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TechnoratiThe president also said those who “want to kill the bill” are not concerned about “what’s right for America.” How can simply opposing a bill that will slowly relegate the Republican Party to minority political status for years be considered unpatriotic? If wasn’t for the sustained outcry of conservatives about a porous southern border there wouldn’t even be any debate taking place over immigration. It was the gradually crescendo of raised conservative voices that finally began to reach the ears of congressional leaders and the White House. Conservatives who care about and want to protect the things that are right and good about American culture (including the constitution) are not bigots, xenophobes, nativists, or isolationists. We are people who respect the rule of law and who seek to defend the cultural cohesiveness of our country. We believe the long term consequences of this bill will be the financial destruction of our way of life. The backs of hard working Americans cannot possibly carry the load of an influx of immigrants into our already overloaded welfare and social security system.
God’s Word calls for a balance between care for the “foreigner” or “stranger” in the land and the foreigner or strangers responsibility to abide by the law of the land. Deuteronomy 10:18 says God, “executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreign resident, given him food and clothing.” Exodus 22:21 commands God’s people not to “exploit a foreign resident or oppress him, since you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.” But the Bible also commands the foreigner in the land to be obedient to the same laws as the native. The question of how Christians should treat immigrants is not hard to answer. We should love them and welcome them as long as they obey the laws of the land, which include laws that regulate their entrance into the country.
I pray that the immigration debate, because it is such an important issue for our time, will be resolved according to the Word of God, the rule of law, and the compassion of the Christian faith. And I pray it can be accomplished without the kind of name calling and finger pointing that will leave the Republican Party fractured and powerless for years to come.
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Dr. Tony Beam is Director of the Christian Worldview Center at North Greenville University in Tigerville, South Carolina.
