My comments are directed at Daniel Carro's article titled “Immigration: What should churches Do?” in the Oct. 18 issue of the Religious Herald.
Daniel Carro implied, if not recommended, that churches join the “New Sanctuary Movement,” a movement to disobey a U.S. law making it illegal to harbor persons in the United States illegally. He listed Scripture references trying to convince us that a Christian should support the breaking of our border laws and our identity theft (a felony) laws. His Scripture references repeatedly said that Christians should be friendly to foreigners. What he did not say is that we are friendly to over 1,000,000 immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers each year that come here legally.
He did not include in those verses Matthew 22:21 that states “give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's.” Jesus was telling us that we had to respect the authority of government officials, as well as render unto the government what belongs to the government.
We are to respect the laws of this country. This is at the core of the debate over whether or not to allow illegal immigrants to stay and whether or not we should stop the flow of illegal immigrants over our border. This should not be an issue because it is against the law to cross the United State's border illegally.
If we had no border laws the result would be chaos. There would be a loss of order, fairness and economic wellbeing. Without a vibrant economy, individuals and voluntary organizations would be unable to provide the billions of dollars they now give to help the poor. Churches would be unable to support the humanitarian and evangelical efforts at home and abroad. Paul, in 1 Timothy 5:8, tells us, “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”
Enforcing our border laws and sending law breakers home is not unchristian.
Supporting illegal immigration is not Christian. Every Christian and all churches need to appreciate and support our laws and the country that provides us the freedom to worship, evangelize and prosper so that we can be an example to the world and a major contributor to eliminating hunger, disease and hopelessness around the world.
Jesus commanded Christians to go and share Christ with the peoples throughout the world. No where did he say bring them to Jerusalem.
Bland Franklin, Midlothian