Thread: Christian stance on immigration: 'Obey the governing authori

Christian stance on immigration: 'Obey the governing authorities'


by Len Munsil - Aug. 28, 2010 07:39 PM

A number of leading evangelicals recently announced plans to lobby senators in Washington for "comprehensive immigration reform."

I agree with them on many biblical essentials, including fervent opposition to racism and racial profiling and the importance of recognizing the dignity of every person.

Evangelicals must be clear that opposition to illegal immigration has nothing to do with race and that we value Latino Americans and their contribution to the vibrancy of our community, particularly in Arizona.

However, the "comprehensive reform" sought by some evangelical leaders violates biblical notions of Christian ethics, justice and God's purposes for government.

In 2006, I won the Republican nomination for governor of Arizona, and, during that campaign, I spent more than a year thinking and praying through the moral, legal and ethical issues surrounding illegal immigration. I heard from people on all sides.

I cried with a group of college-age students who were brought here illegally as children, who have no ability to legally go to college or hold a job in the only country they have ever known.

I also talked to friends of a couple who were killed by a runaway van packed with illegal aliens trying to evade the Border Patrol. I met with American citizens forced to abandon their homes and land near the border because they feared for their lives. I toured the border at night with a law-enforcement official as he recounted altercations with AK-47-toting drug cartels, and I shared his heartbreak at recovering dead bodies of children and pregnant women who tried to cross the desert.


Invitation from God

The prophet Isaiah records an invitation from God - "Come let us reason together." Yet confusion reigns among evangelicals when we take general biblical principles and use them to override more specific instruction.

Example: The New Testament teaches us to provide for the needs of our own family (1 Timothy 5:. But to use that general principle to justify embezzling from your employer, in violation of the specific command to "not steal," would be ridiculous.

Similarly, some evangelicals have taken general, truthful principles such as the requirement that individuals not "wrong" or "oppress" the alien, as justification for a type of immigration reform that violates clear biblical teaching and principles of justice.

When discussing our national response to this crisis, evangelical leaders manage to mostly ignore principles such as these from Romans 13:1-4:

"Everyone is to obey the governing authorities. . . . (W)hoever resists the authorities is resisting what God has instituted. . . . (F)or he is God's servant, there as an avenger to punish wrongdoers."


When to defy the law

These principles are not absolute, but defying the law is permissible in only two circumstances: when the law requires you to do something God forbids, such as participating in a murder, or when the law forbids you from doing something God commands. Thus, the Hebrew midwives refused to murder innocent babies at the command of their king (Exodus 1:15-17), while in the New Testament, Peter and the Apostles, when arrested for preaching the Gospel, continued to preach, saying they must "obey God and not man" (Acts 5:29).

There are many heart-rending, tragic stories of illegal immigrants that tug at the heartstrings of all Christians and people of faith.

But there is no serious argument that immigration laws force us to violate the law of God; and as a result, there is no biblical argument for defending or justifying such mass lawbreaking.

Scripturally, we know the primary purpose of government is to maintain the peace, security and order of a community or nation and to promote justice.

The whole concept of lawful vs. unlawful entry into a nation is based on principles of property rights that flow from the 10 Commandments. Those who violate our immigration laws by jumping the fence are stealing rights of citizenship (to live and work in America) and, in essence, coveting and stealing their neighbors' property.

"Love thy neighbor" works both ways, and those who break into their neighbor's property are violating that principle.


'Comprehensive reform'

Most significantly, the "comprehensive reform" favored by some evangelicals violates principles of justice.

It is an enormous injustice to tell those who have followed the legal-immigration process that they must wait, year after year, while those who have cheated and broken the law are allowed to pay a fine and stay.

Where is the justice for these hardworking, family-oriented citizens of Mexico and other nations who desire to work and live in America? They have behaved honorably, and "comprehensive reform" punishes them for their virtue.

Do we only have "compassion" for those who knowingly broke the law?

There are serious and principled scriptural reasons for enforcing laws against illegal immigration. The accusation that opponents of illegal immigration lack compassion or a commitment to justice is untrue.

Evangelicals can and should despise racism and oppose racial profiling, have compassion for the alien among us, and love and appreciate Latinos and the richness of Latino culture - yet still believe in the rule of law and the need for a strong governmental response to illegal immigration.

Len Munsil, a Scottsdale attorney, was the Republican nominee for governor of Arizona in 2006 and has been a professor of Christian ethics at Southwestern College. A detailed critique of evangelical proposals for comprehensive reform is available at www.lenmunsil.com.

www.azcentral.com

Any Christian who supports illegal immigration is servicing their own organization, membership, coffers and agenda, not the will of the people or God.

NO, WE DO NOT SUPPORT AMNESTY. ALL ILLEGALS MUST BE DEPORTED NOW.

THOU SHALT NOT STEAL!

Illegal immigrants are trying to take what is not theirs.

I am not the most religious person and not the best example....but as someone who is humble enough to believe in a higher power than myself, I can tell you most Christian do NOT support CIR or amnesty. Probably no more than most Catholics do - yet most of the leaders keep pushing for it. Obviously at this point for the almighty dollar and this is why I quit the church for now. I may go back when things turn around. My money is just as green as an illegals and until they realize that, they won't be seeing mine.

jean, I admire your thoughtful post, but IMO we can understand the Evangelicals' campaign by applying the first rule of politcal analysis: Follow the money. There are a fair number of Evangelicals coming from Latin America. They represent new money for Evangelical preachers. End of story - IMO.

Whatever the reasons those in the Christian community think they have to support comprehensive immigration reform, they are wrong, dead wrong. I care about people, care about how things are for them in their own nations, but we cannot let everyone in based on this alone. We would then be what the Bible refers to as "fools", which translated as someone who made truly unwise decisions although they knew it was the opposite of what should be done (either by morals or by laws).

I have had many good conversations with our new manager. We talked in depth about his own shame about the way people from his nation act here, and also about how NAFTA/CAFTA has affected the average working person, and small business owner in Mexico.

So, I do sympathize on how things have been there, but it does not give any group the right to further the damage to America by supporting those who are here illegally, thus breaking the very laws we have, and the laws God had inspired in the first place. America is hurting, from the strain of the weight of other nations alone, so how can hurting Americans in this process be good? How can that be justified?

The pro-amnesty groups also overlook the Tower of Babel story, long ago everyone spoke the same language and I guess considered themselves one nation, after a while they thought themselves equal to God. So God created different languages and cultures and nations, so that man would not consider themselves equal or superior to God. Today once again we have the Globalist elite who consider themselves superior to God, they want One World Government. I wonder how they will be stopped this time?

Originally Posted by Bowman

The pro-amnesty groups also overlook the Tower of Babel story, long ago everyone spoke the same language and I guess considered themselves one nation, after a while they thought themselves equal to God. So God created different languages and cultures and nations, so that man would not consider themselves equal or superior to God. Today once again we have the Globalist elite who consider themselves superior to God, they want One World Government. I wonder how they will be stopped this time?

They will be stopped by the only people on Earth who could ever stop them"

250 million pissed off Americans with the tools of our language in a War of Words, that we eventually win with the weapons of our rule of law, our common sense and the most beautiful document ever written: The US Constitution. And if that doesn't work, we'll use our 2nd Amendment Rights and just shoot them.