Immigration Reform and the Bible

"You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt"
Exodus 22:21

Holy POTUS! The president of the United States of America used a verse of scripture to justify sweeping changes in the way it responds to unregistered immigrants in the country. It shouldn't come as that much of a surprise in a nation that extolls the separation of church and state yet constantly mixes them up together in a strange and sometimes toxic brew.

I'm glad he used scripture because many of his most vociferous opponents are conservatives who claim to be Christian and then avoid the message of hospitality in the bible like a biblical plague. I have noticed that in the run-up to last night's speech there have been many courageous evangelical voices in America calling for immigration reform, along with the more predictable mainline and liberal denominations. http://sojo.net/blogs/2014/11/21/evangelicals-mixed-bag-obama%E2%80%99s-immigration-move

 There are as many as eleven million (some say more) illegal immigrants in the US and they are constantly reviled by those on the extreme right as some sort of societal cancer. No matter that these people do much of the demanding and demeaning physical labour that no one else wants to do. What the Obama administration proposes will be welcome news for as many as five million of these eleven million, including hundreds of thousands born in the United States to those who entered the country illegally.

There really is such a huge divergence of opinion in the U.S, represented in my own family.  I have cousins in Maryland who see immigrants as assets, bringing energy and a desire to better themselves. One teaches English As A Second Language to folk who have no documentation to be in the States. These are the cousins who don't go to church. I have cousins in Texas who are evangelicals and take a hardline on "illegals." Using that term takes away personhood and reduces human beings created in God's image to a jurisdictional problem. To be fair, their church does offer programs for immigrants, but the language is unsettling.

At the conclusion of his address President Obama said it well, not only for the United States but for Canada, if we just change a word or two:

My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too. And whether our forbearers were strangers who crossed the Atlantic, or the Pacific or the Rio Grande, we are here only because this country welcomed them in and taught them that to be an American is about something more than what we look like or what our last names are, or how we worship. What makes us Americans is our shared commitment to an ideal, that all of us are created equal, and all of us have the chance to make of our lives what we will. That’s the country our parents and grandparents and generations before them built for us. That’s the tradition we must uphold. That’s the legacy we must leave for those who are yet to come.

Any thoughts on this one folks?