{"id":888,"date":"2006-04-15T05:33:33","date_gmt":"2006-04-15T05:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2006\/04\/immigration-bryans-story.html"},"modified":"2006-04-15T05:33:33","modified_gmt":"2006-04-15T05:33:33","slug":"immigration-bryans-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2006\/04\/immigration-bryans-story.html","title":{"rendered":"Immigration: Bryan’s Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

My name is Bryan and I read your blog regularly (I’ve only
\ncommented a couple of times). I noticed you posting on the immigration
\nsituation (I read the one you posted today). I was wondering if you’ve
\nread Bob Ekblad’s book Reading the Bible with the Damned<\/em>? It’s a
\nreally good book. What he writes about has to do with the fact that he
\nworks with a lot of Mexican immigrants and illegals (along with other
\ngroups on the margins) and how he reaches them with the Bible by helping
\nthem hear how it speaks to them. You might like some of his perspective in that book (or at least find it interesting).
\nOne of the points he makes is that he doesn’t turn illegals in and he does whatever he can to help them and support them. He talks about how often illegal immigrants
\n(even the illegal immigrants who are pastors) don’t trust American
\npastors because they think they’ll just turn them in because of the big
\nemphasis on not breaking the law and obeying the law of the land. He
\nsays illegals think Christians are here to do the work of the government
\nand he cautions Christians about being too closely aligned with the
\ngovernment (or at least to appear to be here to serve the will of the
\ngovernment). Anyway it’s an interesting book that I think you might like
\nif you haven’t already read it.
\nRikk Watts makes the point in preaching on the “give to Caesar what is
\nCaesar’s and what is God’s to God” passage that everything belongs to
\nGod. At the least I would say people belong to God and people should be
\nour first priority as Christians, even above the law of the land (at
\nleast it was to the people who helped escaped slaves in the underground
\nrailroad even though it was against somebodies law). Another thing he
\nsays a lot is that the Gospel “is not about law keeping, it’s about
\npeople keeping”. I think as Christians we should be careful about how we
\ninvoke the Bible in this issue because although it gives us direction,
\nso did the law and the Pharisees and scribes put the laws above the
\npeople and loved it more than people. We can’t put the law above people
\nbecause only people were made in God’s image, not the Bible.
\nI’m kind of sympathetic to the immigrants myself, probably because I’m
\nhalf Mexican and I wonder what it would have been like if my grand
\nparents weren’t able to come to America ( I know my Grandfather was
\nillegal and only gained his citizenship after he fought for America in
\nWWII). I wonder if people who aren’t close to the issue or can’t see how
\nit would affect them too easily give their opinion on the issue. It’s
\neasy to say kick all the immigrants out or don’t let them come in and
\nmake it a felony when you don’t know any or aren’t related to any and
\nyour family came to America so long ago that it wouldn’t matter at all
\ntoday. I understand people having their opinion but I don’t think they
\nshould hold it too tightly if they aren’t invested in the issue.
\nSomething else I noticed is that people are giving reasons of fear of
\nterrorism or drugs as the motivation for what side of the issue they
\nfall on this. Fear seems like it should be one of the last things we use
\nin making decisions that have to do with right and wrong. Fear shouldn’t
\nbe allowed to control our ethical and moral decisions.
\nAnyway just some thoughts. Please let me know what you think.
\nGrace and Peace,
\nBryan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My name is Bryan and I read your blog regularly (I’ve only commented a couple of times). I noticed you posting on the immigration situation (I read the one you posted today). I was wondering if you’ve read Bob Ekblad’s book Reading the Bible with the Damned?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":298,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kingdom-of-god","category-miscellaneous"],"yoast_head":"\nImmigration: Bryan's Story - Jesus Creed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2006\/04\/immigration-bryans-story.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Immigration: Bryan's Story - Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My name is Bryan and I read your blog regularly (I’ve only commented a couple of times). 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