Donald Trump didn’t start it, but I’ve been sorely disappointed that more Christians haven’t denounced his rhetoric. Describing immigrants as criminals and rapists, then offering as a defense statistics on how many of them have been raped… that’s the sort of outrageous slander that Christians should never tolerate.
Others talk about “terrorists flowing across our southern border,” while there’s no credible evidence that even a slight percentage of terrorists have entered the U.S. that way.
As I’ve said before, I’m all for doing what can be done to close our southern border. My motives are different from political demagogues, however. I think the route is far too dangerous for those coming that way. Let’s close the border and establish a viable system for allowing needed workers to enter the U.S. legally.
That said, I’m tired of politicians picking on the powerless. It’s too easy to blame “them.” They’re different from us. They don’t even speak our language. Let’s blame everything on them.
Remember, the Bible strongly denounces those that take advantage of the weakest members of society. And it mentions those that abuse foreigners specifically. We are to stand up for those people, no matter our political leanings, no matter our personal preferences, no matter how it might affect our personal economy.
Xenophobia is the fear or hatred of foreigners. It’s opposite, in Greek, is the word philoxenia, the love of foreigners. It’s typically translated “hospitality,” and it’s praised in the Bible as a Christian virtue.
“I was a stranger (foreigner, in the Greek), and you ______” (Matthew 25:35, 43)
If you want to support one of the candidates who maligns immigrants, please make clear to the world one of two things: (1) you support them in spite of their stance against foreigners; or (2) you support them despite the fact you are a Christian.
There is no doubt that the sensationalism of Trump’s comments are the purest form of “issue-politics” and can easily be dismissed. Of all the people I speak with daily, I know of no one who takes Trump seriously beyond identifying somewhat with what he has observed may be adding more to the weakening of our country’s societal infrastructure. It can be debated either way. What I find interesting is how currently we easily “extrapolate Biblical terminology” to define our sense of “event interpretation” today. Somehow we ignore that fact that the Bible is a Jewish book about the Jewish people and their traditions, beliefs and point of view. Particularly it is the story of how these people became estranged over the centuries through captivity and other events we still know little about. It is my observation that the term “foreigner” is more directed toward the company of Jewish people who as the “people of God” had become alienated from each other and whose newly found acclamations had further created a “foreign” climate amongst themselves. There is no doubt that hospitality is a virtue we should all desire and work to attain. To say, though, that welcoming people into our country outside the rules and regulations the government dictates is what the Bible teaches, is more a “extrapolating Biblical terminology” to support our own personal beliefs.
Hi Rafael,
Let me clarify a few points:
We could debate your last sentence, but I’ll only say for now that it addresses something that I’m not referencing in this post.
Thanks for interacting!
While it is at times helpful to our understanding to consider the milieu in which the Bible was written, the consideration that it was for those people and not ourselves is a great error. Of course, how to apply the Word in the Spirit is key but this idea that God’s Word to those people is not God’s Word to us, is really a dead end.
Hey Tim: Thanks for the additional note and for the good work you do.
Hey Tim: Thanks for the additional note and the good work you do!