Evangelicals for Biblical Immigration — But Not for the Gang of 8 Bill (S. 744) Now in the Senate
Kelly Monroe Kullberg writes as a private citizen. She is founder of The Veritas Forum, editor and co-author of the award-winning book, Finding God at Harvard, and, A Faith and Culture Devotional. She is co-founder and acting president of Christians for A Sustainable Economy (case4America.org) and Senior Fellow at the Acton Institute. The growing ad hoc movement, Evangelicals for Biblical Immigration, can be found by that name on Facebook. The Letter can be signed, here.
Esteemed Members of the United States Senate and House ~
Perhaps we should take notice when anti-Christian billionaire and
globalist, George Soros, is the quiet funder of an “Evangelical”
campaign to promote a massive and confusing piece of legislation in our
U.S. Congress. This time it is the “Gang of 8” Schumer-Rubio immigration
bill (S. 744). Mr. Soros and allies have funded open border advocacy in
Europe, the yield of which, we believe, is in daily news stories of
escalating chaos, debt, and violence. Now it’s America’s turn. Sen.
Harry Reid wants to begin the voting process on S. 744, immediately.
Further, fellow “evangelical leaders” and I are disappointed because
we were asked by Jim Wallis’s “Evangelical Immigration Table” (of the
Soros-funded National Immigration Forum) to sign on to biblical
principles, not to endorse a specific piece of legislation (S. 744) that
we had not read. The bill is 1,000 pages and growing. Unwitting
signatures “of 170 evangelical leaders” were referenced in the E.I.T.’s
letters to the Senate, the House and the President as explicit
endorsement of S. 744, here:http://evangelicalimmigrationtable.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/May-2-Open-Letter-to-Congress.pdf
We were also not told that Mr. Soros and colleagues, some of the
world’s largest Progressive and politically partisan donors (Open
Society Institute and the Ford, Rockefeller, Tides, Carnegie
foundations), and their National Immigration Forum, were behind the
“Evangelical Immigration Table” and its enormous messaging campaign. For
these reasons we now write in the hope of Christian and American
wakefulness, unity and courage.
The Bible and Immigration ~
God loves us all, the sojourner and the citizen. No matter where we
find ourselves on this curious blue planet, the Bible tells our
“citizenship is in heaven.” We are all, in a sense, sojourners or
“resident aliens” in this life. God invites us into his Church as a new
kind of family. At the same time, He has purposefully placed us in this
century, and into families, tribes and nations. Many people are
displaced by war, famine and in need of kindness. We can help. The
Church, and America, almost always has helped. We are a generous nation.
There are other foreigners, however, such as the Boston-based Tsarnaev
brothers, and others who do not mean to come as blessing, who do not
belong in America. Scripture teaches discernment, as does the brilliant
economist, Thomas Sowell:
“Not only the United States, but the Western world in general, has
been discovering the hard way that admitting people with incompatible
cultures is an irreversible decision with incalculable consequences. If
we do not see that after recent terrorist attacks on the streets of
Boston and London, when will we see it? ‘Comprehensive immigration
reform’ means doing everything all together in a rush, without time to
look before we leap, and basing ourselves on abstract notions about
abstract people.” Full article, here:http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2013/06/04/abstract-immigrants-n1612011
While the Bible teaches us to be kind to the sojourner or “resident
alien,” it also teaches that kindness to the sojourner ought not to be
injustice to local citizens and their unique culture. To steward and
cultivate, whether a garden or a nation, involves wisdom and
discernment. We, like our Founders, want to conserve what is true, good
and beautiful. We want to nurture a nation that would welcome our
children as well as the well-intended sojourner. That would mean making
distinctions.. Lawlessness with escalating violence and incivility
cannot yield peace. Freedom for one is not slavery for another unless
one chooses that sacrifice for oneself. It is unkind to force the debt
of servitude on millions of Americans. We should secure our borders,
pay off our national debt, give jobs to millions of unemployed
Americans, and become a productive nation, once again, in order to
sustain voluntary generosity to our neighbors and to the world. This
goodness was once America’s greatness.
I offer my thoughts as a Christian and as one who worked at various
times alongside the very poor in North, Central and South Americas, and
with orphans in Russia, and who seeks the whole counsel of
Scripture. God loves the “sojourner.” No question. Amen. God also
loves the citizen. He is a God of love and of order, peace, freedom
from debt, wise boundaries, and of nations. In some contexts Scripture
teaches us to welcome. In other contexts it teaches us to be distinct,
set apart, and, at times, to build walls. I am learning to see through
political slogans and emotional appeals that sometimes feel like
manipulation, and to focus on the breadth and balance of biblical
teaching which could help us recover a wisdom tradition that is adequate
for the real world.
Old Testament scholar James Hoffmeier states that the Hebrew word “ger”,
translated “alien” or “sojourner” refers to “a person who entered
Israel and followed legal procedures to obtain recognized standing as a
resident alien.” This lawful sojourner (“ger”) was not
necessarily given all the rights and privileges as the Hebrew citizen,
but was treated kindly, indeed much more kindly than was customary among
tribes and nations of the ancient world. God commanded Israel to be
kind to the sojourner. In other words, Hoffmeier continues, biblical “…
verses about sojourners refer to legal immigrants into the country. But
other people who did not have this recognized standing were simply
termed ‘foreigners’ … and did not have the same benefits or privileges
that sojourners did.”
What is the issue?
