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Random! Hey Wayne, it’s Will from the weekend course. I was searching “What has Athens to do with Jerusalem” and I saw a hit come up mentioning Regent, Boersma, etc. Crazy. Looks like you’ve been blogging about some Ekladitudes too. Nice! Ha ha, see you in class!

One difference… Israelites were invited to live in Egypt by the Pharaoh who knew Joseph. Only after the Pharaoh died and when Israelites became strong in number, the Egyptians feared them and made them slaves.

Let’s not gloss over the fact that undocumented immigrants are breaking the law. As an immigrant, I can sympathize with people seeking to better their lives. But I don’t think breaking the law is the right way to go about it.

Should America change the law and allow anyone in to the country without checking their background? Do you know of any other country in this world that just lets undocumented people to enter the country to live and work?

Gina

Yes, I agree that the should be obeyed and that the country can be one of law and of immigrants, the issue with immigrants goes beyond undocumented vs. documented. In truth, many white Americans are simply afraid of immigrants, regardless of their legal status. They are afraid of losing what they come to think of as theirs (their way of life, the way things are or have been, whether what they picture is real or not), and not being able to understand others when they speak often infuriates more entrenched Americans. Combine these factors with the fact that Caucasians will no longer comprise more than 50% of the population within the liftetimes of many alive today, fear is great among many of the white population of this country.

So, in that sense, yes I think the comparison is apt. I had much the same thought when reading some emails shuffled around my office last fall dealing with instituting English as a legally official language in this country. How far will the attempts to “preserve the American way of life”…as some I think put it..go, I have no idea, but God is just and cares for the downtrodden, so I expect that like the Hebrews in Egypt, the people who are oppressed will be blessed. After all, birth rate among the “minority” populations is higher than among Caucasians, which basically translates into greater population growth among minorities. I would expect this to disparity in population growth rates to increase if pressure on immigrants from the fearful grows stronger.

You obviously live in a different neighborhood than me.
The white Americans where I live are eager to help refugees and immigrants in starting their lives here. I don’t get the feeling they are afraid of us.

Let’s say my son aspired to attend a prestigious university. The only requirement he lacked was volunteer service hours. I would not have him lie on his application to get in.

But let’s say my son did lie and he got accepted. If the administrators discovered his falsehood later and expelled him, would God bless him because my son was “oppressed”?

Yes, we ALL have prejudices and fears. I don’t see any benefit in pointing fingers.

My point is that God blesses those who trust Him.

While I don’t necessarily condone lying (God seems to do so at times in the Bible, though), the “oppression” I’m talking about is different than upholding the law with regard to illegal immigration. As I said, the attitude I’m referrring to is against all immigrants, regardless of legal status. For one example of this attitude, see http://www.cnbc.com/id/33587668 for a response to the first American victory in the New York City marathon in a quarter century.

This is a tough subject for Christians, to be sure (heck, it’s even tough for seculars!).

Its hard because on the one hand, it’s tough to blame somebody for wanting to make a better life for themselves, and it’s obvious that coming to the Land of Opportunity is a solid way to get a start on doing so. On the flip side, it’s tough to condone someone who is essentially thieving from the “real” citizens with their actions.

Breaking the law is not the right way to go about bettering your life.

Here is a parallel. I want to better my life, so I rob a bank and move somewhere where I can conceivably get away with it. There is still risk that i might get caught, but chances are pretty good that I’ll be ok. Now my life is better, yay!

While this is a pretty extreme example, it does parallel more or less. Someone who comes here illegally and accepts a job (yes, the employer who hires an illegal worker is equally at fault, and we do a TERRIBLE job at finding and penalizing these employers) is taking a job away from an American who could use it. (Yes there are cases where an employer can’t find someone to do the job — but again, this isnt’ justification to break the law…maybe they should make the job more attractive somehow to attract workers, and hiring an illegal who will accept the lower pay is just exploitation). This worker will likely not pay taxes (which is essentially the rent charged to a citizen for enjoying the benefits of the USA).

Finally, it marginalizes and casts aspersion on legal immigrants, as they tend to get painted with doubts as to their legality because members of their own race/ethnicity are breakign the law.

Tell me you havent’ driven past a Home Depot and wondered how many of the day workers out front are legal or not? Some of them might be!

Another comment — lets consider the illegal immigrants who come here with only good intentions.

How much are they hurting their own country by not staying there and helping to better it?

Take Mexico as an example. Massive corruption, low wages, low productivity. Do you think that it’s possible that the country continues to stagnate because the only way to prosperity is to either become corrupt yourself, or leave for greener pastures? I realize that this is a simplistic statement, but it has some merit.

What if all of these people who truly want a better life actually banded together adn applied their desires to their own country? This is, after all, how America got started in the first place!