Thread: Jesus was an Illegal Immigrant

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Jesus was an Illegal Immigrant
By Shaun Casey
Sep. 04, 06 13:38



Sunday School for preschoolers in the Churches of Christ in the 60s was pretty cool. In between the Kool-Aid and the cookies our teachers told us the basic stories of the Bible aided either by handouts with pictures of dramatic biblical scenes painted in romantic nineteenth century style or by "flannel graph" technology which consisted of paper cut out figures of the biblical characters being stuck on a felt board at the appropriate time in the narrative. The paintings made a huge impression on me and I can still see the artists' renditions of Cain and Abel, Samson and Delilah, not to mention Goliath or Moses and the Ten Commandments in my mind's eye. Once we learned to read, these dramatic reenactments ceased and we had to fill out tedious workbooks, but that is a blog entry for another day. One of the most powerful images from that era was the story from Matthew's gospel about Joseph being told in a dream by an angel to flee with Mary and Jesus to Egypt to escape the death sentence issued by King Herod. Later, of course, Joseph was told he could safely return to Palestine, but all of this was illegal since it violated Herod's decree.

Fast forward about forty years and I found myself teaching an adult Sunday School class and the topic of illegal immigration came up as we were considering one of the multitude of passages calling for God's people to love aliens and sojourners because God had taken mercy on us when our ancestors were such themselves. ("And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt." Deuteronomy 10:18-19). A class member declared that all undocumented immigrants in this country should be sent home since they were lawbreakers. No biblical argument to the contrary would move this person off this thesis.

It struck me as very ironic that this class member would affirm the orthodox Christian belief of Jesus as the Son of God, yet the logic of the political credo would have demanded that Joseph, as a law breaker, should have surrendered Jesus to Herod for execution as an infant. No cross, no teaching, no ministry, just infanticide should have been Jesus' fate on earth.

I am convinced Matthew included the flight to Egypt by Jesus and his family to show that Jesus' own story was part of the ancient story of Israel. They, too, fled to Egypt, suffered persecution, were redeemed by God, and then were empowered to live lives in solidarity with sojourners and aliens wherever they encountered them. Likewise disciples of Jesus throughout history pick up the same ministry of solidarity with displaced people. Jesus was an illegal alien and that ought to shape how we enter the current debate. But too often political ideology clouds good theology. In the current debate over immigration policy it distresses me to no end that so many of my fellow church goers ignore this fundamental tenet that should be central to our identity. Instead as theological amnesiacs we insist on a secular law and order ideology over a biblical mandate.

This is totally wrong! Their flight could be compared to asylum, which we have in this country. They were not fleeing in order to get more money to build a house or start a drug ring. They twist everything in order to try and "guilt trip" you into accepting something that is totally wrong. Fleeing persecution and going to a safe place in absolutely NO WAY can be compared to immigrating. Jesus was not a immigrant and especiallly not a illegal immigrant. Christians are taught to obey the "laws of the land."

Now I've heard it all. "Jesus was an illegal alien." Unbelievable.

Another thing: these illegals are not "displaced people." They did not lose their homes due to a flood or hurricane or other natural disaster. They CHOSE to come to the US illegally.

But, this seems to be where some of these churches and pro-illegal advocates are going. They are redefining the issue as a "human rights" issue instead of one of rule of law, sovereignty, and national security. They are appealing to well-meaning, religiously-oriented people by muddying the debate and appealing to emotionality.

Just yesterday, we had another "letter to the editor" in my hometown newspaper from the Executive Director of Catholic Charities spouting the same nonsense. He quoted the same scripture in the above article, plus admonished everyone that Jesus tells us to welcome the stranger among us (Matthew 25:40), for "what you do to the least of my brethren, you do unto me."

Well, I felt compelled to get my poison pen out and write my own letter to the editor. Not that I'm any kind of a biblical scholar or anything, and I don't even like to base public policy in general on scripture; however, I seem to remember Jesus saying something to the effect of "render to Caesar what is Caesar's and render unto God what is God's." Meaning that we are to obey the law of the land. We are a nation of LAWS.

The important thing to remember is he was talking to the church and the disciples, not admonishing the nation. He didn't get mixed up in Roman politics. It's one thing to instruct the church to "welcome the stranger" and another to try and dictate a nation's policy. One must assume that these "strangers" or "sojourners" were NOT lawbreakers, because it would be totally against any principles to welcome and thereby approve of criminal behavior. He also told them, if asked to "go one mile, then go two", because he knew what kind of trouble they could get into with the government. So he urged total cooperation with the authorities, the total opposite of what's going on in that Chicago church.

It's one thing to instruct the church to "welcome the stranger" and another to try and dictate a nation's policy.

Exactly.

These people are unbelievable!

Jesus was an Illegal Immigrant

Actually, Jesus was an anchor baby.

I think I am going to barf.

Anyone else out there a Glenn Beck Sick Freak like me? When his guest, writer Walid Phares agreed that Miss Englandistan was wrong to say that profiling Muslims would encourage them to turn into terrorists, I practically kissed the TV screen. He's a Muslim and he is not feeling any uncontrollable urges to join the Islamo-fascists. He agrees that the moderate Muslims, in the billions, should be the ones telling their own to stop.

Cardinal Mahoney is acting no differently than a mullah. He needs to encourage his followers to obey the law and to send more help to the poor in Mexico. He's an example of one of the reasons why I stopped practicing Catholicism long ago. He's campaigning for cheap, easy votes by increasing his parishonership, making him harder to discipline by the Vatican. He thinks he's bigger than the Pope. But I don't know, maybe he's doing the Pope's bidding. It baffles me when any religion refuses to instruct its adherents to obey the democratically enacted laws of the country.

Originally Posted by CountFloyd

Jesus was an Illegal Immigrant

Actually, Jesus was an anchor baby.

Jesus is chuckling, I just know it.