Immigration and the Church

It is interesting how it is politically correct among conservatives to be against immigration.  Of course we want to say we are against Illegal immigration but it almost seems like we are against all immigration.  Of course if this is true then you are against the immigration that brought your for-fathers to the shores of this country.

The attitude I am seeing is that since I was here first, then you don't belong here.  This is true whether we are talking about carpetbaggers from the north after the civil war or Mexicans coming up from the Rio Grande, or Pakistanis coming to get away from the War in their country.  We don't want to see them coming in a ruining our neighborhoods and taking our jobs.  I can recall moving back to Texas after living in Colorado for thirteen years.  Before I changed the license plates, I did something stupid on the road and this old lady yells at me. "Why don't you go back to where you came from."  I almost yelled back. "Good to be back home."

The latest push is against the Mexicans.  But I noticed in many parts of the country we have Chinese on the West coast.  Arab's on the east coast.  Many are coming from Eastern Europe and from Africa.

In the case of the Mexicans, they come in speaking spanish.  The do all the menial labor jobs at minimum wage.  They buy the poor housing.  They somehow pay cash at Wal-mart for that three hundred dollar purchase.

As a christian, what is our response to this group.  How should we be responding to this influx of people.  First of all remember that your ancestors were once immigrants too.  They have a lot to over come.  We have groups out there saying that we should be pushing for English only.  That is great.  But is that practical?  If you have English only, then we will have people who have absolutely no idea of what to do because they don't know the language. 

Most of the Mexican's that are here are also practicing Catholics.  Oh, no.  They aren't even our religion.  Many of these people work two and three jobs.  They have large families.  Some just come up here without their families and are sending the money they make home.

What is your church doing about the situation?  I can tell you that many of the mainline church's are just out there preaching against the illegal immigration.  What is the correct response?  I can tell you what my church is doing and what many Catholic and Baptist church's are doing.  To those in the church of  Philadelphia and in the church at Thyatyra we know the correct response is to reach out to them.

What my church is doing is offering a Course in English as a Second Language(ESL).  What I am seeing in many churches is a Spanish service or a ministry of serving the needs of those people.  We have a lot of people out there that think that taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth means that we need to go deep, dark Africa.  I'm sorry but that part of the world has been reached.  What needs to be reached is that group of people that is coming to the United States from deep, dark Africa.

If you and your church doesn't have a ministry, now is the time to start one.  This is the perfect opportunity to reach those people.  So no matter where you live in this country, you have your own little mission field right there living next door to you or your church.  You have the opportunity.  You can complain or you can do something.  I promise you that liberals are doing what they can for these people and we will lose them.  But if you do what you need to do and reach out to these people, they can be won for the Kingdom.

You need to think about why they are here.  They are here because they think that America has something that the country they came from doesn't.  Most of them think it is the economy.  The truth is they need Jesus.  We have the answer and they need you to tell them.

In the words of our president.  "This is your time. This is your moment."  You have a chance to make a difference.  You can make help that Muslim, Buddhist or Catholic with love and compassion.  You can help him acclimate to the new culture they moved into.  You can win him with Love. We can do it as the church or we can leave it to ACORN to do.  Let's get the job done.