Immigration has
become a volatile, high profile issue in recent years. In the current political
environment, two sides seem to be hurling invectives at each other, describing
those who do not agree with them in caricatures that evade having any sort of
reasonable conversation. “You just want open boarders that let in criminals,
rapists, drugs and human traffickers.” “You are xenophobic and racist and want
to keep out people with brown skin and different cultures and religions.” “Yes,
most of our ancestors were immigrants, but they came here legally.” “Current
laws and policies are inhumane and unjust.”
As I write I
hope not to be enmeshed in such name calling, but express my perspective in a
way that can help both those who agree with me and those who do not to think
and dialog constructively. My perspective is shaped in these areas: biblical,
personal/family, pastoral, historical, justice/legal, humanitarian.
Biblical
Anyone who knows me at all would know I would
start with biblical material which would be the lens through which I would view
every other area. Let me be clear, as is the case in so many areas, the US is
not equivalent with ancient Israel, so humility and caution are required in
discerning how people of the Book (Jews and Christians) work out and advocate
for biblical principles in our very different context which is rightly a
secular, pluralistic society.
With that in
mind I make these disclaimers. While the biblical mandate is for welcoming
justice for aliens, foreigners, and strangers, both the Mosaic Law and the
Hebrew Prophets were concerned that the Hebrews not absorb or adopt the
idolatrous practices and thinking of their pagan neighbors. Those concerns were
for the spiritual purity of the community in covenant with the Lord (YHWH = “I AM” God’s personal name,
indicated in many Bible translations with the use of large and small capital
letters). Rahab (Joshua 2, 6; Hebrews 11:31; James 2:25) and Ruth are prominent
among a number of examples that make clear that the issue was not racial,
ethnic, or national purity.
At the time of
the dispersion of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and captivity of the Southern
Kingdom of Judah, the prophets indicated that for them to fall to foreigners
was a humiliating judgment for their idolatry. Interspersed with this, the
prophets recognized that some of these pagans could actually turn to the Lord and be welcome in the community of
faith. Thus, the concern about foreigners was spiritual not racial, ethnic, or
national.
While the Patriarchs
(Abraham, Isaac, Isaac, Jacob and his sons) were not immigrants as we would
think of that today, they were migratory nomads dependent on the hospitality of
the settled communities among whom they lived. The clan became a nation in
their time in Egypt. At first they were welcomed guests and cared for with
compassion and generosity. But as they grew more numerous the Egyptians
(especially those in positions of power) felt threatened by them and enslaved
them. The time in Egypt became a defining model for how Israel was to treat the
aliens in their midst. Be hospitable to aliens as the Egyptians were with you
at first. Don’t treat aliens unjustly as the Egyptians eventually did to you.
I have
assembled a compilation of biblical references to how aliens were to be treated
in ancient Israel, largely but not exclusively from the Mosaic Law. I will not
attempt to exegete each of them, but they are listed at the end, and I believe
speak for themselves. Clearly, this concern for how to treat aliens is not an
isolated line or two but a pervasive theme that I believe needs to be taken
seriously. I know it does not spell out what kind of immigration policies a
country like the US should have today, but I do believe it sets a divine,
defining priority and mandate.
It seems to me
that as a nation of immigrants, except for the remnants of the displaced native
peoples, we ought to be able to resonate with the repeated reminders to ancient
Israel that they were aliens in Egypt. We who are People of the Book (Jews and
Christians) have both opportunity and responsibility to give prominent
visibility to this parallel: just as the ancient Israelites were to treat
aliens in their midst with hospitality and justice, so the US should be
treating today’s immigrants with hospitality and justice, knowing that (almost)
everyone’s forbearers came here as immigrants.
Personal/Family
Though I know these folk are present
throughout the country, during our seventeen years in New Jersey I was more
aware of those who traced their ancestry to before the American Revolution. For
some claiming to have descended from someone who came over on the Mayflower was
a point of considerable pride. Just as the Israelites lost track of their roots
as aliens in Egypt over the centuries, four centuries of European settlement in
what is now the US can fade awareness of immigrate status into heroic stories long
distant from current realities.
