When you live in Arizona, you are forced to possess a different perspective, regarding SB 1070, than those who would scream from afar having no real stake in the game.
Further, with the intense emotion involved, it is very difficult to see clearly.
Further still, a great majority get their "truth" from the prevailing winds of society, and have done precious little to have a cogent argument of their own.
In the heat of a great amount of shouting, here comes Dr. James K. Hoffmeier (Professor of Old Testament & Near Eastern Arcaheology,Trinity Evangelical Divinity School), helping us to understand that these very same issues were found in the Old Testament:
"The national debate on the plight of illegal immigrants has been simmering for years. On April 24, 2010 a contentious bill (SB 1070) was signed into law in Arizona that permits state authorities to apprehend illegal immigrants. This bill, though not scheduled to take effect until July, has blown the lid off the pressure cooker, resulting in marches, boycotts and lawsuits. The burning issue is, what should be done with illegal immigrants (estimates vary from 12-20 million)?
Christian organizations, churches and individuals have been wresting with this question. Understandably, Evangelical Christians want to know if the Bible offers some guidance on the agonizing problems surrounding the debate. As a matter of fact the Old Testament has a lot to say about aliens or sojourners, after all Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were aliens or immigrants in Canaan, and the Children of Israel sojourned in Egypt for centuries. In order to come to an understanding of the relevant biblical terms, what they mean and how they might be applied to the current crisis, I carefully investigated the Scriptures, studying the Hebrew terms contextually. The results of my work was published by Crossway in a book The Immigration Crisis: Immigration, Immigrants and the Bible (2009).
For over thirty years I have been a professor of Old Testament, and have read through the Bible many, many times. Nevertheless, I was surprised by what I learned. Here I offer just two salient conclusions, but invite the readers to examine the book to follow the arguments and the data that lead to these observations.
First, the Hebrew word ger has been variously translated as “stranger” (KJV, NAS), “sojourner” (ESV, RSV), “alien” (NIV, NRSV), and even “foreigner” (TNIV, NLT). The latter is misleading and inaccurate as there are two other Hebrew terms that mean “foreigner,” namely zar and nekhar. From the Abraham and Isaac narratives in Genesis we learn that the Patriarchs had to negotiate treaties and agreements to sojourn in the territory of and obtain water rights from the local Canaanite and Philistine kings (cf. Gen. 20, 21 & 26). Pharaoh gave Joseph permission for his family to “sojourn” in Egypt (Gen. 45:17-18), and when the family arrived in Egypt the brothers asked Pharaoh for permission to “sojourn” in Egypt with their flocks (Gen. 47:5-6). From these and other references, I conclude that a ger was a foreigner who comes to live in another land with the permission of a host or the proper authority.
Second, the Old Testament law insists that once a foreigner attained ger status in Israel, he was to be treated like a native born Hebrew (Exod. 14:49; Lev. 18:26), enjoying legal protection, social benefits and religious inclusion. The Law, however, does not offer the same protections and benefits to the “foreigner” (nekhar and zar). For example, an Israelite was not allowed to charge interest to a ger, but could to a nekhar (Lev. 25:35-37; Deut. 15:3). Similarly, the ger could participate in Passover observances while the nekhar was prohibited (Exod. 12:43-49).
These distinctions demonstrate that the “foreigner” and the “alien” did not have the same standing in biblical law. Applying the foregoing observations to the current immigration dilemma, I propose a correlation between the ger of the OT and the legal immigrant today, and the “foreigner” and the illegal immigrant. In the current debate about the status of the illegal immigrants, some have cited OT passages about the ger arguing that illegal immigrants be treated accordingly. If my analysis is correct, this is a faulty application of these biblical laws to the illegal immigrant of today. On the other hand, the biblical laws urge us to help and incorporate foreigners who are legally among us, especially because they are easily exploited (Deut. 24:14-15)." (via Crossway Blog)
For decades, illegal (remember a key word in this debate is illegal) immigrants have been allowed to simply walk, tunnel, climb, or swim their way into Arizona with little repercussion. Now, with Arizona's economy billions of dollars in the toilet, the staggering costs of a society harboring millions of illegal immigrants has become a great festering boil.
Complicating this matter immeasurably is the fact that many of these illegal immigrants have been living peacefully in Arizona for decades, and a societal fabric has been created around them.
Shame on those who didn't protect our borders many decades ago. Shame on them for not greatly wrestling for a proper solution back then. And shame on a long parade of other politicians who lacked the fortitude to resolve the issue.
For now, the problem is far more difficult, and involves the lives of many millions. Further, as I understand it, those children born in the US of illegal immigrants are in fact now US citizens. What a colossal mess!
The economic burden to support millions of illegal immigrants is categorically staggering.
A very difficult line must now be drawn in the desert sands. This problem must be resolved, and unfortunately, thanks to the lack of "huevos" from our forefathers, it is now going to be most difficult.
Therefore, might I ask that we all take a deep breath, gird ourselves with love, and diligently work together for a workable solution?
All this grandstanding only pumps up, and leads us nowhere.
For now, let's first start with protecting our border, and stopping this immense daily flow of new illegal immigrants. Secondly, if there exists a person that has just come across our borders, we certainly have the right to ask, and if they are in fact illegally here, send them back. All this talk about profiling is doublespeak.
Further, if we find that someone is in fact profiling for discriminatory reasons, then we must come down hard on that person and make an example. Further still, this law does not give legal officials the right to simply ask every dark skinned person for their papers. They must have been caught doing something illegal, and then we can ask. Seems simple, right?
So, all you who love to stir controversy, go back to the rock you crawled out from under, and let's hope that our federal government, our state government, and all of the citizens of the great State of Arizona can work to resolve this most difficult problem once and for all.
God loves Mexicans, and I have quite a number of Mexican, and Mexican American friends that I dearly love.
This isn't about that.
This is about societal order. Don't get the two things confused.
