Churches in America are Protecting Immigrants from Being Deported

Saboteur 365
February 9, 2016

The Bible says we have to accept illegal migrants and treat them as we would our own families. That’s the propaganda being pushed by the Christian church sanctuary movement. Check out the bolded Bible quote at the end of the story from BI. Then read on for commentary and Bible analysis from someone far more expert than me.

Excerpt from Business Insider

Taking matters into their own hands, an increasing number of nuns, pastors, preachers, and their congregations are participating in the sanctuary movement by illegally offering shelter to undocumented immigrants.
—
As reported by the Times’s Cindy Carcamo, at least three churches in the Los Angeles area have promised in recent weeks to help immigrants with deportation orders.

According to Noel Andersen, grassroots coordinator for the Church World Service group for refugees, there are now at least 50 churches in the country that have vowed to provide shelter from Immigration and Customs Enforcement – up from 35 last year.

“I’ve gotten at least a dozen requests just in the last three days,” the organizer told Ms. Carcamo. Thirty years ago, those confronting ICE were mostly adults. Now, it’s mothers and children who are escaping gang violence. Last month alone, more than 100 people from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras who entered the country illegally were swept up by ICE.
—
But even within sanctuary, it’s not easy for the undocumented immigrants. It often takes months to appeal for and win legal relief from deportation.

“‘Sanctuary’ might sound like a meditation retreat or an artists’ residency – and it can be that at times,” writes The Nation’s Puck Lo in a comprehensive look at the sanctuary movement as of last May. “But sanctuary can also be like living under house arrest for weeks, even months, confined to the grounds of a church. There’s no leaving to take a stroll or swing by the grocery store.”

Still, many immigrants have no other option. And more and more religious leaders, though wary of breaking the federal law, are eager to help, citing Bible passages such as Leviticus 19:34 – “The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt.”

Useful idiots is the term that comes to mind after reading this story. When Central Americans reach Mexico, they’ve already found safety. But safety is not the real goal. Sponging off taxpayers in America, where the streets are lined with gold, is.

What morality requires a people to transfer its wealth to a group of freeloaders? What morality requires a people to accept rapists and drug pushers into its midst? What morality requires a people to self-exterminate.

Excerpt from the Center for Immigration Studies

Consider Leviticus 19:33-34: “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” Similarly reads Exodus 22:21: “You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.”

Dr. Stephen Steinlight has noted that the Hebrew term for “sojourn” means temporary stay.5 A related term used in some scriptural translations is “stranger.” One Bible dictionary says, “This word generally denotes a person from a foreign land residing in Palestine. Such persons enjoyed many privileges in common with the Jews, but still were separate from them. The relation of the Jews to strangers was regulated by special laws (Deut. 23:3; 24:14-21; 25:5; 26:10-13).”6 This Bible dictionary defines “two classes of aliens: 1) those who were temporary visitors, who owned no landed property; and 2) those who held permanent residence without becoming citizens (Lev. 22:10; Ps. 19:12). Both of these classes were to enjoy, under certain conditions, the same rights as other citizens (Lev. 19:33, 34; Deut. 10:19).”7 Again, those rights amounted to equal standing under the law, or having the benefit of the rule of law. Therefore, it is biblically inaccurate to incorporate, automatically and dogmatically, permanent immigration into every such term.
—
Another theme stands out in the Bible. God regards borders as meaningful and important (see, for instance, Prov. 22:28 and Prov. 23:10-11). Consider Deuteronomy 32:8: “When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.” Ezekiel 47:13-23 details the Promised Land’s boundaries. Numbers 34:1-15 describes the borders the Lord established for each tribe of Israel. Deuteronomy 19:14 commands against moving a neighboring tribe’s boundary stone marking a given tribe of Israel’s inheritance in the Promised Land. Another example appears three months after the Israelites left Egypt. The base of Mount Sinai was made off-limits (see Exodus 19:12ff), under penalty of death, until the people had been consecrated. Resident aliens who had children and settled in Israel (largely because of Israel’s failure to complete the mandate to remove them) were allowed private property in Israel (Ezek. 47:21-23). However, numerous times Israelites are warned against letting the aliens’ pagan practices corrupt God-given moral standards.

Read the entire article at the Center for Immigration Studies if this topic interests you. It’s too long to cover everything in it here. It offers a strong challenge to the simple-minded sanctuary movement. As for me, I damn well refuse to let liberal clerics guilt trip me into seeing my homeland and my people destroyed by immigration.

Build that wall, Mr. Trump.