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What Is The Christian Response To Illegal Aliens?
By Rev. Kevin S. Johnson

“Always be prepared to give to every man who asks you the reason (apologia) for the hope that lies within you” 1 Peter 3:15

Although the apologetics mission deals primarily with direct reasons for believing the gospel, it is important to answer secondary questions that are prompted by our ethical belief system or we may never get the opportunity of addressing the core spiritual issues. “Water cooler” apologetics is important!

We mustn’t be seen as Pharisees who only care about religious matters and don’t care about applying truth to the more mundane needs of people. Jesus said there are weightier matters (core eternal doctrine would fall into this
category) that need to be addressed, but the less weighty matters are important as well. In Mt 23:23 we read "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.”

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

As I have said, people wonder whether our faith is able to be relevant to the very real issues facing all of us. Questions of social justice are always concerns of common conversation. One of those burning issues is illegal immigration.

There are a lot of questions to be addressed with this. Should illegal aliens be allowed to have all the citizenship rights and benefits of those who have waited in line to come here legally? Should they have the privileges of they who have been born the sons and daughters of those who came here legally?
Should they become citizens before those who have been dutifully and lawfully waiting in line to become citizens?

MY FAMILY’S IMMIGRANT HERITAGE

Before I answer let me tell you a little bit about myself. I am only the second generation born in America on my father’s side. Both of my paternal grandparents were born in Sweden. My Swedish grandmother was also Jewish. My family goes back way before the American Civil War on my mother’s side which includes native Cherokee Indians as well as “Pennsylvania Dutch” Germans and Scot-Irish immigrants. My ancestors fought on both sides of the American Civil War. We have served in the military during most wars since. We are well aware of from “whence we came” and our commitment to this country in our family. Thus, I have no problem with legal immigration.

My children are the beneficiaries of the culture that was brought to them through the centuries largely through the immigration policies of previous American generations. The American government in the past has kept out certain criminal and political elements like the Anarchists, the Mafia, the Nazis and the Communists. Former generations of Americans screened these types out as best as they could. They also disallowed those who were contagiously sick or without a friend here and who would be, because of that, indigent and living on the streets. In other words, they protected America!

Some Americans think that the case is closed as soon as you show the fact that people are simply hoping to improve their lot by leaving their impoverished nations in order to do menial tasks on our shores. My grandparents were poor and came here to live their lives. My grandmother left an inheritance behind to do this. Their poverty by American standards did NOT give them the right to immigrate to our country illegally. Both of them followed American law and thus showed respect for their new country! Again, the fact that people are poor doesn’t entitle them to a place at the American table.

It is true that a few of the jobs that some of the illegal immigrants are willing to do are undesirable to some (certainly NOT all) Americans who are, therefore, unwilling to do them. There are, however, legal immigrants from those same countries that are willing to do manual labor (as both of my grandparents
did) and there are also some young native-born Americans who will also do dirty jobs.

My own sons and nephews have taken jobs that require hard manual or undesirable labor (i.e. lawn care, fast food cooking, unloading UPS carriers, carrying heavy sacks of clay and rock all day and preparing corn crops by cutting standing tassels off) because they needed the money. During my college years, I worked on a lawn crew, washed dishes at a college and a restaurant, cleaned horse stalls, bagged groceries, steam cleaned carpets and furniture, did hollow grinding, and worked at Sears warehouse. These were not cushy white-collar jobs.

BAD POLITICS: DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL

There is now an opportunity for some politicians to champion the cause of the poor immigrants because they see them as potential future voters for their party. These are among the ones who want to keep the illegal door open so more voters will arrive. This is something that is terrible, and next to treasonous, because it may allow for foreign intervention in our domestic politics. All it takes for a hostile foreign power to hurt us is to have enough of their agents sneak across the border with the purpose of swaying elections by their people becoming active in our politics. “Sleeper” agents don’t always have to spy or blow things up, though that is also something that “open borders”
invites.

This brings up the real need to make sure that terrorists from the Middle East, or elsewhere, are not pouring across our borders with the sole intention of killing thousands of Americans. It is a fact that some of the 911 people came here as a result of illegal immigration as have other potential terrorists such as the “Fort Dix Six” did.

As it stands right now the point of keeping the bad elements out are moot.
The horses have left the barn as the door has been irresponsibly left open for far too long. What do we do now? Our President has told us that rounding up the illegal aliens is impossible and out of the question.

THE CHRISTIAN RESPONSE?

So, what should the Christian responses be to the 12 million plus illegal aliens in the United States who are mostly poor people? The problem must be solved by employing justice and mercy, two very Judeo/Christian values that can be shown from the Scriptures. They may seem contradictory and in tension with each other. We must remember that justice and mercy met at the cross of Christ.

Though we are not under the Torah of Moses as Christians, we can certainly glean much understanding from the Old Testament concerning what general principles God employed in governing Israel. We can also glean much from The New Testament. What I offer here is not exhaustive, but hopefully sheds general light from the Bible as to what our attitude should include.

