Continuing a string of posts answering questions I have been asked over the past few months, here is another:

“You write that we have a “Biblical mandate” to welcome the stranger, which you define as “immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers, and visitors.” But you can’t actually extend this to people in this country illegally, most of whom are criminals, many violent. You promote a very strong anti-Trump message by hiding behind a couple carefully chosen scripture passages. Don’t you think criminals should be sent back where they came from, keeping America safe for people here legally?”

There is so much here to unpack, and I have written extensively about it in a variety of places. My ethical compass is grounded in my study of Hebrew and Christian scripture. I believe there are some “golden threads” that run through the Law, the Prophets, the Wisdom literature, the Gospels, and most of the Epistles and Pastoral writings. I believe that these writings emerged from a cultural context that modern citizens of the United States cannot possibly conceive or understand, and that presents a huge problem. Our Christian faith is a communal, corporate, whole cloth matrix where the essentials are not up for discussion or debate. Individual choice and desires are irrelevant, and that fact alone makes biblical Christianity unacceptable to so many people – people who call themselves Christian. The Hebrew people, ancient Egypt, early Greek society, and the emerging Christian enclaves were defined by their beliefs and actions and one essential aspect of them all was what the Greeks called ξενία (xenia) – literally, “guest friendship.” Of course, people decided how they would treat guests, strangers, travelers, newcomers, immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers, outcasts, the physically and mentally challenged, the sick, the infirm, widows, orphans, and the elderly, but they all were covered by the same ethic of ξενία. So, for Hebrew people, Egyptians, Greeks, Medes, Jewish sects, Christian communities, ξενία was not conditional but universal. Why? Because you never knew when the guest might be a divine figure, so offering the highest and best treatment made the most sense. The next stranger might just be the agent God sent to test your loyalty (πίστη – pisti; faithfulness shown through mercy) to the covenant. The gospel writers captured the essence of both πίστη and ξενία in Jesus’ teaching of the Beatitudes and the judgment of the nations in Matthew 25. Paul navigated the concepts well, bridging Jewish and gentile ethoses of hospitality to promote unity, trust, reconciliation and healing (no longer Jew or Greek, male or female, slave or free; tearing down the dividing walls of hostility, etc.).

The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. Borders and boundaries are human inventions designed to divide, separate, define, and defend who belongs and who does not. Next time you cross a “state line” stop your car, get out, and see if you can tell where one state ends and the other begins. Place is important. It is good to know where you are from, where you live, where you are going, and how to get there. However, biblically all our land and holdings belong to God – we are just borrowing, renting, squatting, and squandering. God lets us do that. But God also expects us to share. Check out the concept of the Jubilee. Read the first few chapters of Acts. Again, read the sheep and the goats judgment of the nations in Matthew 25. Caring for one another – including the stranger – is the will of God.

Does the Bible contain stories of hatred, war, division, violence against enemies, revenge, and genocide? Yes. Do we believe that this is what heaven will be like? No. The realm of God will be one of love and joy. Peace, patience, and mercy. Compassion, kindness, generosity, and gentleness. There will be justice, fairness, equity, and sufficiency for all. But you know what? God has already supplied all of this to us so that we might be conduits through which “God’s kingdom come on earth as in heaven.” Why? Because “God so loved the world,” not that the world would be judged, but be saved. For me, the mandate is clear. God, who is love, demands ξενία of us all. Deportation denies and violates the will and intention of God.

Should criminals be sent home? Should sinners be cast into hell? Is the only way to deal with criminal activity and illegal status “cruel and unusual punishment,” in violation of due process? Look, violent criminals should be held accountable, should pay for their misdeeds, and where possible should be redeemed and rehabilitated. But sweeping all undocumented people into the rubbish bin of “violent criminal” is both wrong and unChristian. Over 70% of detainees and 45+% of those deported have committed no violent crime; in fact, most have committed no crime at all beyond overstaying a visa or finally giving up on a citizenship process that is costly, confusing, condescending, and too often corrupted. I have worked with many immigrants – legally documented and legitimately processed and otherwise. The vast majority are simply children of God trying to escape desperation and poverty, oppression and fear, to make a safe and productive life for themselves and their loved ones. They are the meek, the hungry, the sorrowing, and the despised that Jesus speaks of. They are those to whom we are mandated to extend guest friendship.

American citizens are more likely to commit violent crime than immigrants. American citizens are more likely to break the law speeding, jaywalking, or fudging on their taxes than immigrants. American citizens are more likely to engage in hate crimes against other races and ethnicities than immigrants. Check the data; confirm the statistics.

Most of what we hear about “illegals” is hyped rhetoric aimed at ramping up xenophobia (fear of the guest/stranger). It has always been a tool of petty, selfish, arrogant, authoritarian leaders to make the credulous and ignorant wet themselves. It has been manipulated to create false divisions and dichotomies of us vs. them, right vs. wrong, good vs. evil, and so sadly white vs. black/brown/tan/amber/reddish/and anyone else less pink/beige than we are.

It is impossible to understand the ancient biblical and Mediterranean cultures as anything but ξενία-based. Any modern culture wishing to call itself Christian should be ξενία-based. A country that arrests, detains, deports not only strangers and immigrants, but many of its own citizens of foreign descent, may not in any reasonable or ethical way call itself Christian.

I could care less about Donald Trump in this matter. If those claiming to be Christ followers would actually do what they are biblically, morally, spiritually, theologically, and rationally mandated to believe, this would be a non-issue. Our government would support a majority of citizens striving to create a safe, secure, productive, protective, just, loving, and fair society for everyone!