For me, the
immigrant past is more immediate. I am only the second generation born in the
US. I personally knew and interacted with many in my grandparents’ generation
who had immigrated to the US, generally as young adults. My sister and I have
artifacts that they brought with them from the “old country.” I am very aware
that our children and grandchildren are less attached to them than we are.
One part of my
family’s story makes today’s immigration debates very personal for me.
According to family lore (acknowledging I don’t have documentation for
everything) which came through listening especially to my grandmother who lived
with us for 13 years after Grandpa Erikson died. He grew up on Marstrand, a
small island at the south tip of Sweden which was a fishing village then. On
its high point was a long abandoned fort, apparently to keep the Danes from
invading. It has since become a resort community. It its days as a harbor, my
grandfather, Gustav Ragnar Erikson, hired onto a ship at 16 years old and “ran
away to sea,” never to return to home or Sweden. The story is that he sailed
around the Horn and back and forth between Asia and California. I do have jade
bookends that he purportedly brought back.
As the story
unfolds, when docked in San Francisco Bay, he “jumped ship” and didn’t go back.
He was an illegal alien more or less on the run, making his way with wit and brawn
as a hard living, hard fighting, hard drinking young sailor far from home. Without
getting into the whole story here (it is in my book Ripples, www.ripplesthroughlives.com),
Jesus met him through an encounter with the Salvation Army and a young woman
named Mathilda. By marrying her he was able to get his status changed to what
we could call “legal” today. They had a son named Clarence. Sadly (at the time,
though it was essential to my even being born) both Mathilda and Clarence died
of flu. Now a young widower, he found his way to what was then the First
Swedish Baptist Church of Oakland, California. It was known as Lakeside Baptist
Church when I grew up there. My grandmother, Annetta Josephine Olson, was there
and in her late 30s considered herself a “hopeless old maid.” Once they met,
they wasted little time getting married and having their only child, my mother,
Helen Doris Erikson.
My father’s
father, Gustav Ragnar Stolpe, also came to the US from Sweden. His older sister
Anna was already living in Connecticut and “sponsored” him. After that, one by
one three other brothers, the youngest sister, and their father all came to the
US in what would today be considered “chain migration.” He came at 16, at least
in part to avoid the military draft as Europe was moving to the brink of World
War I (they called it The Great War, not thinking there would be two of them).
Though Sweden was neutral, they did maintain an army with universal
conscription. My Grandpa Stolpe’s family were Baptists in largely Lutheran
Sweden. Whether he was a conscientious pacifist or not, the Baptists did not
want to fight for a Lutheran king. Many Swedish Baptists came to the US at that
time for those reasons and fueled the growth of what was then called the
Swedish Baptist Conference, which became the Baptist General Conference in
which I grew up.
World War II
introduced other variables and ways of thinking for my parents’ generation. My
mother had been engaged to a young man who was a reconnaissance photographer
flying in the transparent dome underneath an airplane. He was killed when the
plane belly landed. I know almost nothing else about that story. But my father,
in keeping with his father’s attitudes, did not want to be part of combat in
WWII, so enlisted in the Navy as a medic/corpsman (I’m not sure which language
is actually correct, he used both) and was a pharmacist mate second class on
discharge. He was stationed at Oak Knoll Naval Hospital in Oakland, California
where they both prepared troops to go to the Pacific theater and received and
cared for the wounded from there. He worshiped with Lakeside Baptist Church. My
Erikson grandparents habitually had young servicemen for dinner after church,
knowing they were far from home. They may have also hoped one would be right
for their daughter. So that was how my parents met and married before my father
was shipped to Okinawa to set up medical facilities to receive the hosts of
wounded from the anticipated invasion of Japan’s main island, which was
precluded by the atomic bomb. He returned in December 1945, and I was born in
September 1946, so they didn’t waste any time either.
