Jesus: The Illegal Immigrant?
The 2004 election is said to have hinged on values voters. As a result, many liberals are trying to appeal to these values voters by using Bible scripture. Often their use of scripture leaves me scratching my head. New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is the latest to twist the Bible in some puzzling way.
Yesterday Sen. Clinton met with 30 immigrant leaders in Manhattan. The meeting was called in order to discuss immigration bills pending in Congress. After the meeting the group held a press conference in which the senator used the Bible to criticize Republicans. I assume she was speaking of the bill sponsored by Senator Bill Frist (R-Tn) when she said, "...this bill would literally criminalize the good Samaritan and probably Jesus himself."
Senator, I am afraid you lost me on that one. I read the parable of the Good Samaritan, and I see no mention of him violating the immigration laws of the United States, or those of any other country. For all we know, he may have had his green card. As for Jesus, I am certain a man Who never sinned and even paid His taxes would have taken the time to make sure His passport was in order.
As a follower of Jesus I find it offensive that Sen. Clinton would assume Jesus would live in violation of the immigration laws of His time. The Bible tells us to respect the government as an institution ordained by God. As such, Jesus would only defy immigration law if the law somehow contradicted God's moral law. Sorry Sen. Clinton, Jesus was not an illegal immigrant.
How is it that a United States senator seems to not be aware of the current immigration laws of the very country she serves? The bills before congress will not suddenly make illegal aliens criminals. They are already criminals under U.S. law.
Yesterday Sen. Clinton met with 30 immigrant leaders in Manhattan. The meeting was called in order to discuss immigration bills pending in Congress. After the meeting the group held a press conference in which the senator used the Bible to criticize Republicans. I assume she was speaking of the bill sponsored by Senator Bill Frist (R-Tn) when she said, "...this bill would literally criminalize the good Samaritan and probably Jesus himself."
Senator, I am afraid you lost me on that one. I read the parable of the Good Samaritan, and I see no mention of him violating the immigration laws of the United States, or those of any other country. For all we know, he may have had his green card. As for Jesus, I am certain a man Who never sinned and even paid His taxes would have taken the time to make sure His passport was in order.
As a follower of Jesus I find it offensive that Sen. Clinton would assume Jesus would live in violation of the immigration laws of His time. The Bible tells us to respect the government as an institution ordained by God. As such, Jesus would only defy immigration law if the law somehow contradicted God's moral law. Sorry Sen. Clinton, Jesus was not an illegal immigrant.
How is it that a United States senator seems to not be aware of the current immigration laws of the very country she serves? The bills before congress will not suddenly make illegal aliens criminals. They are already criminals under U.S. law.
posted by Dennis | 1:03 PM
8 Comments:
I think it was Joseph and Mary who were the illegal immigrants. And thankfully they broke all kinds of laws to escape Harrod.
So, follow the letter of the law or do what's right? Tough call.
kyle
cave creek, az
This post has been removed by the author.
Hello Kyle. I have considered your point and only have one question: what proof is there that Joseph and Mary were illegal immigrants?
As for broken laws, remember that Harrod had ordered the murder of children. As I mentioned in my post, we are not expected to obey laws that run counter to the will of God.
The point of my post was to speak on how the senator from New York made a coment about Jesus which is not supported by scripture or any other evidence that I know of.
Jesus is kind and would never turn his back on poor people. God is love. It's really that simple. Criminalizing and dehumanizing poor people is not an act of kindness or love no matter how you try to justify it.
The debate will go on. I chose kindness and love. There is no us and them. There is only us. Chose legalities if you must, but I hope you see God loves all of us. With passports and without.
Hello Anonymous,
Let me ask a question. When Jesus told the woman caught in adultery to "go and sin no more" was he dehumanizing her? Yes God is love but he also has rules which he expects us to follow.
Let me ask another question. When a policeman gives a speeding ticket do we accuse him of dehumanizing the speeder? Our nation is a nation of laws and without those laws society would degrade into a pack of animals. In fact not enforcing laws would be more dehumanizing than enforcing them.
