Perhaps it’s worth asking what the word of God says about immigration and immigrants. . . . “Do not oppress a foreigner,” we read in Exodus 23. . . . The collar here is that the United States has often been described as a nation of immigrants, which suggests that all of us . . . once were foreigners. . . . And if a stranger dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him. . . . Leviticus 19 reads, “The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself. . . .
In the New Testament, Jesus beckoned his followers to care for “the least of these,” a description that I suspect would apply to refugees from Syria. . . . Column: Ted Cruz, the Bible and Immigration, The Des Moines Register, Randall Balmer, 12/13/15
Fact Check: This is a case of cherry-picking verses and ignoring the greater context its meaning. That context in the Old Testament is that God divided mankind into nations, including the covenant nation of Israel. That nation specifically was commanded by God not to blend its faith, culture, and ethnicity with the surrounding nations.
It is within that context that the commands of kindness toward strangers were given. In the Old Testament the strangers referenced were either foreign visitors (people passing through) or permanent residents. The latter were analogous to legal immigrants today. They were people agreed to abide by the laws of Israel in exchange for the right to stay. They were not like illegal immigrants today who ignore and break our laws. The legal residents of Israel were still classified as foreigners and did not have completely equal rights with native Israelites. They could not be rulers of Israel, and they could not participate in land inheritance.
To make an analogy for today of this biblical principle, we should be kind to foreigners whom we admit, and they in turn should respect our laws. At the same time there is nothing in the Bible requiring us to jeopardize the existence of our nation by admitting so many immigrants that we overwhelm our powers of assimilation and the bonds of our nationhood.
The “least of these” statement by Christ is one involving personal ethics and salvation. Its specific reference to “my brethren” is a reference to the “least of these” who are Christians, and how other Christians and non-Christians treat them. The passage is not a prescription for immigration policy, a government policy involving the well-being of the nation.
The Bible affirms the virtue of wisdom and its derivative prudence, and it is neither wise nor prudent to pretend that we can keep welcoming the massive numbers of immigrants we are now accepting without grave damage to our national cohesion. And to pretend that we can because we are a “nation of immigrants” is to indulge in the grossest arrogance and self-idolatry. This is the kind of pride that comes before a fall.
Also the Bible calls for discernment of motives. Advocates of unending mass immigration often proclaim their compassion and Christian concern. Often, however, these are mere diversions of rhetoric to hide the greed of business interests seeking cheap labor and left-wing interests who view immigrants as a means to build voting blocs to overwhelm their opposition.
Genuine compassion calls us to have concern not just for foreigners, but for poor Americans whose wages and livelihoods are suppressed by immigration—and for Americans in general who see their country becoming a land they scarcely recognize. And genuine compassion calls for efforts to help people abroad prosper in their own lands.
Those who think we can save the word by inviting the world here are not practicing Christian charity. They are ignoring practical consequences, in some cases to indulge their delusions of moral superiority. Those consequences are an American pulled down to the level of the rest of the world, which will leave us unable to help anyone.