{"id":11384,"date":"2025-10-08T11:17:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T15:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/?p=11384"},"modified":"2025-10-09T09:23:37","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T13:23:37","slug":"christianity-present-anti-immigration-sentiment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/2025\/10\/christianity-present-anti-immigration-sentiment\/","title":{"rendered":"Christianity and the Present Anti-Immigration Sentiment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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Image by Canva<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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This all stands in stark contrast to the xenophobia so many in our American society today hold and act on. One of the societal failures that were called out by the Hebrew prophetic justice tradition was their society\u2019s mistreatment of the foreigner and denying them justice. I can\u2019t help but think of America right now as I read this verse from Ezekiel:<\/p>\n

Welcome Readers! <\/i><\/b>Please subscribe to Social Jesus Here<\/i><\/b><\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

This is Part 2 of <\/strong>The Ten Lepers and Christian Xenophobia<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

(Read this series from its beginning <\/b>here<\/b><\/a>.)<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cThe people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery; they oppress the poor and needy and mistreat the foreigner, denying them justice.\u201d (Ezekiel 22:29)<\/p>\n

The Hebrew scriptures are far from univocal about the foreigner, though, and this is why there is debate among Christians today. In our sacred text, we also find exceptionalism, a teaching that often leads those who see themselves as culturally exceptional to view themselves as superior to other cultures. As an example, Christian European colonizers used portions of the Exodus narrative about the nations in Canaan to enact genocide on Indigenous populations in their day. The Bible includes \u201cstories in which it is easy to identify with the displaced people of the land, as opposed to the expanding invaders\u2014with Canaanites and Moabites rather than the Hebrews. The parallels are all the more painful as European colonialists over the centuries consciously used the conquest of Canaan as a model for their own activities\u201d (Philip Jenkins, Laying Down the Sword: Why We Can\u2019t Ignore the Bible\u2019s Violent Verses<\/i>, p. 20-21).<\/p>\n

The scriptures are not going to force any of us to treat today\u2019s migrants any particular way. We get to choose which portions of our sacred text we want to shape us here. Do we want to be the kind of humans who vote for and support mistreating migrants at the U.S. border, refusing asylum for those seeking protections, or placing children who have been separated from their parents into detention centers. Do you want to be that kind of person? Scripture will not give you much cover if you do. You may find verses that you can use to help support your biases, but there are also passages on the other side of the debate, as well. So what makes you choose one set of passages to follow over others, especially in light of the story of Jesus through which Christianity claims to interpret Scripture. However many passages one may find to justify the mistreatment of migrants today, we must all stand naked before Jesus\u2019 words in Matthew 25:<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a foreigner and you invited me in . . . whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.\u201d (Matthew 25:35-40)<\/p>\n

The word for foreigner here is xeno<\/i>, from which we get the word xenophobia. We\u2019ll pick up with\u00a0<\/span><\/i>Robert Chao Romero comments in his book,\u00a0Brown Church: Five Centuries of Latina\/o Social Justice, Theology, and Identity, <\/i>in Part 3<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Begin each day being inspired toward love, compassion, justice and action. Free.<\/p>\n

Sign up at HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Anti-Immigration sentiments of certain Christians stand stark contrast to the gospel mandate, “I was a foreigner and you invited me in.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4129,"featured_media":11387,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[729,3809],"tags":[52,678,2720,284,3815,3812],"class_list":["post-11384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liberation-theology","category-migrant-justice","tag-gospel","tag-immigration","tag-lectionary-reading","tag-liberation-theology","tag-stranger","tag-xenophobia"],"yoast_head":"\nChristianity and the Present Anti-Immigration Sentiment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Anti-Immigration sentiments of certain Christians stand stark contrast to the gospel mandate, "I was a foreigner and you invited me in."\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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