water in Flint, Michigan. The US government had to suggest and even beg to come in and assist the residents of Flint, many of whom were black and poor, and all of whom were victims of Governor Rick Snyder’s merciless policies. “Nor are there any Republican members of Congress who have turned down their Social Security or refused their excellent health insurance. What they do for themselves they should consider doing for others.”
After hearing from the many Republicans who do not agree with my friend, I wondered if I had misread my Bible. Perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps the Bible was only talking to individuals. I soon found more than 500 passages addressing nations. I reread the book of Jeremiah, the prophet appointed by God to talk to the nations. God said, “I brought you to a country of plenty to enjoy its produce and good things; but when you entered you defiled my country and made my heritage loathsome.”8 There are many loathsome acts which the nation did: “The very skirts of your robe are stained with the blood of the poor.”9 “There are wicked men among my people … they set traps and they catch human beings. Like a cage full of birds so are their houses full of loot; they have grown rich and powerful because of it, they are fat, they are sleek, … they have no respect for rights, for orphans’ rights, and yet they succeeded! They have not upheld the cause of the needy. Shall I fail to punish this, Yahweh demands, or on such a nation to exact vengeance.”10 God tells the nation they must “treat one another fairly … not exploit the stranger, the orphan and the widow … not shed innocent blood.”11 He scolds the nation and its leaders for having “eyes and heart for nothing but your own interests, for shedding innocent blood and perpetrating violence and oppression.”12 The Democrats have a far better record at addressing these commands.
And What About the Stranger?
One of the most challenging issues confronting our country revolves around immigration. There are about 11–12 million undocumented workers in our country. About 50% of these come from Mexico. There are also hundreds of thousands of foreign travelers, sojourners, students from other countries, and refugees who come to our country for short or long periods of time, who are not “like us” but who have different skin color, cultures, dress, languages, and ways of approaching their daily lives. In theological language, these people are sometimes called “The Other” and are objectified, dismissed, rejected, and told to go back to their own country and their own people.
With regard to the stranger, some people act on the principle “Nothing human is foreign to me,” while others seem to be saying, “Nothing foreign is human to me.”
The Bible recognizes the difficulties immigrants confront and asks us to respond with compassion. There are more than one hundred verses in the Bible about how we need to treat the stranger. The Bible put the needs of the stranger along with the needs of the orphans and widows, and told the Israelites that special care needed to be given. They were told, “You must not oppress foreigners,”13 you must “Love the stranger as yourself,” and you must not “deny justice to the foreigner.”14
Why are we asked to be so kind to strangers when they seem on the surface to be a threat to the prevailing culture? Historically, immigrants to any country were often brought in to fill the need for cheap labor and to take the difficult jobs that other people didn’t want. They often came to escape economic hardships in their own country or to escape war, famine, drug violence, threats, danger, or religious persecution. Our Statue of Liberty asks us to take in “your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”15 The immigrants were often rejected, abused, and forced to live in unsafe conditions, and had little legal recourse.
The word Hebrew means “to cross over” or, said another way, “to be a border crosser.” Hebrews were almost always strangers in a strange land. Sometimes the prevailing culture welcomed them, and sometimes it oppressed them.
Jesus was a sojourner, a stranger in a strange land, who was accepted by some but rejected and killed by others.
We are told to care for the “least of these,” which means we are asked to feed and clothe and care for the stranger in the same way we would do for our family or our friends. The individuals and nations that don’t do this are cursed. “Cursed is the one who perverts the justice to the stranger, the fatherless, and widowed.”16
What policies and actions might result from our understanding and care for the immigrant? The Democratic and Republican stances on this issue show a clear division about how to treat the immigrant. All the Republican candidates, in one way or another, want to get rid of some, if not most, of these people.
Donald Trump’s position is the most extreme. He would deport 11 to 12 million undocumented immigrants, which would be expensive and impractical. Trump would build a wall between Mexico and the U.S. (to block the arriving Mexicans, who make up only about 50% of illegal immigrants) even though the cost of the wall would be prohibitive. Trump would ban all Muslims from entering the United States and favor Christian immigrants to come into this country—although it seems that this would not apply to Mexicans, many of whom are Christians. He would not allow any Syrian or Middle Eastern refugees into the U.S. and would send the millions of Syrian refugees who have escaped from their violent country back to face further violence and perhaps to face starvation or death.
This negative attitude toward immigrants is a somewhat odd stance for a person who has married two immigrant women who were not born in the United States, who are not “culturally” American, and who did not become citizens until some years after the marriages. Trump has also employed hundreds of illegal immigrants at low wages, some working seven days a week. Obviously, he found them useful for himself.
The policies of Ted Cruz are similar to Trump’s, and Marco Rubio’s are only slightly more moderate—which again is unusual since both Cruz and Rubio are the children of immigrants. It just keeps getting, as Alice in Wonderland would say, “curiouser and curiouser.”
John Kasich, who seems to me to be the most reasonable of the Republican candidates, says, “The symbol of the United States should not be barbed wire but the Statue of Liberty.” Jeb Bush seems to recognize that many Mexican immigrants come to the United States with good intentions, which he sometimes calls “an act of love.” This attitude has been criticized and ridiculed by Donald Trump.
Both Sanders and Clinton see immigration as a matter of compassion and security, and believe that when immigrants are properly vetted, there should be a path into the United States. That could be through green cards, through naturalization, and through citizenship.
Democrats would pass the “The Dream Act.” The Dream Act says that children under 16 who were born in the United States, or who came to the United States with their illegal immigrant parents, should not be taken away from their parents or deported, but should be allowed to pursue a path to citizenship and to join the military, go to college, and become responsible citizens. Under current law the children can stay in the United States, but often the illegal immigrant parents must leave, abandoning their children. The Democrats do not consider this to be an example of family values.
There is a Celtic rune that expresses a Christian attitude toward “The Other”:
I saw a stranger yestreen,
I put food in the eating place
drink in the drinking place
music in the listening place,
and in the sacred name of the Triune
he blessed myself and my house
my cattle and my dear ones,
and the lark said in her song:
often, often, often
goes