This week the U.S. Senate begins voting on yet another massive tome
of mysterious legislation that few have actually read — immigration bill
S. 744. It’s passage would allow 11 million illegal immigrants to
become citizens in the short-term, with likely an additional 20 million
family members as new citizens within about a decade. Cost projections
vary but most agree that, given access to many U.S. social welfare
services, the net pricetag of S. 744 will be in the trillions of
dollars. This net cost is in addition to our current seventeen trillion
dollars of national debt ($17,000,000,000,000). Such escalation of debt
is one way to destroy a nation. It is immoral. It is theft from
American seniors and children. It is unbiblical. It is unkind.
The cultural costs of the passage of S. 744 are also enormous. The
bill would dramatically affect the future of 300 million current
citizens by reshaping America’s sovereignty, economy, spiritual and
moral compass, political dependencies, public safety and national
security. Whether this appeals to you, or not, it is wise to foresee
this reality. I urge you to call your Senators today to express your
opinions. We need a culture of awakened citizens. That will be one
minute, well spent.
We’re primarily concerned that S. 744 is ideologically and
politically driven, and not motivated by compassion for, and justice to,
actual human beings. Given the gross injustices to American citizens
this year such as the Boston terrorist bombing, NSA and DOJ privacy
invasions of citizens and media, IRS harassment of Constitutional and
Christian conservatives, and unaccountable spending which raises ours
debt and tax load making more Americans poor, I’m curious why Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid is in such a hurry to prioritize and pass
“comprehensive immigration reform” in the form of S. 744. Perhaps the
White House and Congress should first focus on getting our own fiscal
house in order before making hollow promises to millions of illegal
immigrants who are not-yet-citizens. In our present circumstances we
are, for foreigners, a false hope.
“You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.”
~ Pastor William John Henry Boetcker (1873-1962)
A simple, common sense request of the Senate and the House:
Therefore, as a citizen in the Heartland, I have a simple request of
the Senate: Please stop. Please, no more surprises. Rather, rebuild
our trust. There seems to be great confusion about what the bill means
and how it will be implemented. Rushing to a vote, once again, is not
wise. Apparently most of our Senators have not read the bill in its
entirety. Nor have citizens read the bill as we try to make ends meet,
raise children and be good neighbors. Our citizen fatigue is
understandable. We are politically exhausted. Millions feel disregarded,
helpless and censored in the age of the Media Propaganda State. We
sense rather nervously that at least a few people in high places are
there to manage the decline of the America we love. It is hard to know
what to do but we are finding our voice. We cannot take yet another
onslaught of billionaires and their globalist interests demeaning the
essence, and diverting the good future, of America. From the Heartland I
beg you — stop. Rebuild the trust of American citizens. The burden of
distrust is squarely on the shoulders of Congress, the White House and
our federal agencies. Consider this an opportunity to rebuild trust.
Pause for grace. Read the bill. Hit re-set. Start over.
We are not willing to “pass the bill so that [we] can find out what is in it.” We The People never
were willing to act so immorally, so foolishly, and certainly not now.
This is no time for another mystery bill that will forever change the
nation we love and have the duty to steward. This issue is important
but it is not a crisis. Few immigrants are being deported. America leads
all nations in allowing hundreds of thousands of foreigner’s unlawful
entrance each year (the exact number is uncertain). Our future should
not be shaped by those who break laws but by those who keep laws. Let’s
learn to care for both the citizen and the foreigner, and do this
wisely with no surprises. Another “Obamacare” will break our back as a
nation. We believe that some of you know this.
I am asking my Senators, and all of Congress, to pause and read all
1,000 pages (and growing) of the S. 744 bill itself, and to kindly
consider the citizens of the United States whom they are elected to
represent. Our poor. Our widows. Our unemployed, many of whom are
African- and Hispanic American young people. Our veterans and college
graduates having trouble finding meaningful career paths. Passing
another comprehensive bill full of good intentions and empty promises is
unjust, immoral and unwise. This bill is not “better than nothing.”
It is flawed to the point of being unworkable. Please, scrap it and
start over. Give us something short enough to read. Something clear
enough to understand. State what the bill will do, when it will be
done, and how much it will cost. Use our common dictionary as well as
our vocabulary (enough with the Alinsky/Screwtape rhetoric). No more
obfuscation — let your words mean something real.
The very last thing that our nation needs is another massive,
cryptic, game-changing piece of legislation forced upon us that will
forever reshape the moral, cultural, economic and political future of
our nation. We’re saying this in plain-speak: no more back-room deals,
special rides on Air Force One and rushed Sunday night votes on the
Hill. Enough. We may have once been too trusting, but we are not now
suicidal. And many are no longer silent. The nation is waking up.
Conclusion:
Let’s leave behind the sloganeering and confront the hard task of
discernment. Just as Paul taught the Church (1 Timothy 5) to delineate
among widows for whom the Church should provide, we are called to
discern among “sojourners” (like Ruth and Rahab who intend to
assimilate and bless) and “foreigners” (who do not intend to assimilate
and bless) and to welcome the former with hospitality. Observance to the
whole counsel of Scripture yields growth and goodness to those in need.
America is a nation rooted in the truth of God’s love for the
individual and for the whole world.
The U.S. Senate now has the opportunity to rebuild confidence that
citizens have lost concerning the competence of our legislative branch.
Please first enforce existing laws, secure our borders and end on-going
illegal immigration. This will go a long way towards reversing pubic
cynicism and distrust. Then, with the growing confidence of the
American people, Congress and citizens can work together to address the
challenges of immigration in the context of our calling to nurture the
great story of America’s heritage and future. We pray and work along
with you towards the renewal of American creativity, productivity and
generosity for our nation and for God’s whole world.
- See more at: http://evangelicalsforbiblicalimmigration.com/read-the-letter/#sthash.gWdolwmj.dpuf
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