Tag Archives: Immigration

Speaking up when it’s too late

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Several experiences over the last few days have reminded me of some terrible injustices, both past and present. Last week, Carolina and I visited the Hermitage, Andrew Jackson’s home, and were reminded to what degree the prosperity of the United States came at the expense of the Native Americans and African slaves.

Yesterday I was reading an article about the internment camps here in the United States during World War II. I wasn’t aware that immigration laws at that time did not allow Japanese immigrants to become citizens. Many of them, when asked to renounce their allegiance to Japan, refused to do so out of fear of losing the only citizenship available to them. And they ended up confined to camps during the war.

I recently read of the impact that harsh immigration laws are having on outreach to Hispanics here in the United States. I’ve long considered our immigration laws to be completely unjust, and I’ve wondered what the Christian response should be to such laws.

Looking back, I realize that Christians too often react too late to injustices. Now we recognize the horrors of what was done to the Native Americans. Now we decry the outrage of slavery, now we reject the racism of the past. Today we abhor the WWII internment camps, though continue to call those that created them “the greatest generation.” Kind of reminds me of Jesus’ words:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your father” (Matthew 23:29–33)

At what point would we look at a current situation and say, “This isn’t right”? I hear Christians claim that we will submit to the government unless we feel that it goes against God’s law. Yet we can look at these things from the past that were clearly wrong, and the church in general did not stand up against these injustices. What would it take to get us to say “No” to wrongs committed against those without power in our society?

Or will we do content ourselves to let future generations lament our mistakes?

Biblical principles applied to immigration issues

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I just got back from a great weekend in Nicaragua. Maybe I’ll get a chance to share some of it with you later. The next few weeks are going to be a bit crazy, so posting will continue to be sporadic.

At some point, I want to have a serious discussion on immigration issues. To get the thought process started, I wanted to share some insights from a position statement from the General Conference of the Wesleyan Church. It attempts to bring a number of different biblical principles into the discussion. For now, I’ll just post these excerpts and try to react to some of your comments. They consist of eight principles and eight action steps based on those principles:

1. The Creation Principle: All persons are created equal and are of equal worth in their Creator’s eyes. Each individual possesses fundamental rights to live and be respected as a human person of intrinsic worth and dignity. These rights are derived from one’s creation in the image of God and from the vicarious death of Jesus Christ for all humanity.

Action Step: Understanding that all are made in the image of God, as Wesleyans we will seek to treat all people humanely and with dignity, regardless of race, class, nationality, gender, or legal status.

2. The Great Commandment Principle: Christ commands us to love God with all our heart and soul and mind and our neighbors as ourselves. This commandment sums up the entire Law and the Prophets, requiring us to live in perfect love with God and our neighbor, which is holiness. We are to love our neighbor unconditionally regardless of race, class, nationality, or legal status in our land.

Action Step: As Wesleyans, we will give of ourselves in wholehearted love to others without intolerance, judgment, favoritism or disrespect, and in spite of who they are or what they have done to live among us.

3. The Sovereignty Principle: God is sovereignly at work to establish His kingdom in heaven and on earth. He determines the times and places where the peoples of the nations should live so that people will seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him. No one can ultimately succeed in thwarting God’s work. God can bring good from the fallen intentions and actions of humanity and save many lives. Our responsibility as His people is to recognize His hand at work and cooperate with Him in ways that build up His kingdom in heaven and on earth.

Action Step: As Wesleyans, we view immigration as an aspect of God’s larger plan to bring salvation to the world. Immigration can be used through God’s wisdom to introduce many to Jesus who might not otherwise hear the gospel message.

4. The Submission Principle: Christians possess dual citizenship, one heavenly and the other earthly. Christians should respect and submit to the laws of the land, except when they are in contradiction to biblical principles. When there is a conflict between the heavenly and earthly citizenships as to specific claims, Christians have a moral duty and right to seek a change in the law and to act so as to maintain a clear conscience before God.

Action Step: As Wesleyans, we will exercise awareness of the laws as they pertain to immigration and will endeavor to obey them, and encourage all immigrants to do the same, unless these laws are contrary to God’s Word as interpreted by the collective wisdom and authority of the body of Christ. We support the rights of those who engage in civil disobedience against harsh and unjust laws, policies and measures on the basis of biblical principles.

5. The Hospitality Principle: Christ’s love compels us to be kind and compassionate and to offer hospitality, especially to those in need, including strangers, widows, orphans, aliens, and immigrants regardless of their legal status.

Action Step: As Wesleyans, we will encourage one another to engage in acts of kindness and compassion (i.e. providing food, shelter, clothing, and other resources) toward immigrants who are in need regardless of their immigration status (documented or undocumented).

6. The Great Commission Principle: Jesus Christ brings good news and has commissioned us to make disciples of all peoples, including citizens and aliens alike. We are called to follow His example and carry on His ministry, declaring good news to the poor, proclaiming freedom for prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, release to the oppressed, and the year of the Lord’s favor.

Action Step: As Wesleyans, we will unashamedly engage in both evangelizing and discipling immigrants in our communities, training and appointing immigrant persons as pastors, lay leaders, and workers, with respect for applicable employment laws as we do.

7. The Grace Principle: All have sinned and deserve God’s judgment and punishment. Yet, He is a merciful God and seeks to reconcile us to Himself by grace. God’s grace is a model for our own human relationships, compelling us to respond with grace to those who have sinned. We are called to seek reconciliation wherever possible, by standing against extreme and harsh measures and calling for appropriately balanced measures that restore one to a right relationship with God and with one’s neighbors.

Action Step: As Wesleyans, we will show God’s grace by accepting those less fortunate than us. We will seek to have a welcoming heart to those that are strangers in our land, showing them acts of kindness and doing our part to understand other people’s cultures to better serve them through God’s love.

