In our post 9/11 fear, America seems to be becoming less and less hospitable to strangers. If this happens, the terrorists have succeeded in instilling terror into our system. The Christian response needs to continue to lift up Jesus’ call to welcome the stranger in Matthew 25.
Current pending bills the Texas legislature will basically have Houston law enforcement looking for people with brown skin, checking citizen status for anyone who they suspect to possibly be an undocumented immigrant. Becoming more unfriendly to immigrants will devastate our economy, our spirituality and rich and diverse culture.
Legislation racism is an ugly, longstanding tradition in the U.S. “Old black Joe’s still picking cotton,” as Leonard Cohen laments in “Everybody Knows.”
Immigration has accounted for Houston’s robust economy. They have filled the economy’s desperate need for low-wage workers. The Anglo population in Harris County has fallen from 37% to 33% in ten short years. Latinos now account for 41% of the population. Asians and African Americans make up most of the rest. We are becoming a microcosm of the U.S, and the U.S. is becoming a globally diverse microcosm of the world. As Rice University’s Stephen Klineberg says, “We are a free people, and we are from everywhere.”
Our fears are unfounded. Immigrants are paying taxes. They are contributing to the economy. They are learning English (at a much faster rate than my German immigrant ancestors). They commit less crimes than citizens. None of the horrific acts of terrorism in the last few years were committed by Mexicans crossing the border in search of hard work. Here are the myths and facts: http://www.lirs.org/atf/cf/%7BA9DDBA5E-C6B5-4C63-89DE-91D2F09A28CA%7D/Mythbuster%208-23-10.pdf
So, one wonders, why all the fuss?
Today’s Chronicle reported a comment by the cofounder of Immigration Reform Coalition of Texas that reveals what I have long felt is the racism driving the issue:
“If you want to know why we can’t pass legislation in Texas it’s because we have 37, no 36 Hispanics in the Legislature. So, that’s part of our problem and we need to change those numbers,” said Rebecca Forest, a co-founder of Immigration Reform Coalition of Texas. “We need to do something about that in fact.” (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7609073.html)
Not everyone resisting the influx of strangers feels this way of course, but racism is a powerful undercurrent in the U.S, and always has been. Blacks, Native Americans, Chinese, Japanese, Latinos. There is an underlying feeling, often unconscious, that there “real” Americans (white descendants of Europe), and then there’s everyone else, essentially aliens, even if thee families have been here 250 years. In Texas it’s amusing. I once heard a white Texan descendant of Germans ask a Latino man when he moved here. This fully bilingual man had lived here his whole life. His ancestors had ranches this land before English-speaking people starting coming over, and long before Texas was part of the U.S. She was only third-generation.
I don’t get to make laws. Not my job. But as Americans we have the right to discuss them, and as Christians we have the responsibility to challenge unjust and uncharitable laws. This stuff smells bad to me. I hope our people will talk about what it means to welcome the stranger in Texas and Louisiana.
Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get richThat’s how it goes
Everybody knows…
And everybody knows that you’re in trouble
Everybody knows what you’ve been through
From the bloody cross on top of calvary
To the beach of Malibu…
Everybody knows
Everybody knows
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows
“When I was a stranger you welcomed me…”
June 14, 2011 at 2:25 pm
There are times over the course of my church work when I felt that Jesus would be politely asked to leave if he showed up on Sunday morning. Worse still, I’m afraid that the problem lies less with the people in the pews than with the church’s leadership – called, lay, and volunteer.
Perhaps we could take a lesson from any local AA meeting, where “the newcomer is the most important person in the room.” Most often, that newcomer, fresh off a binge, looks a bit the worse for wear and tear and is likely very sick (mentally, physically and spiritually). However, every other person in that meeting has been there, and the appearance of the stranger/newcomer gives the group a chance to remember its shared history and shared solution. In the end, the newcomer gives the group the chance to retell its story, which keeps (or at least should keep) the group healthy and “on point.”
Whether the stranger is black, white, brown, or has electric blue hair, are we as a church re-enacting and retelling our own shared story of salvation?
