The Bible on immigration.

[HRC_in_08]

"You shall not molest or oppress an alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.

Exodus 22:21

But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

Leviticus 19:34

[yardwork]

1. Thank you! I will use these.

[Coyote_Bandit]

2. Sorry but

those passages have no more relevance to the immigration issue than those that admonish the Israelites to drive out various other peoples from their land.

Of course the real issue is whether or not public policy should be based on the theological beliefs of any particular religious group. It shouldn't. Which makes those passages irrelevant to anything other than a debate with a fundie as to how we should treat the immigrants who are already living here.

[AzDar]

3. Mmmmm, Leviticus. Do you also subscribe to slavery, homicide,

homosexual hatred,and ritual mutilation?

[SoCalDem]

4. All I can say, is that back in the day when the bible was "written" and translated

back & forth into many languages, people drank a LOT of wine :)

[ngant17]

7. IMHO a literal and sober interpretation of the bible

would tend to produce paranoid schizophenia. Or at least mulitple personalities. Better to compose/read the bible while drunk and save one's precious sanity when the rationality surfaces again.

[treestar]

5. This would be a good one to challenge fundies with

The Bible says it, so that should settle it, right?

:hi:

[keithjx]

6. How about

love God and love your neighbor?
:shrug:
KJ

[USA_1]

8. And They Were Aliens For 40 Years ...

... that was a lifetime in those days because lifespans were very short.

[Igel]

9. I know few people that oppress aliens.

Now, I know a lot that expect them to follow the law just as US citizens are expected to follow the law. Actually, the OT goes a bit further: they were to abandon any elements of their religion or culture that violated the Levitical code; they were not to corrupt God's own. Within those limits, strangers were to be dealt with benevolently.

But I've known precious few that actually allowed them to glean or shared tithes with them as they would with the other destitute folk. After all, the "strangers" in the OT are few, and invariably very poor, unable to own land except in the cities, and having to conform to a different culture, language, and religion--they were refugees and exiles.

I've known a few refugees and exiles. Mostly they were Vietnamese, Cubans, Cambodians, Russians, Czechs, and the odd Iranian (Koz, if you're reading this, that's you).