On January 27, 2017, President Trump issued Executive Order 13769, called “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States,” in which he banned immigration from seven countries, including Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. This unpopular order caused much controversy throughout the US and led to significant litigation, delaying it’s implementation. Much of the president’s motivation for this order (and subsequent revisions) is to protect Americans from terrorists posing as refugees. In this episode we look at few significant biblical passages on sojourners (immigrants) and attempt to stake out a Christian position on this subject. Whether you are for or against immigration, this episode should help you think through your position from a distinctly Christian perspective.
Links:
- 99% Invisible podcast on the Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s: podcast 1, podcast 2
- Washington Post article: ‘Now they live in the light’: A Syrian refugee family finds only love and compassion in America
- “World Poverty, Immigration, & Gumballs” by Roy Beck visually demonstrates how immigration cannot solve world poverty
- Jeff Palmer, executive director of Baptist Global Response: “Caring for Refugees from the Middle East” (interview with Darrell Bock on The Table Podcast)
- Info about Stan and Pam Chee’s ministry to Chinese students at the University of Toronto
- Intro music: “Protofunk” by Kevin MacLeod. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.
Sean,
First, Thank you for your podcasts and all the work that you do preaching the word of God and your Unitarian teachings. I have to take the other side when it comes to Muslim immigrants coming into this country from the mentioned 7 Muslim countries. In December 2015, President Obama signed into law a measure placing limited restrictions on certain travelers who had visited Iran, Iraq, Sudan, or Syria on or after March 1, 2011. Two months later, the Obama administration added Libya, Somalia, and Yemen to the list, in what it called an effort to address “the growing threat from foreign terrorist fighters.” So Trumps “temporary 90 day ban” was justified considering he is coming into office and now it’s his problem to solve and protect the American people from terrorism. I don’t want to turn this into me defending Trump because I don’t agree with all of his policies, but I do agree with the temporary ban to come up with a way a vetting refugees who come with less then amiable intentions. Ok, first Exodus 23:9 “You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt”. The key word for me is “heart” The heart of the sojourner. What are the intentions of the refugee? do they plan to live among you and abide in God’s law? If they don’t, do you still accept them as your brother even if they want to kill you or convert you through force? Do you allow mosques to operate that call for jihad and sharia law, infecting peaceful Muslims? Surly you wouldn’t invite someone into your home if you thought their intentions were to harm you or your family. Europe has has a policy of dropping off Muslims into their country and Europe is mess. All I’m saying is that it was not Gods intention to have his people treat sojourners as brothers if they would not assimilate into the culture or worse…destroy it. God Bless.
Thought-provoking and confronting to me. Sean mentioned that borders should be open unless the infrastructure or economy was overloaded (paraphrase), and I think we passed that a long time ago. Christians need to feed and clothe and take in the poor that already live here.
I’m also not sure if you can have a complete conversation on the subject without an opposing viewpoint in the mix. So I hope someone that has knowledge/experience with the subject comes forth. Good conversation guys
Christianity is not a suicide pact, and I think we’ve seen abundant evidence that most of our sol-called sojourners are basically here for the money, and often despise the populace (“Make America Mexico Again!”). Israel was a nation, with walls and borders. Being kind to travelers is not the same thing as “get rid of your borders and essentially eliminate your nation”, not to mention the very-Christian instruction to obey the laws and rightful authorities… which illegal aliens, by definition, do not.