8. The Justice Principle: God’s people are called to seek justice for all persons proactively by calling for just, fair, reasonable, and humane laws and serving as advocates and defenders for those who are powerless, disenfranchised, and marginalized. Special attention ought to be given to protect the welfare of children and innocent dependents of foreigners, regardless of their legal status.

Action Step: As Wesleyans, we oppose and condemn all unjust and harsh laws, policies and measures directed against immigrants among us, whether documented or undocumented. We will act as advocates for just and humane policies for all people by all levels of government and in all parts of society.

Why it’s all Greek to me

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[We’re discussing a couple of sayings this week. One is from a Facebook group:

“I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO PRESS 1 TO HEAR A MESSAGE IN ENGLISH… WE ARE IN AMERICA, LEARN THE LANGUAGE.”

The other is something I wrote in response:

“Everyone who complains about immigrants not knowing English should have to use Bibles printed in Greek, Aramaic and Hebrew.”]

In order to pretend not to be bigoted, some will claim to merely be looking out for the good of immigrants. It will be in their best interest to learn English. This is true, of course. Just as all of us would benefit from learning another language. We can hide behind the fact that English is the dominant language in the U.S., but the fact is, most people in the world speak multiple languages and it would benefit each of us to be multilingual.

The case can also be made that it would be of benefit to all Christians to learn biblical Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic. There is always something lost in translation, so being able to study the Bible in the original languages would be good for all of us.

We don’t take the time, nor go to the trouble to do so. One reason for that is the fact that we have the Bible available to us in our native tongue, so we don’t see the need to learn other languages. If depriving immigrants of language aids will help motivate them to learn English, maybe taking away our translations will do the same for us with the Bible.

What do you think?

Learn the language yourself!

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[We’re discussing a couple of sayings this week. One is from a Facebook group:
“I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO PRESS 1 TO HEAR A MESSAGE IN ENGLISH… WE ARE IN AMERICA, LEARN THE LANGUAGE.”
The other is something I wrote in response:
“Everyone who complains about immigrants not knowing English should have to use Bibles printed in Greek, Aramaic and Hebrew.”]

“Learn the language!” That’s the loving response that so many Americans* offer to those that want to come to this country. Never mind that most Americans can’t write their own language correctly, nor speak it in a grammatically correct way. Before you get too mad, let me point out that I include myself in that. I learned a lot while trying to teach English in Argentina, because the colloquial English I learned isn’t exactly “by the book” English. It would be interesting to see how the average American would score on the TOEFL test. Most would fail a simple test over the difference between their, there and they’re. [“Your so rite,” you say] It’s time that Americans refudiated such language errors. (To quote one of the exemplary speakers of the xenophobic movement)

Add to that the fact that many countries require 12 years of foreign language in their public schools, while American schools rarely require more than 2 or 3 (if that much). The old joke runs like this:

Q. What do you call someone who knows three languages?
A. Trilingual
Q. What do you call someone who knows two languages?
A. Bilingual
Q. What do you call someone who only knows one language?
A. American

No, I never heard that joke overseas. That’s one we tell on ourselves. Americans travel the world demanding that everyone speak to us in English, then sit at home shouting “LEARN THE LANGUAGE!” to those who would come here. We’ve sent ambassadors to other countries who did not speak the language of the host country.

The second largest economy in the world will soon be China. Do you want to guess what the proportion of English-speaking Chinese businessmen is to Chinese-speaking American businessmen is? Probably about like it’s been with the Japanese.

Now let’s lay aside the cultural issues. What about us as Christians? Is it our place to demand that others do what benefits us? Some urge immigrants to learn English out of concern for their welfare. But that’s not the attitude expressed in these groups that we’re talking about this week. Let me say it clearly. Christians have no business joining with those that express such unloving attitudes. If we think people should learn English, it’s our job to reach and help them do so, as many loving Christians are doing.

It’s not our task to whine about having to press a button during a phone call.

*And yes, I’m using the term “American” in the ethnocentric way, despite the fact that I know many countries besides the U.S. can lay claim to the term “American.”

Press 1 for Greek, 2 for Hebrew…

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So the other day I posted the following on Twitter: “Everyone who complains about immigrants not knowing English should have to use Bibles printed in Greek, Aramaic and Hebrew.” Then Paula H. made the tragic mistake of quoting me on Facebook, sparking a lively discussion about the topic. Well, I guess the liveliest part of the discussion happened when people tried to decipher that cryptic tweet.

So let me try and unpack it a bit. I’d hoped to get some insights into why people would complain about help being offered to those who don’t speak English as their first language. Unfortunately, nobody stepped up to the plate (at least not yet). I’m not surprised when non-Christians join such groups, but I can’t conceive of why Christians would do so.

My only guess is that it’s done out of a lack of understanding. Let me offer some basic points:

  1. Most immigrants would really like to know English. There are some who have no desire to learn, but that’s definitely a small minority. Therefore, well-meaning phrases like “Learn the language!” don’t do as much good as you think they might.
  2. Even those who have a fairly good command of English still need their native language for critical situations. Add to that the difficulty of holding a phone conversation in your second language (no visual cues) and the difficulty that we all have in navigating phone menus.
  3. It would be good for all Christians to have some proficiency in the original languages, but most people will never go to the trouble to do so. One reason they don’t learn those languages is the ready availability of translations.
  4. Some argue that if we didn’t offer translations to those who speak English as a second language, they would make more of an effort to learn. By that argument, we should do the same with our Bibles, taking away the “crutch” of translations to make people learn.

Of course, being able to read the Bible isn’t nearly as important as being able to talk to your insurance company. Right?