Welcoming the stranger

From May 6, 2010
This week, we met for our last class in our Episcopal Church intro. We talked about Anglican/Episcopal resources for personal prayer. There are as many ways to pray as there are people to pray them, but one of the most characteristically Anglican ones is the Daily Office. (for E Crier Meditations on the daily office, look at the ecrier blog page—I’ve posted a few reflections up there that I did before I started archiving there). Today, our office gave us a text from Leviticus, which made me think of the national debate on Arizona’s new immigration law:
When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. 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. (Lev. 19: 33-34)

Yesterday, I was talking with an acquaintance and mentioned we were going to Arizona to visit my in-laws. Arizona? Is it safe there? It’s been all over the news!” Perplexed, I said, “Safe?” “Yes,” the person responded, as if assuming I must live in a cave, “All the illegal immigrants. That’s what’s been all over the news.” “Oh, I said. Actually, my in laws have been active in trying to get rid of that law. But it’s perfectly safe.” And then I made a googly eye face at Adah, and was the conversation had ended.

I was troubled by it for a while; immigration is such a complicated issue and there’s no way I could do it justice here, but immigrants as a group are not dangerous! For the most part, they are people, like anyone, trying to make a life for themselves and their families. Whether they have legal documents or not, everyone pays taxes. One statistic I saw says that illegal immigrants pay 7 billion—with a “B”—dollars in social security taxes and 2.5 billion in Medicare taxes. They will never receive any benefit from either system.
We could talk all day about evidence about what immigration does for our country. Biblically, though, it doesn’t matter at all whether people are good” and hardworking or “bad” and just sitting around the house all day. We are all equally created in the image of God and we are all equally loved and treasured by our creator. In the Baptismal Covenant we promise to respect the dignity of every human being—and there aren’t any loopholes to that. Immigration is a complicated issue, and I don't have an easy fix---but a law that makes it a crime to buy groceries without a passport is not part of the solution.
The Leviticus line quoted above is one line in a series of laws that we often skip over in our readings in church. The holiness code also has rules about kindness to the poor—a few verses before the one above, it also says “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 the alien.” It explicitly says NOT to collect everything that is yours—it expects the “poor and alien” to make their way through your field and take what they find—they aren’t supposed to have to ask.
Admittedly, there’s a lot in Leviticus that we don’t believe in (like the prohibition against tattooing a few lines earlier)—but this is solid, “love thy neighbor” kind of stuff. What’s interesting to me, too, is that it’s in the context of prohibitions against idolatry. You aren’t just supposed to be generous to the outsider because it’s the kind thing to do; it’s because being generous to the outsider is part of what it is to be human in relation to God. It’s God’s job to be the judge and Creator; it’s our job to be created—to be creatures, and part of being a created being is to recognize your rightful place beside other created beings, which means loving and caring for them and not regarding yourself as more worthy or above them. (I could spin this out theologically about the oil spill in the Gulf, too, but I’ve already gone on for some time)
So where does this leave us on the other side of the country? Advocating, certainly, but also praying. Pray for the immigrants, pray for the police, and pray for those who suffer—on all sides of the border. Those who are victimized by crime, and those who perpetrate it. Pray for Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, too, and for all our legislators who are trying to find creative—and humane—solutions.