The Bible’s first confession of faith: “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien.” (Deuteronomy 26:5)
“We might ask: Did that wandering Aramean and his family have the proper documents to reside in Egypt? Were they “illegal aliens?” Did he and his children have he proper Social Security credentials? Did they speak properly the Egyptian language?
“We know at least that he and his children were strangers in the midst of a powerful empire, and that as such they were both exploited and feared. This is the date of many immigrants. In their reduced circumstances they are usually compelled to perform the least prestigious and most strenuous kinds of menial work. But at the same time they awaken the schizophrenic paranoia typical of empires, powerful and yet fearful of the stranger, of the “other,” especially if that stranger raises within its borders and becomes populous…
“Who today are the wandering Arameans?”
Dr. Luis N. Rivera-Pagán
All but a small number of us in the States have to go back only a few generations in our own families to find relatives who left the familiar and loved ones far behind to search for new possibilities in a new and strange place. Might our fear of today’s immigrants be a reflection of the fear our relatives experienced as strangers trying to fit into a new culture? Have we grandchildren of immigrants inherited a nameless fear that we’ll be treated as porly as our ancesters were?
Might also ask if they expected the government to feed, house them and pay for all their medical needs.
Probably not Mike. Not here either. Not many immigrants are sitting around eating free food. Most I know are working their butts off. Capitalism says we shouldn’t have to help anyone. It’s YOYO economics. (You’re on your own.) Jesus, on the other hand, tells us to feed the hungry. Welcome the stranger. We can decide whom we will follow.