CHRISTIAN ETHICS DO NOT SUPPORT ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

Attorney Len Munsil was the Republican nominee for Governor of Arizona in 2006, and has been an adjunct professor of Christian ethics at Southwestern College. A more detailed response to the “Draft White Paper: Principles for Just Immigration Reform” is available at www.lenmunsil.com:

The first role of government is to protect its citizens, and our leaders have failed year after year.

The result of this ongoing failure is the presence of millions of people who, on a daily basis, knowingly violate the laws of the United States.

Now we are hearing from evangelical leaders who argue that biblical notions of justice somehow require us to provide a “path to citizenship” for those millions who have violated our laws and now live illegally in our nation.

But rather than an even-handed attempt to evaluate how Christian values apply to this weighty issue, we have seen only a one-sided, conclusory presentation of a few biblical principles, mostly misapplied. Principles like “love thy neighbor,” and “show compassion and mercy for the alien,” are true and important instructions for Christians, but cannot be selectively appropriated to make political points.

At the same time, there is no recognition by these evangelical leaders that the admonitions they cite are directed primarily at individual believers, and not necessarily at nations and governments.

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