If you appeal to Exodus for an immigration policy tweak, what do you do with Leviticus?
Tonight President Barack Obama outlined his executive action on immigration reform, which could impact up to 5 million immigrants. He gave two citations: one from former President George W. Bush, and one from Exodus 23.
“Scripture tells us that we shall not oppress a stranger, for we know the heart of a stranger—we were strangers once, too,” said Obama. “My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too.”
This is boiler plate civil religion. Bush did it. Clinton did it. I get it.
So why oh why, as Richard Gamble asked, do American Christians allow the Bible to be so used and abused?
Could it be that quoting the Bible is like hearing the furnace kick on, like just so much background noise? Judging by reactions to Obama’s speech, his “thus, sayeth the Lord” solved nothing:
Meanwhile, Russell Moore explained why he agrees with reforming the United States’ “incoherent and unjust” immigration system, but disagrees with Obama’s decision to “act unilaterally.”
“On more than one occasion, I asked President Obama not to turn immigration reform into a red state/blue state issue,” said Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. “I also asked him not to act unilaterally, but to work for consensus through the legislative process. Acting unilaterally threatens that consensus, and is the wrong thing to do.
“My hope is that the Republicans in Congress will not allow the President’s actions here as a pretext for keeping in the rut of the status quo,” he continued. “More importantly, I pray that our churches will transcend all of this posing and maneuvering that we see in Washington. Whatever our agreements and disagreements on immigration policy, we as the Body of Christ are those who see every human life as reflecting the image of God.”
Noel Castellanos has long “urg[ed] Congress to fix our broken immigration system based on the biblical principles of love for neighbor and human dignity,” so he applauded Obama for “making good on his promise to give relief.”
“Now it is time for Congress to finish the job by passing comprehensive immigration reform,” said the CEO and president of the Christian Community Development Association. “Our nation as a whole, and our immigrant communities in particular are in desperate need of decisive action on immigration that will impact the well-being of our nation for generations to come.”
Leith Anderson acknowledged that while the “president’s announcement appears to offer important temporary help to many families, it is no substitute for congressional action that comprehensively fixes our broken immigration system.”
“Congressional leaders — both those who applaud the President and those who oppose his actions — must come together to negotiate bipartisan solutions. We call on both sides to lower the rhetoric and get to work,” the National Association of Evangelicals president said.
Appealing to the Bible resolves nothing. Same goes for the Roman pontiff. Maybe Christians need to get over Christian society.
Old Life 
The country’s CEO’s sudden move to push immigration reform through is little more than a take-your-ball-and-go-home attitude following Demo defeats in the recent election. Boehner’s remarks as much as confirm this. However, since we have an uninformed, naive, and just plain stupid voting populace that strokes the ballot or pulls the levers based almost entirely on snippets they hear/see on TV, this inappropriate appeal to scripture goes entirely over their heads.
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Other than lack of enforcement and building the fence that was supposed to be appropriated some time ago, I still am at a loss to understand what is broken about our immigration system. My wife became a citizen a little over a year ago. There were interviews, background checks, waiting, tests and then a check for $700.00 given for the services rendered. (I guess) I wonder if we will get that $700 back. Nah, never mind.
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I am a “Christian statesman”. I am like Ralph Reed, since I speak for almost all southern Baptists, and am thus have a significant role in the coming of the kingdom. So I personally asked Barry to do x y and z. Because I am an important person, and I want you to know that, even if I am not as important as the pope or a baptist Senator with seniority.
Russell Moore
The following text was written for another age, one in which the baptists were not in charge of southern Christendom. Jeremiah 29: 7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. 8 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, 9 for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the Lord.
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@Mike
What’s broken is we have a series of contradictory laws that don’t correspond to our practices. So the entire runs on people avoiding some laws which corrupts everyone involved. What Democrats (and Republicans until 2010) have been pushing for, for the last decade+ is that we have an honest conversation about what our goals and objectives regarding immigration are as a country and then construct a set of laws to implement those goals and objectives. Rather than saying one thing with our core laws, another thing with conflicting laws and a third thing with our practices.
For example let’s take farm labor. Do we really and truly want to have menial farm labor done by legal Americans and pay the higher food costs or do we really and truly want a population that migrates up from Mexico to do it for less money? Or for another example: do we really want to hold down IT wages via. the importation of hundreds of thousands of foreign IT workers or do we want to let those wages rise and see a drop in corporate profits. Or for another example: do we really want to create a situation where 3% of the American has no access to the legal system so as to avoid defacto legalization or do we want control of what goes on within our borders? If we go for the real criminalization then this sets up a shadow government with shadow policies which huge chunks of the population then have access to so for example America will have a vibrant black market for latin American pharmaceuticals that the USA will have no ability to control because the people already have criminal status. It creates the kinds of widespread human trafficking you see in Europe and Israel that so far the USA doesn’t have. Do we want that?
What’s broken about our immigration system is we aren’t having an honest dialogue at all and don’t have laws that match reality.