Now at 73 years
old, looking back on 51 years of marriage and all the adventures along the way,
I am increasingly amazed at the twists and turns of life. What if during his
wild years as an illegal alien, run away sailor my Grandpa Erikson had gotten
in enough trouble to be jailed, or if today’s policies had sent him back to
Sweden? What if today’s aversion to practices such as “chain migration” and
“anchor babies” had split up this young family? What if Mathilda and Clarence
hadn’t died of the flu? What is my mother’s first love had come back to marry
her? Any of those and any number of lesser events, and I would not have been
born. Someone would have, and they would have had different stories to tell. I
can’t evade pondering how today’s immigration practices are dramatically
altering many other people’s lives.
Pastoral
When I was
serving First Presbyterian Church of Mt. Holly, New Jersey, I served the
Rancocas Valley Clergy Association as the volunteer Human Services Secretary
with the Salvation Army. After my first year at that, I went to community
college and took two semesters of Spanish. Many of the people who came seeking
assistance were from Central American and speaking English was a challenge for
them. So I determined I’d learn enough Spanish so I was the one struggling with
language, and would make it a little easier for them. I heard some rather
harrowing stories of how they got to New Jersey and how they were getting their
families up and running here. The immigration issue was not as volatile then
(1980-1997) as it is now, but I did gain some insight into the challenges they
faced to escape violence and chaos.
Then I came to
be pastor of Central Christian Church in Dallas, Texas and did five interim
pastorates when I “retired.” (4 in TX, 1 in OK) Between the location and the
changing mood on the country, immigration had a high profile almost everywhere
I turned (2000-2017). That congregation had several families from Belize. Some
were fully documented immigrants, and others were in various stages of
non-compliance. Some were deported. I made pastoral visits to some who were in
detention before being deported. These experiences moved me from considering my
opinion about immigration policy to involvement in the lives of people and
families whom I had come to know and love.
Historical
Honestly
recognizing that the US is a “nation of immigrants” requires acknowledging that
the American continents were not vacant when the Europeans began arriving here.
Native populations had some very sophisticated levels of culture, art,
learning, and government. Displacement of them perhaps started with naïve
ignorance, but as Europeans spread it became genocidal. I don’t want to get
into how to address those past injustices under current conditions, but not
acknowledging that distorts how immigration if viewed today.
I have heard
some suggestions that identify the earlier Europeans in what is now the US as
settlers and more recent arrivals as immigrants. To imply that “settlers” were
legitimate, but “immigrants” are not strikes me as disingenuous at best. At the
time of the westward expansion of the US, my ancestors were still in Europe
(Sweden as far as I know, though I do know of some connections in Germany and
France), so those of us in the US would have to be counted in the immigrants of
the 20th century. While “our people” were not directly involved in
the injustices that cleared the continent for European settlement, we are
nevertheless beneficiaries of that history and should approach our attitudes
with great humility in pursuit of contemporary justice.
As northern
Europeans, when my grandparents’ generation immigrated to the US, they had a
much easier time of it that those who came from southern and eastern Europe,
not to mention those who have come from Asia and Africa. Stress and injustice
in the treatment of immigrants is hardly new. At the time of the Irish Potato
Famine (1845-1849) many Irish came to the US hoping to escape death by
starvation. A little later, more Irish were brought to the US to work on the
Transcontinental Railroad (completed 1869). Both those fleeing famine and those
whose labor was no longer needed on the railroad were met with great hostility
and injustice. They were denied employment and housing. Many businesses would
not serve them. Signs that said “No Irish Need Apply” were common. Besides the
general suspicion of immigrants, some of this may have been an extension of the
long generations of English domination of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.
On the west
coast, Chinese were brought to the US to build the Transcontinental Railroad.
