I’ve been contrasting the biblical command to love the “stranger” or “alien” or “foreigner” with the anti-immigrant policy favored by most white American Christians. It is revealingly bizarre that contempt for foreigners, immigrants, aliens and refugees is discussed as something separate from the “religious” beliefs of “values voters.” This suggests a level of biblical illiteracy both among political pundits and those white Christian voters themselves.
How do these Christians reconcile their championing of “tough on the border” and “Mass Deportation Now!” policies with the massive, unambiguous biblical imperative to “love those who are foreigners”? They don’t. They can’t.
And they don’t even try.
I do not imagine here that I will be able to persuade them to heed this biblical commandment. Nor do I expect them to find the biblical argument for this commandment to be persuasive — although I think it is persuasive, and compelling. So here I will focus mainly on the other element often included in the repetition of this biblical command: the threat.
Here are some examples of what I mean, all from the books of Moses.
“Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt.” — Exodus 22:21
“Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt.” — Exodus 23:9
“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
“You are to have the same law for the foreigner and the native-born. I am the Lord your God.” — Leviticus 24:22
“For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. God defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.” — Deuteronomy 10:17-19
The command is unambiguous. It is categorical and sweeping, inflexible and non-negotiable. It is — to use a favorite word of white evangelical exegetes — perspicuous. And this commandment is presented, in every case, as an imperative coming directly from God with all of God’s authority. To disobey this command is to disobey God.
That divine authority is regarded as sufficient for the biblical authors of the Pentateuch. “Thus saith the Lord” is not something that they regarded as requiring any additional argument. And yet repeatedly they provide such additional argument, demonstrating that God’s commandment is also logical and fair and that it ought to appeal to anyone who seeks to be logical and fair.
“You yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners,” Exodus says. You know how it felt to be oppressed and mistreated, to be economically exploited, to be categorized as second-class, to be denied the rights and protections of citizens. It was a Bad Thing when it was done to you and it is a Bad Thing when it is done to anyone. Those who mistreated you because you were foreigners made themselves the Bad Guys and if you in turn mistreat foreigners then you in turn will make yourselves the Bad Guys.
It’s the Golden Rule. “Love them as yourself.” Reciprocity, justice, fairness, logic. Duh.
But this constant reminder that “you were foreigners in Egypt” is not only a bit of persuasion. It’s also a threat.
You were foreigners in Egypt and you were mistreated, despised, and oppressed. You remember that. And you also remember what happened to Egypt because of it.
What happened to Egypt, the Bible says, is what will happen to anyone who disobeys God, breaks the Golden Rule, and despises foreigners instead of welcoming them and treating them as equals.
And what happened to Egypt? What happened to Egypt — specifically — because of its mistreatment of foreigners?
Well, first off there were the plagues. The river turned to blood. They were overrun by frogs and flies and lice and locusts. Their cattle died. They suffered from painful boils. Hail and fire rained down from the heavens and the sun was blotted out. And then the firstborn child of every house died.
This is the kind of thing you’re inviting by refusing to welcome and embrace foreigners, immigrants, aliens, and refugees. And that’s not me saying this, it’s God. It’s the Bible saying it — the same Bible that all of these anti-immigrant, “Mass Deportation”-loving white Christians insist they have read and revered.
Ultimately, what happened to Egypt because of its mistreatment of foreigners is that its king and its mighty army were swept away, drowned in the Red Sea.
That’s what happened in the Bible. Did it actually happen in history? That’s not relevant to the meaning of the story within the story. But it’s beyond strange that the people most indignantly insistent that this biblical story is, in fact, historically accurate are the same people most obliviously disrespectful of what the story is saying.
And what the story is saying is this: Despise the foreigner and you will be cast down and swept away. Fail to welcome and love the immigrant as an equal — with the same laws and protections for them as for you — and you will be swallowed by the sea and erased from history.
The Pharaoh in the biblical story of Exodus — the Pharaoh whose disobedient oppression of immigrants echoes throughout the entire canon of scripture — chose to “get tough on immigration” because he became obsessed with something very much like the racist “Great Replacement Theory” that has been actively supported by anti-immigrant white evangelicals for the past decade. “‘Look,’ he said to his people, ‘the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous'” (Exodus 1:9-10, and also the Republican Party Platform and Project 2025).
And what happened to him because of this. He was swept away. Nothing he built or attempted or left behind endures except for songs celebrating his downfall.
I will sing to the Lord,
for he is highly exalted.
Both horse and driver
he has hurled into the sea.
The Lord is my strength and my defense;
he has become my salvation.
He is my God, and I will praise him,
my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
The Lord is a warrior;
the Lord is his name.
Pharaoh’s chariots and his army
he has hurled into the sea.
The best of Pharaoh’s officers
are drowned in the Red Sea.
The deep waters have covered them;
they sank to the depths like a stone.
This, according to the biblical story, is what happened to Pharaoh and to the best of his officers because Pharaoh and all who supported him despised the immigrant and hardened his heart with his Great Replacement Theory and his racist, disobedient refusal to love those who are foreigners.
And this is, according to the Bible, what will happen to everyone who disobeys this commandment.
The Bible says that if you do this you will be swept away. Your memory will be swept away. The only trace of your existence will be songs celebrating your death that will endure for millennia and still be sung — joyously — thousands of years later.
It is beyond strange that people who claim to “believe the Bible” still insist that emulating Pharaoh is the way to “Make America Great Again.”