21 May 2007
The Bible and (Illegal) Immigration
10:19 AM
On Friday (18 May) Laura Ingraham interviewed, and sponsored a brief debate between, Dr. Juan Hernandez, senior fellow at the Reform Institute, and Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies.
During the course of the interview/debate Dr. Hernandez made a comment about the way our immigration laws “treat people.” After his characterization he commented to the effect that “That’s not the way my Bible says we should treat people.”
If Dr. Hernandez wants to claim that the Bible teaches us how we ought to treat people I’m willing to agree with him. But the problem is that the Bible doesn’t really teach us how to treat people qua people. “People” is a general class; and while we do receive some instruction from the Scriptures on how to treat “people” as a class, the fact of the matter is that in our day to day lives, “people” belong to different sub-classes. And the Bible gives us instruction on how to treat people depending upon what sort of sub-classes they may fall into.
For example, “people” who are guilty of murder are, according to the mosaic law to be put to death. Using Dr. Hernandez’s generalizing approach, we might conclude that the Bible permits “people” to be put to death. Therefore, in allowing us to put “people” to death, the Bible would surely allow us to give to “people” the poor treatment he is characterizing. Now, I know that Hernandez would not agree with that; I don’t agree with it either. The point is that much as we might like to talk about “classlessness” the fact is we’d get just as far talking about one-ended sticks. “People” belong to sub-classes; how they are to be treated is frequently determined not by their belonging to the class “people”, but rather by what sub-classes they, as “people”, belong to. Notice that it’s not that the Bible teaches us to put “people” to death, but “people” who are also “murderers”.
“Immigrant” is a sub-class of “people.” And “immigrant” may be broken down further into “legal” and “illegal”. If Hernandez will stipulate that “people” who are “murderers” (or “thieves”, “rapists”, “child molester”) may legitimately be treated differently than “people” who are “non-murderers”, then perhaps we can prevail upon him to stipulate that it might be just as legitimate to treat “immigrants” differently than “non-immigrants” and “legal” immigrants differently than “illegal” immigrants. Again: when it comes to how we treat “people”, often the Bible teaches us how to treat them based on some sub-class they belong to.
Another of the ways the Bible teaches us to treat “people” is as if they are responsible for their actions and the consequences of those actions. In the mosaic law, a murderer is put to death based on the assumption that he, not his “society” is responsible for his crime. So when Geraldo Rivera asks us if we want to separate families we can legitimately ask who really is responsible for this separation, the law breaker or the law enforcer. It’s not as if the only families separated by law enforcement are the families of illegal aliens.
Our judicial system imprisons men and women in this country everyday, men and women who have families. Indeed, Chuck Colson’s Angel Tree ministry exists to acquire Christmas presents for the children of incarcerated men and women. Sometimes, when a society treats law-breakers as if they are responsible for their law-breaking, families get separated. Geraldo and his ilk seem to care only when they are illegal immigrant families who get separated. Oh, well, I suppose we should stop doing that. It’s awful, isn’t it, separating families? At last we can solve that over-crowded prison problem. Got a family? No prison for you.
Half-hearted attempts at applying the Bible’s teachings to modern issues has to be one of the reasons why so many people think it can’t be done.
During the course of the interview/debate Dr. Hernandez made a comment about the way our immigration laws “treat people.” After his characterization he commented to the effect that “That’s not the way my Bible says we should treat people.”
If Dr. Hernandez wants to claim that the Bible teaches us how we ought to treat people I’m willing to agree with him. But the problem is that the Bible doesn’t really teach us how to treat people qua people. “People” is a general class; and while we do receive some instruction from the Scriptures on how to treat “people” as a class, the fact of the matter is that in our day to day lives, “people” belong to different sub-classes. And the Bible gives us instruction on how to treat people depending upon what sort of sub-classes they may fall into.
For example, “people” who are guilty of murder are, according to the mosaic law to be put to death. Using Dr. Hernandez’s generalizing approach, we might conclude that the Bible permits “people” to be put to death. Therefore, in allowing us to put “people” to death, the Bible would surely allow us to give to “people” the poor treatment he is characterizing. Now, I know that Hernandez would not agree with that; I don’t agree with it either. The point is that much as we might like to talk about “classlessness” the fact is we’d get just as far talking about one-ended sticks. “People” belong to sub-classes; how they are to be treated is frequently determined not by their belonging to the class “people”, but rather by what sub-classes they, as “people”, belong to. Notice that it’s not that the Bible teaches us to put “people” to death, but “people” who are also “murderers”.
“Immigrant” is a sub-class of “people.” And “immigrant” may be broken down further into “legal” and “illegal”. If Hernandez will stipulate that “people” who are “murderers” (or “thieves”, “rapists”, “child molester”) may legitimately be treated differently than “people” who are “non-murderers”, then perhaps we can prevail upon him to stipulate that it might be just as legitimate to treat “immigrants” differently than “non-immigrants” and “legal” immigrants differently than “illegal” immigrants. Again: when it comes to how we treat “people”, often the Bible teaches us how to treat them based on some sub-class they belong to.
Another of the ways the Bible teaches us to treat “people” is as if they are responsible for their actions and the consequences of those actions. In the mosaic law, a murderer is put to death based on the assumption that he, not his “society” is responsible for his crime. So when Geraldo Rivera asks us if we want to separate families we can legitimately ask who really is responsible for this separation, the law breaker or the law enforcer. It’s not as if the only families separated by law enforcement are the families of illegal aliens.
Our judicial system imprisons men and women in this country everyday, men and women who have families. Indeed, Chuck Colson’s Angel Tree ministry exists to acquire Christmas presents for the children of incarcerated men and women. Sometimes, when a society treats law-breakers as if they are responsible for their law-breaking, families get separated. Geraldo and his ilk seem to care only when they are illegal immigrant families who get separated. Oh, well, I suppose we should stop doing that. It’s awful, isn’t it, separating families? At last we can solve that over-crowded prison problem. Got a family? No prison for you.
Half-hearted attempts at applying the Bible’s teachings to modern issues has to be one of the reasons why so many people think it can’t be done.
Labels:
Christianity and Culture,
Foreign Policy,
Government,
International Affairs,
National Security,
Society
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About Me
- James Frank Solís
- Former soldier (USA). Graduate-level educated. Married 26 years. Texas ex-patriate. Ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church in America.
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