They, too, were unwelcome once their labor was not needed. Chinese enclaves
formed in major cities, not just on the West Coast but spreading eastward to
seek something better than the hostility faced in places like California. The
neighborhood in which I grew up in Oakland, California had a substantial Jewish
population in my pre-teen years. In my junior high years that turned over to
become a highly Chinese neighborhood. Some of that was as families left their
ethnic ghettos and became more integrated in the wider society. Among the
neighbors I knew, this was a manifestation of “chain migration.” As families
settled into the community, they would watch for suitable houses to come on the
market and send to Hong Kong or Taiwan to sponsor others from their extended
families or communities. Our neighborhood was transformed by “chain migration”
in a matter of 3-4 years. Their children were my playmates and classmates and
friends. One cultural observation that I hope doesn’t imply a racist bias: both
the Jewish and Chinese communities highly valued education and excellence.
Among my Gentile and friends of European descent, we acknowledged that having
Jewish or Chinese classmates raised the level of academic competition and
performance.
Immigrants from
eastern (e.g. Poland) and southern (e.g. Italy) Europe was also met with
considerable discrimination as they came to the US. Like the Irish, much of
this was a prejudice against Roman Catholics. The persistence of those
attitudes was evident in the 1960 presidential election and concerns about John
Kennedy, which I remember very well. Before the US entered World War II, many
Jews who were seeking to escape the lethal antisemitism of Nazi Germany so
nowhere in Europe was safe, were denied entry into the US. While not structured
into law the way Jim Crow was after the Civil War, antisemitism in the US made
life difficult for Jews and is still an issue today.
Much of the
emotion in the current discussions of immigration in the US have to do with
those coming from Central America (and some other Latin American countries).
Having lived in both California and Texas, I am very aware that these states
(plus Arizona and New Mexico) were once intrinsic parts of Mexico, and some
families’ roots go back to those days. They did not leave Mexico to come to the
US; rather, the US took over, and they were suddenly in a different country. Their
descendants today have connections with family who are in Mexico. Beside this,
for generations agriculture (from farms to packing plants) have brought in
labor from south of the border. Beyond that, many manual labor intensive
businesses (from construction to assembly line) have welcomed and depended on
low wage labor. Both of the Bush Presidents championed guest worker programs
and other polities so businesses could capitalize on the Hispanic labor force,
which is ironic now with the anxiety that immigrants are taking the jobs of US
citizens. In high school and college I rode Greyhound bus a number of times for
church related activities, and saw lots of migrant farm workers following the
planting and harvest seasons. I would also observe that plenty of US citizens
and permanent residents would not fare well in many of those agricultural and manual
labor jobs. Working in the fields for 10 hours a day, six days a week, month
after month, year after year is nothing at all comparable to a family outing to
a “U Pick” strawberry farm.
Justice/Legal
I am neither a
lawyer nor a legislator, so I will not presume to prescribe immigration law and
policy. However, I am aware that immigration laws and policies have been
changing considerably from when my grandparents’ generation came to the US and
noticeable since the Bush presidencies. Things that were legal then are now
considered to be illegal. The people seeking refuge in the US have not changed
as much as the laws to which they are subjected have changed. To object to
today’s immigrants by saying that “my ancestors” or previous generations of
immigrants “came here legally,” fails to recognize that “legal” is defined by
the laws that are enacted, not by the people who are immigrating. While those
who snuck across the border have always been something of a problem, the large
numbers being held in detention right now were seeking legal asylum and have
been denied what is largely considered an international human right.
Again, drug
traffic and human trafficking are real and serious issues. Very little of that
comes across the border by individuals and small groups sneaking across and
through the desert. That comes through clandestine crossings at established
boarder points and through networks of tunnels. The profitability of these
enterprises enables their practitioners to keep working to stay ahead of the
ever growing detection and interdiction mechanisms. In no way intending to
excuse any of this but if these ceased to be profitable enterprises, they would
wither quickly. They are profitable because of the economic supply from people
of substantial means and those in the US and other “advanced” countries who deal
in that traffic. Having dealt with the drug issues at a local level, I know
simple solutions evade us, but we need to recognize that our society is
enmeshed with these most sordid aspect of immigration.
