By James Wilson
God’s view of immigration is clearly presented in His Word. Jesus says – in Mark 11:17 – “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” In so saying He quotes His Abba’s word through the prophet Isaiah 56:7. For those foreigners who have bound themselves to the Lord and keep His laws, “These I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”
Earlier in the chapter God calls on His people to maintain justice for He is near and on His way. He assures foreigners who keep His law they will in no way be excluded from the privileges of citizenship in His Kingdom. If Gentiles – foreigners – are good enough to enter the temple in the New Jerusalem they are surely good enough to enter the United States, so long as their entry is in accord with our laws. But conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly wants all immigration – legal and illegal – stopped. This is just plain wrong – on so many levels.
Schlafly has impeccable credentials – if one is a political and spiritual conservative. She is credited with leading the successful charge to defeat the Equal Rights Amendment in the state legislatures – a deceptively named change to the Constitution that would have left women with all of the burdens and few of the rights. Her book – A Choice Not An Echo – shaped much of conservative thought for a generation. But today she has clearly lost her way and my prayer is that none will follow.
She says, “The Democrats know perfectly well that the people (legally and illegally) coming in…are not accustomed to our ideas of…limited government, and they expect government to take care of them…” She is correct in her assessment, and just as correct when she charges – as many conservative pundits do – that Democratic “compassion” for immigrants is nothing more than fishing for Democratic voters of the future. Many studies and surveys support this view. But are we conservatives now to be just as cynical and seek to halt immigration of all kinds until we can limit the influx to people who thank as we do? Do we who imagine ourselves a nation founded by God and on His principles now imagine He cannot resurrect this nation without excluding the votes and views of those who see things other? Have we better ideas or have we not?
Illegal immigration is another matter entirely. We say we are a nation of laws and not of men. We see our government – at all levels and especially in California – defying the laws they have sworn to defend and in some cases written themselves. Schlafly wants to put them on busses and send them back – never mind the immigration courts – they arrived without a court order and they should return the same way says she. What she does not say is just as true. Although the vast majority of illegals are here seeking a better life for their impoverished families, it is just as much fact that the vast majority of gun running, drugs, and child pornography are imported by illegals crossing the same porous border as the Mexican famers and mechanics. Disproportionate numbers of car crashes and street crime are committed by people already sneering at the law. And every illegal taking a job or accepting welfare is standing squarely in – and blocking the path of – people who are playing by the rules and waiting their turn in their home countries. I know many such – caught in bureaucratic nightmares while illegals steal the spaces they deserve because of their righteous approach.
The border should indeed be closed to the illegals, and as much as I have compassion for their plight – I have personally helped many without ever asking their immigration status when they were in distress – they have no right to be here and they trample on the rights of others by being here. But legal immigration is another story.
Schlafly objects to the claim that some businesses want to import foreign nationals as the best and brightest for the jobs they have available; she says her children and grandchildren have advanced degrees and are better qualified. “Well, get a clue, Phyllis,” says this writer. “We live in a free country and you are no more entitled to make such decisions for an employer than are the government hacks you deplore and whom you have fought all your life.” There is not a single person living in America who is not an immigrant himself or descended from immigrants – including Native Americans. We are a nation of immigrants. Slamming the gate because we have gotten ours is about as un-American as one can get.
I opened with Jesus’ own views of immigration. I close with His attitude toward citizenship in His Kingdom. He tells the woman at the well in Sychar of Samaria – John 4 – that the Father doesn’t give a rip about pedigree. He seeks people who will worship and serve Him in spirit and in truth. In the Sermon on the Mount and the example of Jesus’ earthly life it is quite clear authentic spirit and truth worship manifests in loving and caring for those we encounter. When we American conservatives – we American Christians – are so day-by-day concerned about this kind of worship we lack time or energy to crow about our pedigree and our righteousness we will all be a lot better off in hearts and lives. We will be a whole lot more prosperous and secure as well.
James A. Wilson is the author of Living As Ambassadors of Relationships, The Holy Spirit and the End Times and Kingdom in Pursuit – available at local bookstores or by e-mailing him at praynorthstate@charter.net