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Why doesn’t this get solved?
Because Democrats want new voters but don’t want competition for high paying union jobs.
Because Republicans want cheap (even if illegal) labor but don’t want new Democratic voters.
So we get the status quo.
Because Obama is as liberal as the day is long he said the heck with the unions (who couldn’t deliver in 2014) and is going with the illegals who will hopefully become future voters (and their Hispanic/Latino allies who can vote now). Plus more low-skilled immigrant workers helps grow the safety net which is always a plus for Democrats. They need to be needed.
The religious question is why the Catholic countries (Mexico and Central America) are places that so many want to flee. Why is the superior paradigm not making life better there than in the pluralistic U.S.?
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Erik,
“The religious question is why the Catholic countries (Mexico and Central America) are places that so many want to flee. Why is the superior paradigm not making life better there than in the pluralistic U.S.?”
Still playing this song I see. This may be surprising, but there are other factors besides religion that affect a country.
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Erik,
The religious question is why the Catholic countries (Mexico and Central America) are places that so many want to flee. Why is the superior paradigm not making life better there than in the pluralistic U.S.?
It is an interesting question. There certainly seems to be a resignation towards corruption in RC Latin America at least. A kind of “well, this is the way things are, and this is the way things will always be here.” So the only answer is to flee to (nominally) Protestant America.
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CvD, don’t look now but you’re sounding fairly 2kish.
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Here’s a cherry the POTUS has not picked yet: Romans 13:4.
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whoa, shields are down at OL today. lotsa spammers. someday tell the computer red alert, yo
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Cletus van Damme
Posted November 25, 2014 at 2:04 am | Permalink
Erik,
“The religious question is why the Catholic countries (Mexico and Central America) are places that so many want to flee. Why is the superior paradigm not making life better there than in the pluralistic U.S.?”
Still playing this song I see. This may be surprising, but there are other factors besides religion that affect a country.
Actually, it’s a fair question. All the Catholic countries’ economies suck [Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Spain–PIIGS]. Russia bites.
The Protestant ones do great: the Anglophile ones, the Scandanavian, and of course the Germans.
Max Weber may not have been right
http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2013/12/11099/
but it’s not an unfair question.
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@Erik —
Or there just aren’t meaningfully anymore high paying union jobs to protect. Republicans are sorta checkmated on the voters issue though.
Case A they allow legalization which creates millions of net new democrats
Case B they don’t allow legalization which infuriates hispanics and latinos which creates millions of new net democrats
What they are currently heading for is possibly the worst of both worlds:
Case A + B: they don’t allow legalization long enough that hispanics and latinos truly hate them then can vote in large enough numbers to put Democrats in power who legalize creating millions of new voters who hate the Republicans for another generation or two.
The theory is they want to avoid A+B but so far that hasn’t panned out.
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TVD,
“The Protestant ones do great: the Anglophile ones, the Scandanavian, and of course the Germans.”
Scandinavia, Germany, and Britain are actually Protestant and not nominally so? I would think that in the list of factors that affect a western nation’s economy and prosperity and immigration rate, religion would rank about 100 or so (the Middle East is a different beast). Capitalism, trade agreements, education quality, labor laws, wars, natural resources, civil freedoms, corruption, natural disasters/geography, geopolitical interference, federal welfare programs, etc don’t give a rip if you follow Sola Scriptura. My belief that Christ is divine isn’t going to create a silver mine. China’s economy may overtake America down the line – I guess the underground Christians had something to do with that – of course not.
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Tom, no H/T?
The thanks I get..
Glad your computer is working again.
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I wouldn’t consider Greece to be a dominant catholic country….
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What I find humorous is how those who are hiding their seek-own-welfare-first who are, out of insecurity, threatened by compassion. That is especially humorous when Conservative Christians display that behavior. Actually, it isn’t humorous, it sadly contradicts the Scriptures.
Not an Obama fan, I am a Leftist. But if you really want to fix the immigration problem, you will rewrite trade policies and stop interventions in Central America. For that is what is driving an inordinate number of people here. US caused need drives them here in inordinate numbers but too many of us only focus on who we will allow in and who we want to keep out. And the Republican Congress will address neither the trade policies nor the interventions that so contribute to our problem here. Of course, neither will the Dems. After all, it was under Clinton that we got NAFTA and it was under Obama that we got the Honduras coup.
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Good question. In a generation or so they’ll be majority protestant (charismatic), so maybe they’ll be able to get their countries in order eventually. Who wouldn’t want to live in a country governed by the w-w of Benny Hinn?
Slightly more seriously… I’ve always found it curious how strong the economy of Chile is. Maybe the secret is a small indigenous population, lots of eastern/central euopean immigration, lots of natural resources, and a ruthless dictator who imposes Milton Friedman’s policy prescriptions. Chile is the California of South America without the freaks. And to be fair it is one of yhe most devout RC countries down there. It might take two generations for the prots to take over.
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