In a slightly
different direction, something that I know about first hand, especially from my
time in Texas, is that many of those who have been “illegal” or “undocumented”
(choose your own preferred language) did not sneak across the border but came
with legal visas for vacation, study, or work. But when their visas expired,
they never went back. Some of them have been here for many years. They have
married and raised families. They have jobs and pay taxes. They own homes. Yes,
some have managed to create a sufficient paper trail to protect themselves from
deportation, even if not fully legal. Yes, by marrying and having children,
some have been able to use the system to get legal documentation and even
citizenship. An interesting, if ironic side note here, is that if they didn’t
get proper participation in Social Security, though they pay into the system,
they will never be able to collect any benefits. This is true of DACA
(“dreamers”) who were brought here illegally as children. Current policies
(under review and modification at this time) allow them to attend school and
hold jobs, in which they pay FICA, but forbids them from ever claiming any
benefits. Again, a lot of emotional complaints are made about illegal
immigrants coming into the US to get welfare benefits of various kinds. Federal
law prohibits those who are not here legally from receiving any government
benefits. I’m sure some find their way around that, but the law is clear.
Humanitarian
While
immigration from Muslim countries is a concern in some parts of the US, it is a
symptom of a gigantic, global humanitarian crisis. Interpreting this as a
condemnation of all Muslim people is a grave injustice. The violence that
plagues many areas of the world with large Muslim populations has little if
anything to do with religion. Muslims are killing Muslims in the pursuit of
power. Some, such as those from South Sudan who have come to Minnesota, make it
to the US, but Europe is reeling under the pressure of immigrants seeking
safety from violence. I will not try to get into explaining Islam (not that I am
knowledgeable enough to do that), but I will observe that the forces of
violence prompting such great migration out of some Muslim areas is not that
different from the gang, drug, and power violence that is driving so many to
flee Central America to find some modicum of safety in the US. The struggles
over immigration in the US are but a microcosm of this global humanitarian
crisis.
Immigration
policy that seeks only to keep that crisis beyond our borders strikes me as
immoral. My own limited experience in Honduras and my son Jon’s and
daughter-in-law’s experience in Guatemala (Jon’s is a bit wider but does not
make him an expert) brings some understanding of the desperation of people who
will leave everything they have known to go where they are being told they are
not welcome to find some relief from the violence and chaos that surrounds and
threatens them every day. In some way, addressing these forces that drive
people to take such great risks at such great cost, calls for engagement in the
causes in both Central America and in Muslim areas. I am not suggesting that
the US or Europe or The West is responsible for those problems, but rather than
trying to insulate ourselves from them, we have both obligation and opportunity
to do something better about them. To be clear, I am not advocating military
intervention or regime change (the mess in Iran surely demonstrates the folly
of such approaches). Rather, I suggest the creative hard work of engaging as
humans with compassion for each other.
I want to conclude
with a very personal story that, to me, illustrates the profound challenges of
immigration in our time.
In one church I
was serving (in this century, just so you know it is not dredged up from
antiquity – though for obvious reasons I must be sure identities cannot be
traced), at a community outreach event, I young man spoke to me and made an
appointment to come and see me. He and his wife had come from a Muslim area for
doctoral studies in the US. At least one of their two children was born here.
If I remember right, he had finished his studies and was working in his field
while his wife finished her studies. Even before they left their homeland, they
had reservations about Islam, though did not pursue them. But here in the US
they met some Christians and began to investigate Jesus. He said to me he
wanted to leave Islam behind and follow Jesus. Could I help him learn about
Jesus? I got him started reading the Gospels, and we got together several times
to talk about what he was learning. One day he came to me to say that he was
afraid for their lives. If they went back to their homeland and acknowledged
they were following Jesus, they would be killed, even at the hands of their
family. They were afraid that agents from their homeland could find them in the
US and kill them without facing consequences. When his wife’s studies
completed, they were expected to return to their homeland, but so far they had
been unsuccessful in getting their student visas changed. After I had finished
my pastorate at that church, he phoned me and wanted to see me again. He
thanked me for my friendship and for helping him and his family get to know
Jesus. He asked me to continue to pray for them. As an expression of their
thanks, he gave me a brass pitcher that was characteristic of his culture (I
suppose that’s descriptive enough) that he had a jeweler engrave with my name,
in English on one side and in Arabic on the other. It sits on our mantle today
as a prayer reminder.