After I wrote my last comment I went back and read the original post and I have one more question for the most recent anonymous comment. Did you read the original post?
This post was not about legalities or about how Jesus might or might not deal with illegal immigrants. It was about Sen. Clinton twisting scripture to meet her campaign needs.
Our God, who is love, warns us not to add to or take away from scripture. We can debate immigration law, but there should be no debate over the misuse of God's word.
Well the very fact that Jesus was the Son of God who proclaimed the Kingdom of God was subversive against the government of Rome.
The emperor was called the son of god and for the roman government the only kingdom was the kingdom of rome. This is why many early christians were martyred because they refused to bow down to the image of the beast who was the roman emperor.
Why did rome execute the Messiah? For being a King... when as far as they were concerned the only king was the roman emperor.
We can't remove Yeshua from his political context as a Jew living under roman imperial domination.
Fast forward to the U.S. which has been the modern example of empire (there are many examples to use to prove this point)
Yes immigration is a complex issue and I try to see where others who I may disagree with are coming from because I can see truth in their arguments at times.
Yet, I think we must remember american history. How did this land nativists are so adament about "defending" become the u.s.?
Remember who were the first "illegal immigrants" in this country.
More importantly as Christians our allegiance must be to the Kingdom of God. You know a majority of these "illegal immigrants" consider themselves Christian?
You say, "Well they should obey the scriptures and not disobey laws."
But the bottom line is if we were in their position we might be crossing the desert ourselves.
So we must see the unjust economic forces that push and pull.
Clearly the Almighty defends the powerless, poor, and immigrant.
Also you say Yeshua never broke the law....that's not what the pharisees thought. To them he was a lawbreaker...and that was partly why there was so much controversy surrounding him.
These borders are man made.
This land does not belong to the u.s. or mexico...it belongs to the Almighty.
Does this mean that political realities aren't real and that we don't need to deal with the legislation and surrounding issues? no
but keeping this at the forefront of our perspective is crucial.
Also one more point. I want to make is...who were the original people in this land?
Indigenous people!!!
The u.s. was partly founded on the "illegal immigration" of europeans
who helped build their empire on the backs of african slaves, and who massacred native peoples.
Mexican comes from the indigenous word for Aztec which is Mexica.
Many Mexicans are mestizo (spanish an indian) but either way a good part of their heritage is indigenous....
The majority of latino "illegal immigrants" come from poorer villages whose ancestry is primarily indigenous...even though they speak spanish and might have lost touch with their indigenous culture.
Thank you for your post C and R.
Very good points, most of which I agree with. Keep in mind the context of the original post, which was to question now Secretary of State Clinton on her use of scripture. There is no evidence to support her claim that the immigration bill placed before her would have made Jesus an illegal immigrant. Based on the character of God I questioned if this assertion is true.
You are correct in saying Jesus' teachings were considered subversive to the Roman government and to the Jewish leaders of his day. As I indicate in the original post Jesus would not have obeyed any law that contradicted God’s moral law. When government contradicts God the government is wrong.
As far as the idea of who the first "illegal immigrants" were, we would have to go back and see what laws existed at the time. I suspect we would find a patch work of laws that varied from one Native American nation to another (the Apache having different rules than the Seminoles for example). The modern United States has immigration law. We may debate what changes need to be made to our laws but that does not change the fact that currently the law spells out who is an illegal immigrant.
I agree that illegal immigration is a direct result of unjust economic forces. We need honest debate over how our laws need to change to accommodate the reality of the issues before us. How can we defend the powerless, the poor, and the immigrant without justifying criminal activity and without twisting scripture for our own political purpose?
For the record I believe current immigration law needs to change, not to keep people out but to protect the immigrant and the citizen. I believe this can be done if we move beyond sound bites and ignore cleverly contrived quotes designed to divide Christians over an issue on which we should agree.
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