Sep7 |
 |
And Jesus Cast The Illegal Immigrants Out Of The Temple, Saying…
Illegal immigration is one of those can’t-miss column topics that is sure to generate a lot of reader commentary. It’s also something people (those people, of course, not including me) feel strongly about, and so it gets written about a lot. Stu Bykofsky weighs in again on the debate today. It’s a pretty good column premise at first, asking people to tone down the religious rhetoric when it comes to the immigration debate:
I’d tend to slightly agree. While religious beliefs certainly influence one’s own views on hot-button topics, it’s not much of a debate tactic to simply say, “Well, God doesn’t want us to obey this law.” It may be how you feel — and, that’s certainly okay — but you’re not really going to convince anyone who doesn’t already think like you (or share your religious beliefs) if you simply say that God is on your side. So, I suppose, I want to commend Byko for… oh, what’s that?
You see, Rabbi, it’s best to keep religion out of this debate. Oh, by the way, Jesus is on Byko’s side. Stu Bykofsky | Keep religion out of illegal immigration [DN] |
|
|
|
Jesus did not change the rules (he told tax collectors not to gouge; told the slave to obey his master; told the centurion not to mistreat people; told rich people to share the wealth but did not tell them not to make money; the parable of the man with the vineyard who chose his workers at different times of the day and paid them what he wanted at the end of the day) all show that Jesus respected laws but wanted people to follow their spirit and with the good of people in mind.
He railed on the leaders of the Jews for following laws for the sake of the laws and thinking they were so good since they followed laws and looked down on the poor or less fortunate (Leader who gave donation for the poor in the temple but the poor woman gave all she had to the poor - greater sacrifice)
Jesus did not down the 10 commandments and told his followers to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s - the lawz of Rome. His instructions for his followers about the attitude theuy did what they did and called to action empohasis on the poor (Beatitudes) and even told us the poor we will have always with us (no mandate to get rid of poverty) Our imperfection begets poverty but it is how we treat others that is the issue.
Jesus did not condone law breakers (the woman who committed adultry who was to be stoned and Jesus told those who were going to stone her to throw the stone if they were without sin) since he told that woman not to sin again. He did not say now that you have bronen the law (adultry) just do it with the men you had sex with but with no other men. He said - stop it.
The issue was not against the Roman empire but about the faithful and leaders and the way they were living their faith. Christianity is not beholden to any nation but it must follow the rules of the nation generally. Requiring people to come here legally is not any abuse of them even if they have a great need. Once they are here they are expected to follow the laws we have in place and if we say leave, then that should be that. There are many Mexicans or others from their country living like they used to live. It’s our right to regulate entrance to this country, even if we did not do a great job in the past. We can enforce rules we were lax on - if that’s not true then no church has authority to enforce rules it was lx on and neither do governments - what a mess that would be!