Biblical
Appendix
Exodus 12.49:
There
shall be one law for the native and for the alien who resides among
you.
Exodus
20.10:
But the seventh day is a sabbath to
the Lord your
God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or
female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident
in your towns.
Exodus
22.21:
You shall not wrong or oppress a
resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.
Exodus
23.9:
You shall not oppress a
resident alien; you know the heart of an alien, for you were aliens
in the land of Egypt.
Exodus
23.12:
Six days you shall do your work,
but on the seventh day you shall rest, so that your ox and your donkey may have
relief, and your homeborn slave and the resident alien may
be refreshed.
Leviticus
16.29:
This shall be a statute to you
forever: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall deny
yourselves, and shall do no work, neither the citizen nor the alien who resides among you
Leviticus
19.10:
You shall not strip your vineyard
bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for
the poor and the alien: I am the Lord your
God.
Leviticus
19.33:
When an alien resides
with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien.
Leviticus
19.34:
The alien who
resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love
the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
Leviticus
23.22:
When you reap the harvest of your
land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the
gleanings of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and for the alien: I am the Lord your God.
Leviticus
24.22:
You shall have one law for
the alien and for the citizen: for I am
the Lord your
God.
Numbers
9.14:
Any alien residing
among you who wishes to keep the passover to the Lord shall do so according
to the statute of the passover and according to its regulation; you shall have
one statute for both the resident alien and
the native.
Numbers
15.14:
An alien who
lives with you, or who takes up permanent residence among you, and wishes to
offer an offering by fire, a pleasing odor to the Lord, shall do as you do.
Numbers
15.15:
As for the assembly, there shall be
for both you and the resident alien a
single statute, a perpetual statute throughout your generations; you and
the alien shall be alike before the Lord.
Numbers
15.16:
You and the alien who resides with you shall have the same law and
the same ordinance.
Deuteronomy
1.16:
I charged your judges at that time:
“Give the members of your community a fair hearing, and judge rightly between
one person and another, whether citizen or resident alien.
Deuteronomy
5.14:
But the seventh day is a sabbath to
the Lord your
God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male
or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the
resident alien in your towns, so that your
male and female slave may rest as well as you.
Deuteronomy
24.14:
You shall not withhold the wages of
poor and needy laborers, whether other Israelites or aliens
who reside in your land in one of your towns.
Deuteronomy
24.17:
You shall not deprive a
resident alien or an orphan of justice; you
shall not take a widow’s garment in pledge.
Deuteronomy
24.19:
When you reap your harvest in your
field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it
shall be left for the alien, the orphan, and the
widow, so that the Lord your
God may bless you in all your undertakings.
Deuteronomy 24.20:
When
you beat your olive trees, do not strip what is left; it shall be for the alien,
the orphan, and the widow.
Deuteronomy
24.21:
When you gather the grapes of your
vineyard, do not glean what is left; it shall be for the alien, the orphan, and the widow.
Deuteronomy
26.11:
Then you, together with the Levites
and the aliens who reside among you, shall
celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to
you and to your house.
Deuteronomy
26.12:
When you have finished paying all
the tithe of your produce in the third year (which is the year of the tithe),
giving it to the Levites, the aliens, the
orphans, and the widows, so that they may eat their fill within your towns,
Deuteronomy
26.13:
Then you shall say before the Lord your
God: “I have removed the sacred portion from the house, and I have given it to
the Levites, the resident aliens, the orphans,
and the widows, in accordance with your entire commandment that you commanded
me; I have neither transgressed nor forgotten any of your commandments:
Deuteronomy
27.19:
“Cursed be anyone who deprives
the alien, the orphan, and the widow of
justice.” All the people shall say, “Amen!”