MERCY AND COMPASSION

The first principle must be the showing of mercy to the poor and to
strangers:

Mt 5:7* "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

Exodus 12:9: "You shall not oppress a stranger, since you yourselves know the feelings of a stranger, for you also were strangers in the land of Egypt.

De 15:11* "For the poor will never cease to be in the land; therefore I command you, saying, 'You shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your needy and poor in your land.'

Deuteronomy 24:19 "When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow, in order that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
20 "When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow.
21 "When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not go over it again; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow.

Le 19:10: 'Nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger.

De 24:14 "You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your countrymen or one of your aliens who is in your land in your towns.

We are to show impartiality in matters of justice:

Le 19:15 'You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly.

“For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, "You sit here in a good place," and you say to the poor man, "You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool," have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives? Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? —James 2:2-5

Once the illegal aliens migrate to the U.S. they must be shown compassion mixed with justice. Individual Christians should always show kindness to strangers, but should not do anything unlawful in doing so. This means if it is illegal to hire an undocumented immigrant then you must not hire them! We should also not participate in illegal “underground railroad” activity that would seek to hide them from authorities that are trying to enforce immigration law.

If you want to feed them and provide material help for them, then that is a godly thing to do. Many of our hospitals are already doing this to our culture’s credit. However, it should never be that they are shown favor over those who are here legally or to their detriment.

JUSTICE AND GOVERNMENT ISSUES
A primary justice principle is found in the Romans chapter 13 injunction that says governments must wield the sword in defense of the righteous or they are not legitimate before God. The syllogism is plain in that passage that they must be a terror to evildoers, which would include lawbreaking illegal aliens.

“Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.”—Romans 13:3,4

TERRORISTS ARE DIFFERENT FROM WORKERS

There is a principle of proportionality that Jesus laid down when it came to punishment. This has been incorporated into American jurisprudence. It comes to us in common parlance, as “the punishment must fit the crime.” This is shown in the following passage:

Lu 12:48 47 "And that slave who knew his master's will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes, but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few.

There are those illegal aliens who come here for nefarious criminal reasons, be it to advance the cause of illegal drugs, gang interests or terrorism.
These should be treated differently than those who are simply trying to subsist or keep their families together. Both types of illegal aliens are worthy of some sort of penalty for disobeying the laws of the United States but they ought to be dealt with differently.

PENALTIES FOR BREAKING THE LAW

I suggest that the bare minimum for the “workers” (versus the drug /gang/ or terrorist criminals) should be that they are put behind others who are in the processing line legally.

Full citizenship should be barred for a number of years in the area of voting rights. We do this with lawbreaking felons right now. This could be perhaps forever, or for a probationary period of say a decade or two. This would take the political incentive out of allowing open borders.

The basic humanitarian needs we offer to foreign countries should be extended to these people. We ought not prefer them to our own citizens in giving them aid or financial help but we should help them if we decide not to deport them.

DEPORT, ABSORB OR ASSIMILATE THEM?

Being fluent in English should be mandatory for all coming here to live.
Their willingness to assimilate, and not just be “absorbed” into our land, should be shown before full citizenship is allowed. English should be a bare bones minimum. Those that are here should face rewards and penalties if they do, or do not, learn English. The ultimate sanction of deportation should remain an option.

We should always cherish the multi-ethnic nature of America but NEVER multiculturalism. We have an American culture that should be accepted and practiced by all who would live among us. Some of our culture is sublime and some is asinine, but the nobler Judeo-Christian aspects should be embraced by all Americans and would be Americans.

Deportation of those who refuse to be assimilated should not be taken off the table. It is regrettable that our President seems to have done so.

Assimilation was rewarded by God in the Scriptures as He gave the laws for governing Israel. This can be seen in this passage:

Exodus 12:48,49
"But if a stranger sojourns with you, and celebrates the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near to celebrate it; and he shall be like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat of it.”

FOREIGN ENEMIES

The need for our government to keep people from crossing our borders illegally is obvious. The most primary responsibility of government is to protect its citizens. In the day of crafty and determined terrorism, compact atomic bombs and designer biological horrors, protection is only possible by closely monitoring traffic across our borders. We also don’t want the shoot outs that have resulted in the deaths of thousands of Mexicans which are caused by the drug cartels in that country.

The Israelis have been attacked in the liberal press for building their security fence, but it has caused the suicide bombers to dwindle to a fraction of their former amount. We would do well to imitate something that has worked for them. An Americanism says “a stitch in time saves nine” and another ones tells us “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” We will rue the day we didn’t do this if, God forbid, one of our cities evaporates in a burst of nuclear energy.

In the case of the criminal types they should be deported immediately and dealt with under our criminal code and treaties. The terrorists should be dealt with as “Gitmo” type international criminal combatants.

Well, that is my take on the Scriptures and their impact on the current situation. We need to pray for our leaders and law enforcement.

In His Service Gladly,

Rev. Kevin S. Johnson
The Institute For Christian Apologetics
Director Mount Carmel Outreach
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