"I WAS A STRANGER....AND YOU DID NOT WELCOME ME..." Matthew 25:43

Each time I pick up a newspaper or turn on my television, I hear the cry for "immigration reform." The voices are shrill and the things they call for are shocking, not only in the specifics, but because they are nothing more than thinly veiled racism marching to the drumbeat of fear.

From vigilantes gearing up to patrol the borders to troops being sent to repell the aliens, to the proposal to build a fence to keep "them" out, it all adds up to a racist rattling of old bones in a closet whose door we somehow cannot keep shut.

As a Christian I find it interesting that the ones screaming the loudest for this so called reform name themselves as Christian as well. To my sisters and brothers in Christ, I would suggest a modest study of Scriptures. Deuteronomy 10:19 directs us to "love the stranger, for you yourselves were once strangers." Exodus 22:21 tells us we may not "wrong or oppress a resident alien." More over, it states that we "know the heart of an alien" because were were once aliens oursleves. In Leviticus 19:34 we are told that "the alien who resides with you shalll be to you as a citizen among you. You sall love the alien as yourself...." Jesus gets into the act also in Matthew 25 as he sorts out the sheep from the goats. If you don't receive the stranger, he tell us rather bluntly, you don't receive him.

And this, friends, only dents the biblical witness calling us to welcome the alien, the stranger, the immigrant among us. For we ourselves were once as they are now. Given the ugly history of our nation's founding, I find it unfathomable that we could resort to such behavior. Like the Israelites coming over into Canan's land, the Europeans flooded into this continent in a genocidal frenzy, wiping out natives who, at first, welcomed them with open arms. As a nation of immigrants, how can we begin to imagine all of this?

But if, as I suspect, the faith in God that these people spout is all talk and no action, let's get down to captialist brass tacks. The bottom line, after all, is the bottom line. If all of the allegedly illegal workers were deported, the economies of all the border states would, quite simply, collapse. The stark truth is that we depend upon these people to be willing to accept wages we would never consider to do work we will not undertake. The food we eat is picked by the hands of these people. The dishes we eat off at our restaurants are washed by these people. Floors are mopped, toilets are cleaned, and literally thousands of menial tasks are performed by people that are blithely labelled as "illegal."

Now if we cannot be motivated to welcome those among us by our faith and it's Scriptures. If we cannot be awakened by our own economic interests to the fact that these people are needed, then I come to offer a true solution to the situation.

If we really wish to stop the flood of immigration from the Americas to the south of us there is a way. And it isn't about militarizing borders or deporting "illegals." If we really wish to halt this "invasion," as I have heard it called, we simply need to do one thing.

The United States of America must embark on an economic development program in Mexico, and Central America, pledging to spend, say, a few hundred billion dollars to help the economies of these countries develop. Rather than manipulating governments and trading to keep other nations poor so that we can raid their natural resources, we should be using our wealth to develop them into viable trading partners. If we did this, the immigration would cease. If we made it our aim to develop these countries as true equals in the market based economy, then our economy would benefit as well. If we focused on development so that Central American and Mexican workers had jobs and their families had enough to eat, they would have no reason to come here.

Do we think that they love our country more than their own? Are we arrogant enough to believe that people risk life and limb, leave their families because they WANT to come to the United States? No. They would all rather stay home.

It's the poverty, stupid!

If we stopped greedily holding on to the wealth that even now is slipping away from us, and learned how to walk with other nations and cultures as partners, things would change.
If we abandoned the mantle of empire and stopped spending our money on the guns and tanks and bombs we need to protect our wealth, and instead used those resources to feed and house everyone, we would not even be having this immigration discussion.

So, maybe these shrill, racist voices have a point. Let's halt all this illegal immigration. Let's lobby congress for a new deal in the Americas. Let's launch the "Equal Partner Initiative" and make friends around the world instead of enemies. Instead of building a fence across the border, let's build schools everywhere. Instead of posting troops at the border, let's send doctors. Rather than hording what we have, let's act like mature kids in this sand box, and share.

If we can do this here in our own corner of the world, perhaps we might learn to apply it elsewhere. Imagine what the world might look like if we set out on global partnership initiative! Instead of spending ourselves into debt and death fighting over oil resources that will be gone in a few decades anyway, why don't we bank roll develpoment and research for clean, renewable energy resources that could power our planet into the 22nd century?

Ah but I hear the voices now. "Be realistic. You can't do that. You've got to live in the real world!" Well, to me, thousand mile fences and an oppressed labor force aren't realistic, they are criminal. So there you have it.

Check out the Hebrew and Christian scriptures. Study a little economics. Stop being greedy. There is a different way.


'Catch you in a little while,.
Pastor Schuyler Rhodes