Article: Immigration&The Church (Part 1) - a podcast by Christopher Stephens

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    Have you ever heard the phrase “Do as I say, not as I do.”? It implies that one has knowledge of the moral way, but their actions are diametrically opposed. There is a problem with immigration in the United States of America. I know that this is an often spoken-about issue, but I want to examine it from a different angle.  We live in a country originally inhabited by Native Americans. There was a time in history when a people group was being harshly treated primarily based on religious reasons. So, they sought asylum, religious freedom, and freedom from a tyrannical government. Those people built a great nation by any means necessary. This nation that we now live in is said to have been built on a foundation of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Beautiful words and ideals considering it was also built on the backs of forced immigration of African people and land taken from the Native Americans. But if you squint your eyes enough you could see what we now know as “The American Dream”! Centuries of immigrants who looked like the first colonizers continued to be welcomed into this great nation.  They were given the same as those before them, land, asylum, religious freedom, and opportunity.  I will skip forward a bit through the ugliness of the history that came afterwards but this country slowly morphed from a country of seeking immigrants to now meeting its quota. Land, asylum, religious unity, and opportunity are now “scarce.”  My heart was torn on my topic of what to write about for this paper. I knew that there was a problem with both immigration and the treatment of African American women in the healthcare system. But I believe the Holy Spirit through me an ally-oop in the form of a news article that I ran across. I heard that at the border of the state I lived in there were brown skinned people like me being turned away. People from one of the poorest places in the world, with a tyrannical government, and maybe even some seeking religious freedom. It would seem as though America has traded in its caste system or harmful racial slurs for a more palatable word, noncitizen. I am not a government official so I cannot tell you how it would affect the economy, I cannot tell you how it would affect the unused land in this country, but I can tell you how this problem effects the heart of God’s people. This great nation that we live in, built on Christian principle now has a higher standard. We send Americans to other countries to minister to them and teach them of God’s love. We as God’s people pray collectively that they may all come to know God and one day be citizens of Heaven but not citizens of America. I do not believe that the church can sit idly by and continue to allow our hearts to become neutral in the care of God’s people. I know that it is easy to believe false narratives like immigrants being labeled as animals, rapists, and bad people. But Christians should try to see as God sees. Why are Christian brothers and sisters from other countries good enough for heavenly citizenship but not American citizenship? In our study of the minor prophets, there is a message from God to the church on this very issue.  

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