The Senate's immigration reform bill died once again on June 28th in its morning hours. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and President Bush made phone calls to lobby wavering Republicans apparently to little avail. Only 46 senators voted in favor of the bill, with 53 casting votes against the measure. Sen. Ted Kennedy, one of the authors of the bill, vowed he would continue to fight for the principles of the bill. So what now?
Many are my thoughts about this issue that divides the nation. I have read and discussed the immigration issue from many - if not all - different view points. And now my mind looks for Scriptures that could be relevant at this very hour, to refresh all my thinking regardless the fact that the Senate, an authority in the land could have provided a way to bring the “illegal immigrants” into legality, but didn’t. The headline is: Immigration reform stopped. So I ask myself: What now?
The Lord God, the Creator of all, still watches over the immigrants and clearly demands: "Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him…” (Exodus 22:21)
The same Lord also demands for all, “legal and illegal”, native born and aliens, citizens and non-citizens: “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.” (Romans 13:1-2)
Then in the light of these last words many demand: “Judgment to all illegal immigrants. They didn’t obey the law when they entered and stayed here illegally, so they must have to face the consequences. Deport them all.”
Others, including more than 12 million people - more than 12.000.000 people! They just plead for amnesty. Amnesty is the act of an authority (as a government) by which pardon is granted to a large group of individuals.
Let me be clearer, the same authorities that make laws to forbid immigrants to get into the land are the same authorities that can give them all amnesty. The same authorities that write restricted laws to immigration are the same authorities that can write immigration laws more receptive and favorable.
I am reminded of the Israelites who immigrated to Egypt by the means Joseph provided. Jacob and all his sons and servants immigrated to Egypt. They became all legal immigrants in Egypt. They got the best of the land because the immigrant Joseph was the ruler in the land.
But the time went by and things changed into a new reality. “Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, but the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly, and became exceedingly numerous so that the land was filled with them. Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt.”(Exodus 1:6-8)
And the new king by his rule made them all “illegal” with no rights whatsoever. And we know the rest of the history. That is one example of what authorities are able to do: Change laws as they are pleased. They also can write laws against the Laws of God.
We know what God did for the Israelites at that time: “The Lord said, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.” (Exodus 3:7)
God said: “I have heard them crying. I am concerned about their suffering.”
There is someone I know that rejects this thinking: “God heard His people crying, His people, not the illegal immigrants of America, because they are unlawful, wicked and rebellions.”
When men fail to help others in the name of the rule of law there is just one thing you can do: Cry before the Lord.
With no favorable immigration laws things are still the same as before. Millions deprived of things many native born take for granted, as to get a Driver’s License, to apply for a better job position, to get a College degree and simply to travel freely.
With no favorable immigration laws things may get worsen for thousands of undocumented families. Then what? You must cry to the Lord.
I have spoken and written many times to the immigrant community that I serve that if they would not cry to the Lord intensively, if they would not repent of their wicked ways and get right with Him, if they would not seek for help from Heavens the immigration reform would not pass. Humbly I say that maybe now they will understand what I have perceived as a cry from Heaven to them.
The Lord established an eternal principle that is very relevant for this nation and everybody have to consider it, regardless what they think of the issue: “If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever. (Jeremiah 7:5-7)
The Lord says: “The people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery; they oppress the poor and needy and mistreat the alien, denying them justice.” (Ezekiel 22:29). Let us hear the Lord saying again: “Do not deprive the alien or the fatherless of justice” (Deuteronomy 24:17)
There is Justice to be done on this land for the immigrant community. Justice and not judgment as if this is the only way to deal with everyone who breaks the law. There is a higher Authority Who watches over us all that is seeking for someone to show mercy.
“From one man He made every nation of men that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. (Acts 17:26) So let the Governments of Earth make provision of laws for this Godly decree. Let America wake up and fulfill her destiny, to continue being a land for all pilgrims, and a refuge for the needy.
Josimar Salum is the Executive Director of BMNET – Brazilian Ministers Network and Greater Revival Ministries.
3 comments:
Is it a surprise that many Americans are frustrated with this whole process?? Here is one point of view:
Dennis Metzger
dennis.metzger@fuse.net
Subject: Becoming illegal
(Actual letter from an Iowa resident and sent to his senator)
The Honorable Tom Harkin
731 Hart Senate Office Building
Phone (202) 224 3254
Washington DC , 20510
Dear Senator Harkin,
As a native Iowan and excellent customer of the Internal Revenue Service, I am writing to ask for your assistance. I have contacted the Department of Homeland Security in an effort to determine the process for becoming an illegal alien and they referred me to you.
