“When an immigrant resides with you, you shall not oppress the immigrant. The immigrant shall be to you as one who was born among you; you shall love the immigrant as yourself.”
Those words from Leviticus 19:33-34 belong to a wide stream of welcome that flows throughout the Bible; verses and voices that carry the beautiful news of God’s relentless concern for refugees, asylum seekers and all migrating people and families.
This is part of a Bible-wide chorus that includes:
- Exodus 12:49 — “There shall be equality under the law for the citizen and the immigrant.”
- Exodus 22:21 — “You shall not wrong an immigrant.”
- Exodus 23:9 — “You shall not oppress the immigrant.”
- Leviticus 25:23 — “Because all the land in the world belongs to God, in the eyes of God we are all immigrants.”
- Deuteronomy 24:17 — “You shall not deprive an immigrant of justice.”
- Zechariah 7:9-10 — “Show kindness and mercy to one another; do not oppress the immigrant.”
Chuck Poole
Add to all those passages the book of Ruth, the story of a migrating foreigner who becomes an ancestor of David (Ruth 4:13-17), and Jesus (Matthew 1:1-16); and Matthew’s story of Joseph, Mary and Jesus as border-crossing, asylum-seeking refugees fleeing political violence (Matthew 2:13-23), and what we are left with is a clear biblical witness to God’s preferential concern for asylum seekers, migrating families, refugees and immigrants.
All of which is to say the cumulative weight of Scripture tells us our nation’s current obsession with detaining and deporting immigrants is not only bad public policy, it is a human injustice and a grave moral failure. That makes this present moment, for people of all faiths, one of those critical seasons in life when we know most deeply the truth of Martin Luther King Jr.’s powerful old reminder: “The moment we begin to fall silent about things that matter is the moment when our life begins to end.”
Now is the time for people of all faiths, along with those of no faith but good faith, to stand up for our immigrant neighbors by speaking out against the deportation of noncriminal undocumented immigrants.
The phrase “noncriminal undocumented immigrants” is intentional and important.
“What we are left with is a clear biblical witness to God’s preferential concern for asylum seekers, migrating families, refugees and immigrants.”
Some say any immigrant who entered the United States without the proper papers is a criminal and, thus, should be deported. But let us all say, clearly and out loud, what we all know to be true: To be an immigrant without proper paperwork is not the same as being a criminal. We never would call a hard-working, law-abiding citizen with a paperwork problem “a criminal,” so why do advocates of mass deportation keep insisting that hard-working, law-abiding undocumented immigrants are “criminals”?
To indict millions of our immigrant neighbors in that way is wrong, and it needs to stop.
Immigrants who commit acts of violence, like citizens who commit acts of violence, need to be apprehended. But our nation’s current campaign of cruelty against noncriminal undocumented immigrants is clearly not about public safety. Rather, our nation’s current campaign of fear of immigrants is rooted in the sad and sinful soil of an institutionalized xenophobia that has borne the bitter fruit of anti-immigrant nationalism, racism and white supremacy.
The most fundamental answer to that tragically weaponized, sinfully militarized, sadly institutionalized xenophobia is for all of us to recognize that all people are the beloved children of God, to learn to look with love and welcome upon all as though they were born among us, and as though we were born among them — no longer othering the other as a stranger to be excluded but welcoming the other as we wish all others to welcome us.
Our sad and sinful xenophobia — fear of the other — must be transformed into a glad and beautiful xenoamora — love of the other — until all of us come, at last, to embody the expansive spirit to which Leviticus 19:33-34 calls us — loving the immigrant as we love ourselves and seeing the asylum seeker, the refugee, the stranger and the immigrant as God sees them, as one born among us.
Chuck Poole retired in 2022 after 45 years of pastoral life, during which he served churches in Georgia; North Carolina; Washington, D.C.; and Jackson, Miss. He has served as a visiting preacher and teacher on the campuses of multiple universities, seminaries and divinity schools. He was the founding teacher of the Wood Street Bible Class in Jackson, which he led for 21 years. The author of nine books, numerous published articles, one gospel song and the lyrics to three hymns, Chuck has served as a “minister on the street” and as an advocate for interfaith conversation and welcome. He and his wife, Marcia, now live in Birmingham, where he serves on the staff of Together for Hope.