By Greg Young
Clash Daily Guest Contributor
Now, while the illegal immigration issue is being debated on all sides, there are many Christians who feel that we need to reach out to help and house the illegal children that are now here in our nation. There are others who feel that they must be returned to their homes wherever they came from as soon as possible. I would like to share several thoughts on this issue; let me begin by saying that I am moved by the plight of these children, and do not feel they need to be punished for the current state they are in.
That being said, we as Americans need to wake up to a few realities. First, the percentage of children that have come across the border, and continue to come, are a small minority in the larger picture. However, we are completely ignorant to the dangers that even a small child from somewhere like the Middle East could pose.
I recently went to Mason, Texas to hear Kamal Saleem speak. Kamal fulfilled his first Jihad mission at the age of seven — delivering bombs into Israel. Those who fought in Vietnam know how the children were used as weapons. The enemy we face today has taken the minds of many of these young people and turned them against America. We must understand the enemy.
Secondly, many of the teen aged illegal immigrants are active gang members and working for the cartels. They are being shipped further into our nation and are expanding the territories of the cartels in the United States. They bring murder, rape, disease, theft and intimidation into our neighborhoods.
If you have read this far I hope you will stick with me because I am about to challenge your biblical basis for extending aid to these illegals; but first, let me also add that there is a legal way to enter the country.
While the system has its issues and needs review, when we destroy the Rule of Law, we are teaching these children that “by any means necessary” is a law unto itself. So years from now when faced with a moral dilemma, what will they do? They will do what is going to best benefit themselves because that is what this ordeal is teaching them.
Now, to address the biblical issue. The Israelites were given specific instructions on how to handle foreigners. The foreigner was expected to renounce their foreign ways and to embrace the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They were expected to adhere to the Ten Commandments and the other Jewish laws as given in Leviticus. They would not be accepted if they chose not to follow these steps.
Now, for those who will point to the New Testament and Jesus’ love thy neighbor verses, let me point something out to you: Jesus spoke of ‘neighbor’ and when asked for an example he gave the story of the Samaritan. So what is a Samaritan? Are they a Philistine? A Canaanite? Perhaps an Egyptian? Maybe a Roman? NO!! They were half Jewish and they practiced Jewish customs. They were the ones Jesus chose to use as the example. Were they despised by the Jews? Yes, they were. But they were still of the blood of Israel (Jacob). Jesus had a variety of neighbors at His disposal as He created the story.
He did not call the Romans neighbors. He did not refer to any of the near neighbors who were not of the Jewish blood line. The others did not follow the Jewish laws, did not worship the same God and did not have the same allegiances. The Samaritans were the only ones who turned to Jerusalem to pray. With that being said, we must recognize that these are not our neighbors in a biblical sense.
I had a friend ask me about the plaque on the Statue of Liberty. “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” This was written as a memorial to the immigrants who came to America through legal means and to what America stands for as a light for those seeking freedom.
The people we have been coming across the border illegally are not akin to those who came by ship to the shores of America to whom the statute honors. Legal immigrants are welcome and should be given a place of refuge under the conditions set forth in our laws, given that they desire to be Americans first and all else second. That is what brought my Great Great Grandfather on a ship from Italy to America. It is what my Great Great Great Great Grandparents traveled on the Mayflower to start – a land of the free and home of the brave.
America has held that place of greatness because she has had laws and equality of the administration of those laws. If we allow illegals to destroy those laws, then we are no longer America and they are no longer coming to the land of the free. Freedom demands that we follow these laws, and morality is what makes that happen.
The Church must be the bedrock of that morality. Right is always right. Christians, we must lead the call to for justice and reject the call to exhibit lawlessness and call it grace. To withstand a tyrant who calls us to abandon our Christianity is one thing… to lead a lawless and illegal people and to harbor such is another thing entirely.
Here is a final example. There was a German homeschooling family who fled to America, sought and received Asylum for religious persecution because they were forbidden to home school so they could raise their child in a Christian environment. The Federal Government said no and tried to deport them.
Many Christians raised their voices because this was a clear case of religious persecution. Many would have defied the law for the purpose of preserving Christian faith, like the baker in Colorado or the Photographer in New Mexico. They were persecuted and told to stop speaking the Christian message. For these causes, civil disobedience is demanded. But this is not illegal immigration.
This is not the violation of our borders and the destruction of laws that guarantee the very freedoms that they are supposed to be coming here to obtain. I would encourage you to review the facts found at this link and then decide what is really in our best interest and the best interest of these individuals:Â Citizensforlaws.org
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