My primary reason for wishing to change my status from U.S. Citizen to illegal alien stems from the bill which was recently passed by the Senate and for which you voted. If my understanding of this bill's provisions is accurate, as an illegal alien who has been in the United States for five years, all I need to do to become a citizen is to pay a $2,000 fine and income taxes for three of the last five years. I know a good deal when I see one and I am anxious to get the process started before everyone figures it out.
Simply put, those of us who have been here legally have had to pay taxes every year so I'm excited about the prospect of avoiding two years of taxes in return for paying a $2,000 fine. Is there any way that I can apply to be illegal retroactively? This would yield an excellent result for me and my family because we paid heavy taxes in 2004 and 2005.
Additionally, as an illegal alien I could begin using the local emergency room as my primary health care provider. Once I have stopped paying premiums for medical insurance, my accountant figures I could save almost $10,000 a year.
Another benefit in gaining illegal status would be that my daughter would receive preferential treatment relative to her law school applications, as well as "in-state" tuition rates for many colleges throughout the United States for my son.
Lastly, I understand that illegal status would relieve me of the burden of renewing my driver's license and making those burdensome car insurance premiums. This is very important to me given that I still have college age children driving my car.
If you would provide me with an outline of the process to become illegal (retroactively if possible) and copies of the necessary forms, I would be most appreciative.
&nbs p;
Thank you for your assistance.
Your Loyal Constituent,
Donald Ruppert
Burlington, IA
The Biblical Green Card?
by Rabbi Aryeh Spero
Posted: 05/30/2007
The American people are a compassionate people. They have demonstrated so countless times and thus do not need to be lectured to by the left about "compassion" every time a new social issue, such as immigration, arises. All too often members of the "religious left" and even politicians demand that compassion be the singular and overriding factor in deciding our nation's policies, casting aside our imperatives for justice, rule of law, and the requirement for language, secure borders and culture in the preservation of the nation-state.
As has been demonstrated, the survival of America as a nation-state holds little value for those liberals who have placed multi-culturalism above everything else. The idea of justice for all has been subordinated, by liberals, in favor of special privileges for minorities often at the expense of justice and fairness for the mainstream citizenry.
But even in the understanding of the concept of compassion itself, the left has adopted a simplistic and unbalanced view more reminiscent of the children's TV character Barney than the mature and scholarly approach found in the Bible. The compassionate Bible has explicit views on many issues that would be characterized by those on the "religious left" as hard-hearted since they have reduced tomes and tomes of biblical scripture to simply "Thou shalt disregard every practical and necessary consideration and do whatever you decide at that moment is 'compassionate.'"
Though the Bible does not outline a specific immigration plan, it does have a lot to say and thus for us a lot to consider when pondering the nuances of the immigration problem facing us. Those demanding amnesty for the 12 million illegals and possible swelling of that rank to 50 million due to future family reunification, often cite the biblical verse: "Thou shalt not afflict the Stranger, as you were so afflicted while in Egypt".
To so broaden the phrase "not to afflict" to mean a requirement that society suspend its own laws, open itself to a sudden and perhaps inexorable transformation of its very own culture, be exposed to new strains of disease and crime, and mortgage its financial future for the upkeep of those strangers is not only absurd but a deliberate and obvious miscasting of what the Bible actually means.
This country, unlike Muslim countries, does not afflict its strangers. Our streets and stores are open to them as well as our own and their own houses of worship. And unlike the ancient Israelites held in Egypt, we do not enslave our strangers nor allow them to be beaten and, in fact, would not sit idly by while a stranger of any background was being robbed, or raped, or denied any of the humane amenities, absent citizenship, of civilized life.
Our sense of justice and "man created in the image of God" would be sickened by cruel behavior. Most of the ancients did inflict the stranger and many countries outside of the West still do today. But even with the exhortation not to afflict, the biblical alien was not a citizen but remained, in matters of citizenship, a stranger. There was no magic amnesty and automatic road to citizenship.
How did the ancient Commonwealth of Judea assimilate its strangers? It was a two step process. The first was to apply the designation "ger-toshav" -- a resident-stranger; and, thereafter, the title 'ezrach" -- a full citizen. Both steps had to be earned; they were not simply granted.
