A Theology of Immigration

Like a happy little cloud, the thought of beginning with a satirical cartoon floated through my mind's sky. But you've seen enough of those, and they aren't all that happy. This is a space for real conversation, and careful consideration isn't exactly fostered through pencil-sketch mockery.

This is no small issue. Immigration, I mean. Especially for the so-called "Religious Right." But if the "Right" is so very "Religious," which in the West invariably means "Christian," how is it that Immigration reform for the good of the immigrant is such a taboo topic? It certainly isn't taboo in the Bible. Both Testaments have a great deal to say about the treatment of foreigners, even if that shouldn't necessarily be applied to public policy. We do live in a post-Christian society, whether we wish to admit it or not, and that isn't going to change. But shouldn't the Christians be the ones advocating for the foreigners? I reckon that neither the Right nor the Left's immigration policy has anything to do with Christianity.

While it may be an oversimplification of an anything-but-simple issue, I would point to a single passage when it comes to Christian Immigration:

When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God. (Leviticus 19:33-34; cf. Deuteronomy 10:19; Exodus 22:21)

Translation: Treat those who are not natives in your country just like you'd treat your own kids. Would you want your own kids to be able to go to the hospital, even if they'd gone down the wrong path and spiralled into drugs? I did that once, and I'm sure glad people treated me well. Would you want your children to be allowed a job in a safe and healthy environment? Or a spot in a classroom with their peers?

And the justification for all of this? "Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt." Mutual understanding; intimate knowledge of the suffering of the foreigner. It is a problem, I'd be willing to argue, that most of the Right doesn't have much intimate knowledge of the position of a foreigner. Neither do I. But there is a second justification:

I am the Lord your God.

The emphasis misses us in the English, but consider reading the "I" as of foremost importance here.  I am the Lord your God.

"Me - the one who has grace for the lost and lowly, who has mercy on the sinner, who has chosen you to be the light of the world, who is faithful even when you are not, the one who sees your trouble and cares for you - it is I who am your source of life, your leader, your provider. I am the Lord your God."

And so, love the outsider. Act with grace toward the addicted immigrant. This is evangelical.

Plato's Republic and Rivers in the Wasteland by NEEDTOBREATE

On April 15th, NEEDTOBREATHE (NTB) released a new album - Rivers in the Wasteland - via Atlantic Records. If you haven't heard these guys, they play a blend of American / Southern Rock and soft Indie. This album is different, and I'd venture to say better than anything NTB has ever produced - stylistically, musically, and lyrically. A few of the songs are quickly rising to the top of the Best Ever List (which I've taken the liberty to craft and force upon you).

This album is an open hand, beckoning, urging even, the listener into an encounter with philosophical and theological themes that, like a dark chocolate or a fine wine, can only and ever truly be tasted through careful attention and gentle reflection.

To prepare your palate, then, here's a little of Socrates' musing on music in Plato's Republic:

...Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten, imparting grace, and making the soul of the one rightly educated [by music] graceful, or of the one ill-educated [by music], ungraceful. And also because he who has received this true education of the inner being will most shrewdly perceive omissions or faults in art and nature, and while he praises and rejoices over the good and receives it into his soul, and becomes noble and good, he will justly blame and hate the bad with a true taste, now in the days of his youth, even before he will recognize and salute the friend with whom his education has made him long familiar.

And here's a little something YHWH said in Isaiah's book:

Forget the former things;

    do not dwell on the past.

See, I am doing a new thing!

    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the wilderness

    and rivers in the wasteland. 

So, below are a few lyrics from Rivers in the Wasteland. And if we're to follow Socrates' advice from elsewhere, which is generally a pretty good idea, the lyrics don't hold the same power over the soul when separated from their rhythm, harmony and melody. So listen to the album.


From "Wasteland":

All of these people I meet - it seems like they're fine.
In some ways I hope that they're not,
and their hearts are like mine.
Yeah its wrong when it seems like work
to belong, all I feel is hurt. 

Oh if God is on my side,
yeah if God is on my side,
oh if God is on my side,
then who can be against me

From "Difference Maker":

Isn't it amazing how a man can find himself alone.
Call into the darkness for an answer that he's never known.
Isn't it amazing how a God can take a broken man;
yeah let him find a fortune, let him ruin it with his own two hands. 

And he climbs on up the hill,
to the rock on which he stands
and he looks back at the crowd
and he looks down at his hands and he says -  

I am a difference maker.

From "More Heart, Less Attack":

Be the light in the cracks;
be the one that’s been there, the camel’s back;
slow to anger, quick to laugh,
be more heart, and less attack 

Be the wheels not the track,
be the wonderer that’s coming back.
Leave the past right where it’s at.
Be more heart, and less attack 

The more you take the less you have
'cause it’s you in the mirror staring back,
quick to let go slow to react,
be more heart, and less attack 

Ever growing, steadfast,
and if need be, the one that’s in the gap.
Be the never-turning-back,
twice the heart any man could have.

From "Multiplied":

Your love is
like radiant diamonds,
bursting inside us
we cannot contain.
Your love will
surely come find us,
like blazing wildfires
singing your name 

God of Mercy,
sweet love of mine,
I have surrendered
to your design.
May this offering
stretch across the skies,
and these hallelujahs
be multiplied.

I hope you take the time to listen to and reflect on the album. It's title gains its significance from Isaiah 43:18-19, quoted above. It's on Spotify, Youtube, iTunes, etc. Music does change people. Do take care.

Nobody Took Jesus's Life.

(I'm reposting this from my Facebook status.)


Fact of the Day:

Nobody took Jesus's life.

Yesterday, the Friday before Easter, is named by the Christians, "Good Friday." It's the day that Christians have historically remembered Jesus's walk down a dusty stone road in the Middle East, sweating, stumbling under the torture device upon which he would be nailed, hung, and executed. If it had all happened in America in the 1960's, Christians would be wearing little electric chairs as jewelry. Why? Why is this "Good"?

The Christian understanding is not one of "cosmic child abuse," nor of the sad loss of a great man or prophet. Christians call this Friday "Good," because Jesus, God with us, died on that torture device intentionally.

He went in love.

He went because he knew that the only way to show love for someone was to "lay it all down" for them, and in his case it meant physical death.

He went because he knew that we've done things that we can't pay for, that we can't bear thinking about, that we hate ourselves for.

He went so that he could say, "You are loved more than you can possibly imagine, whatever you've done, whatever has been done to you. You are forgiven. You can have peace with yourself, with everyone in your life, and with the One who made you. I have finished all of the work already. Trust me."

Nobody took Jesus's life. He gave it.