Deuteronomy
31.12:
Assemble the people—men, women, and
children, as well as the aliens residing in your
towns—so that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God and to observe
diligently all the words of this law,
Joshua
8.35:
There was not a word of all that
Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and
the women, and the little ones, and the aliens
who resided among them.
2
Chronicles 30.25:
The whole assembly of Judah, the
priests and the Levites, and the whole assembly that came out of Israel, and
the resident aliens who came out of the land of
Israel, and the resident aliens who lived in
Judah, rejoiced.
Jeremiah
7.6:
If you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in
this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt,
Jeremiah
22.3:
Thus says the Lord: Act with justice and
righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor anyone who has been
robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the alien,
the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place.
Ezekiel
22.29:
The people of the land have
practiced extortion and committed robbery; they have oppressed the poor and
needy, and have extorted from the alien without
redress.
Ezekiel
47.22:
You shall allot it as an
inheritance for yourselves and for the aliens
who reside among you and have begotten children among you. They shall be to you
as citizens of Israel; with you they shall be allotted an inheritance among the
tribes of Israel.
Ezekiel
47.23:
In whatever tribe aliens reside, there you shall assign them their
inheritance, says the Lord God.
Zechariah
7.10:
Do not oppress the widow, the
orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not
devise evil in your hearts against one another.
Malachi
3.5:
Then I will draw near to you for
judgment; I will be swift to bear witness against the sorcerers, against the
adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the
hired workers in their wages, the widow and the orphan, against those who
thrust aside the alien, and do not fear me, says
the Lord of
hosts.
Ruth 2.10:
Then she fell prostrate, with her
face to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your sight,
that you should take notice of me, when I am a foreigner?”
1 Kings 8:41-43; 2 Chronicles 6.32-33
Likewise when a foreigner, who is
not of your people Israel, comes from a distant land because of your
name —for they shall hear of your great name, your mighty hand, and your
outstretched arm—when a foreigner comes and prays toward this house, then
hear in heaven your dwelling place, and do according to all that the foreigner
calls to you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear
you, as do your people Israel, and so that they may know that your name has
been invoked on this house that I have built.
Isaiah 56.3:
Do not let
the foreigner joined to the Lord say, “The Lord will
surely separate me from his people”; and do not let the eunuch say, “I am just
a dry tree.”
Isaiah 56.6:
And the foreigners who join
themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of
the Lord, and to be his servants, all who keep the sabbath, and do not
profane it, and hold fast my covenant—
Luke 17.18:
Was none of them found to return
and give praise to God except this foreigner?”
Deuteronomy 10.18:
[God] who executes justice for the
orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and
clothing.
Deuteronomy 10.19:
You shall also love
the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 16.11:
Rejoice before
the Lord your God—you and your sons and your daughters, your male and
female slaves, the Levites resident in your towns, as well as
the strangers, the orphans, and the widows who are among you—at the place
that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name.
Deuteronomy 16.14:
Rejoice during your festival, you
and your sons and your daughters, your male and female slaves, as well as the
Levites, the strangers, the orphans, and the widows resident in your
towns.
Psalm 94.6:
They kill the widow and
the stranger, they murder the orphan,
Psalm 146.9:
The Lord watches over the strangers;
he upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he brings to
ruin.
Matthew 25.35:
For I was hungry and you gave me
food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was
a stranger and you welcomed me,
Matthew 25.38:
And when was it that we saw you
a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing?
Matthew 25.43:
I was a stranger and you
did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison
and you did not visit me.’
Matthew 25.44:
Then they also will answer, ‘Lord,
when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked
or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’
Romans 12.13:
Contribute to the needs of the
saints; extend hospitality to strangers.
Hebrews 13.2:
Do not neglect to show hospitality
to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without
knowing it.