A "resident' had to agree to live by the civic rules of ancient Judea. He did not, however, have to fully adopt its religion, Judaism. But when explaining what those rules were the Talmud makes clear it entailed allegiance to the country's many civic laws, its safety, the sharing of various tax burdens and fidelity to the country's main cultural theme of monotheism. To prove that allegiance, a once-a-year pilgrimage to Jerusalem's Holy Temple was expected. As a resident, the alien was offered dignity but not provided the manifold benefits of citizenship, nor was he an equal in civic matters.
Much of this would horrify many among today's multicultural left, which promulgates that residency in America demands little in the way of adoption of American ways, culture or language. Indeed many of us would be less apprehensive if we were certain of a melting-pot desire by this crop of immigrants as was found during previous waves in which " to become American" was an animating impulse stronger even than finding a land where one could make money.
The "resident" status of ancient times would in our terms be similar to someone entitled to a Green Card, with temporary status. Many of today's Latino illegals are genial and display a penchant for two classic American virtues, namely, hard work and self-reliance, and their emigration from a Christian country supplies them with a strong basis for internalizing the Judeo-Christian ethic that founded and still suffuses our culture. Our future with them will be made better by not allowing ourselves to be influenced by organizations such as La Raza whose goal appears not for assimilation into our culture but an angry retention of Mexican culture with the hope of co-opting America.
Being a resident-stranger in the Promised Land did not yield full citizen benefits. Full benefits and equality were provided only to the citizen, the "ezrach", one who totally committed himself to his new land. In those days, that commitment was manifest by conversion to the country's religion, Judaism. And while religion is no longer the litmus test for citizenship, the act of any form of "conversion" means a coming forward from one's old society into one's new one, a public coming out, with a new and proud allegiance to one's new country.
In those days, this took courage for it made one proclaim to his family back home that he was now identifying with a different land, a different people. And today as well, true and meaningful citizenship requires courage since it must entail a form of renunciation of the old land and the exclusivity of its race.
Many of us are still not sure this is the case with all 12 million being granted amnesty. We cannot grant amnesty and citizenship carte blanche, nor simply on a hope that all will turn out all right. The would-be citizens from the ranks of the illegals must first come forward and prove themselves, one-by one. In the Bible, "conversion" was not simply accepted but first tested -- a knowledge test of what it meant to be a part of this people, and a loyalty test to the adopted nation-state.
Many of us want this issue to be resolved, but can not accept any plan until America's borders first are secured. We cannot take a leap of faith for a plan that defies the historic concept of rule of law, especially when those forcing this law on us have not even shown a willingness to do that which will end the tidal wave and danger of unchecked immigration: plugging the dams at the borders.
The sponsors of this bill feel, it seems, more compassion for those here illegally than law-abiding citizens in border towns whose property, hearth and home, as well as their schools and hospitals, have been brazenly assaulted or exploited. Where is the compassion for them? We seem to pay more respect to political groups manned by illegals than our own people. Those who raise a voice in their own behalf are demonized as racist or bigots. Perhaps that's why there is no faith, no confidence, in our lawmakers. Is this simply a quick fix?
That borders are an imperative to a nation's cohesion and survival is amplified in the Bible numerous times: "And if you shall follow My ways, I will protect your borders so that the strangers and enemies will not fill your camp and be a thorn in your side." As a compassionate but sensible book the Bible understood that any country wishing to preserve its culture and way of life is one that must be able to manage its borders. Those who neither understand that nor give it credence simply no longer value the historic American culture. And they most certainly are not led by a compassion greater than mine or yours. They seem to be guided by an indifference to the citizenry.
Rabbi Spero is a radio talk show host, a pulpit rabbi, and president of Caucus for America
I cannot but see the good points and logic of the positions stated by brother Josimar as well as his correspondents. It looks as though they are all correct! Yet, we have a growing situation of dire importance which demands that some decisions be made. And here we are with the same Bible in both hands, looking at disparate conclusions, all the while desiring to remain faithful to God and to our nation's laws:
O God, You are the Father of mercy and the God of justice. Perhaps Your will eludes us in this dilemma because we have eluded You in so many other areas of personal and national life. We pray: release your Holy Spirit into our hearts and lead Your leaders to discover Your good and perfect will.
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