June 22, 2011 at 2:13 pm
The Lord’s Prayer:
“Forgive us our Trespasses, as we forgive those who Trespass against us.”
NOT–open your home to the trespasser and let him live in your house forever.
It’s one thing to welcome and feed a stranger for a night or provide a temporary refuge for the persecuted. It’s another thing to allow strangers to steal into our country illegally and allow them and their progeny to steal taxpayer-paid benefits from us.
“Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s” is not just a command to pay taxes; it is a command to obey the laws–which include immigration laws.
I challenge anyone to find a biblical injunction to disobey immigration law. It’s not there.
June 22, 2011 at 2:15 pm
Forest said that “part of the problem” with the inability to pass immigration-related legislation in the Texas Legislature is the large number of Hispanic Legislators who consistently vote against immigration-related legislation.
You say that’s racism.
I say it’s a fact.
The liberal Democratic Hispanics in the Texas Legislature consistently vote against any and all enforcement legislation.
The latest example: SB9. It passed 19-12. All 12 who voted against were Democrats. SEVEN–more than half the total–were Hispanic Democrats. (proof here: http://www.journals.senate.state.tx.us/sjrnl/821/pdf/82S106-14-F.PDF#page=2. VanDePutte is Hispanic.) EVERY single Hispanic Democrat in the Texas Senate voted against SB9–which is a such an incredibly MILD piece of enforcement legislation it barely deserves the name.
So–if we want to have immigration enforcement legislation in Texas (which you clearly don’t), “that’s part of the problem.” It’s not the whole problem. But it sure as heck isn’t part of the solution.
June 22, 2011 at 7:12 pm
Perhaps I need to be more blunt. Our immigration laws are unjust. They are designed to keep out “colored” people. They are unAmerican – the legacy of a bent mindset that foolishly believes in the supremacy of the “white” race, and even more poignantly, has an uneducated view that “race” has any scientific basis at all. They intend to keep out “those” people. They assume immigration is bad for America when in fact it provides a labor force and the cross-pollination of ideas. Finally, there is absolutely no Scriptural basis for “keeping people out” whatsoever. It might be good to remember that the apostle who told Christian to obey the law in Romans 13 was put to death for not obeying the law.
June 23, 2011 at 4:10 am
Wow. That’s astonishingly ignorant.
Perhaps you are unaware that every country in the world has immigration laws, and almost all of them are more restrictive than those of the United States.
As for the idea that immigration laws are UnAmerican–in fact, the American immigration laws are American laws, passed by American Congresses and signed by American presidents, and they have a long history as American laws.
Perhaps you are unaware that it is not possible for the United States to import every person who would like to come to American without the entire society and economy collapsing. If the perhaps 3 billion people who would like to come to America actually were permitted to do so, the ecological disaster that would unleash is literally unimaginable.
As for the idea that immigration laws assume that immigration is bad for America, that is frankly and utterly preposterous. America’s immigration laws are among the most generous and welcoming of any on the planet (though, to be fair, not as open as Canada’s). American immigration laws allow millions of legal immigrants every year, including many who think that Lutheranism, and Christianity generally is either nonsense or an abomination.
As for their being no Scriptural basis for enforcement of border laws, perhaps you need to study more closely. Not only is “Render unto Caesar” spot-on applicable, but you might want to read Exodus 34:24, though doubtless you would view it as “racist” and “imperialist” propaganda for a hardline Jewish state. Ditto Isiah 26:15, Deuteronomy 32:8 (God set the borders of nations between people).
We can all come to Christ, because he has infinite capacity. This is not so with the nations of the Earth. The people of each nation have the right to determine who joins them in their nation. To assert otherwise is to deny democratic self-determination, to invite anarchy, and to assert totalitarian control over national identity.
Your prescription for abolition of national sovereignty, if followed, would mean the end of Israel, as its “racist” immigration laws designed to exclude the Muslim “other” are repealed and Arabs flood the land. And, then, of course, drive the Jews into the sea. Are you so blinded by ideology that you cannot see the consequence of your proposals?
Why do you hate your country, and the very idea of nations? Because a nation that does not control its borders is not a nation. It is Somalia, or Sudan, or Afghanistan. It is hell on earth.