay taxes, demonstrate civic loyalty by making the annual pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem, and preserve social order.
The Bible draws a bright line between its religiously defined notion of being a citizen – in Biblical Hebrew the word is ezrach – from a sojourner. While forms of legal residency for those outside the covenant find sanction in the Hebrew Bible, only conversion to Judaism conferred all rights and made one a full member of the people (for example, the remittance of debts every seven years was not permitted to resident aliens). The idea that conversion confers full rights is paralleled by a prepositional conception of American citizenship.
Leviticus 19:33 exhorts us to “Love the stranger.” “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” is not about love; it’s about exploiting cheap labor, Hispanic identity politics, and creating a permanent Democratic political majority. Leviticus does not command us to exploit strangers for profit or political advantage.
Contemporary immigration pits hard-pressed constituencies against each other: poor illegal aliens against America’s unemployed, working poor, and working class, including legal immigrants. The competition gravely harms our fellow citizens, especially during times of acute economic distress. Our “jobless recovery” means nearly 10 percent of us are “officially” unemployed. Some 16 million are out of work, and while six citizens chase every job advertised, illegal aliens hold some seven million jobs. In this zero-sum game, our countrymen have first call on our loyalty: “charity begins at home.”
The Hebrew Prophets repeatedly demand justice for the humble laborers of one’s own community. This exhortation is recited in the Bible’s “Holiness Code” read in every synagogue on the Day of Atonement. Distorting Scripture to support legislation designed to import cheap labor to depress the wages and worsen the working conditions of our vulnerable fellow citizens is not only shameful; it is also sacrilege.
Sincerely,
Dr. Stephen Steinlight
Senior Policy Analyst
Center for Immigration Studies
1522 K Street, N.W., Suite 820
Washington, DC 20005-1202
- 10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. 11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Illegals PROMOTE lawlessness. Those who support ILLEGALS also support lawlessness.
We are all now seeing what God KNEW, we as a society, would become. Things seem to get worse day by day. Look at the gay agenda and how far "we" have allowed them to come. They are now teaching OUR children homosexuality is NORMAL.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.