Illegal Immigrants and the church

Same here.

 

If they're illegal aliens, that means they can't work here legally. So how do you "link them with employment" without emabling their sin?

 

It is possible to help someone while not enabling their sin.

Many years ago, it was brought to our attention that a young, unmarried couple was living in sin together.

Long story short, they claimed they were only doing it because they could not afford to live apart so we rented an apartment for the man until such time as they could get married.

In the same way let the law do it's thing and send them back to Bolivia, but why not help them start on the legal process once they're back home and support them, much as we would support missionaries?

If your church feels that strongly about their welfare, then why not help to support them back in Bolivia?

It's sad and it may sound harsh, but there are consequences of bad behavior and I don't know that it's right for us to come and mitigate the effects of those bad consequences.

The Bible talks quite a bit about there being different nations.

 

Just because I like to stir things up a bit. I'm wondering something. What if Obama gets what he wants? Gets universal Health care and every american has to pay 60 % of our annual income. Since Corporations can't afford to opperate here they move out of country all together. Unemployment sky rockets and there are no longer any jobs. In fact, you find that there are only people who are extreemly wealthy and extreemly poor. There is no middle class. On top of it just to do farming we can no longer get items but to only pay for them in Euros which surpases the US Dollar and it takes severl hundred dollars to obtain one Euro. Now there are jobs in Mexico or Canada. But here you're family is starving. There are people who will hire you in either country but its all under board. Just want to be able to have your family get the things they need to survive and maybe just a little more. What would you do? And is it a sin?

 

Good. I'm glad I could help. Sorry to be so short with you. I'm cranky today.

 

paul aparantly had to deal with a similar quandry. He had a man named onesimus who was living on the wrong side of the law of the land come into his household. paul encouraged this escaped slave to return to his master and also did what he could to assist in reconciling this situation. Perhaps something similar would be the appropriate approach. See if there are any Christian immigration law workers who would help get these new converts legal while encouraging them to do the legal thing.

I am not an advocate for illegal immigrants, but we need to approach every topic with the grace and love of our Lord. He gave us an example in dealing withsimilar situations if we seek His principles from His Word. Sometimes we don't like what we see and aretaught to do, but we need t obey His teachings.

 

They are being told by this church that illegal activity is acceptable for christians.

 

Donna,

I can understand your feelings. Illegal immigration is wrong. I do not encourage it. As a matter of fact when I was on the mission field I refused to teach English or American Sign language to our church.

But they are here. They are not all illegal. Many have been here so long they are more American than Mexican, Honduran, Guatemalan or you name it.

So AISI, we have two choices. We can ignore the situation and hope they will all go home. Reality is, that's not going to happen.

Or we can realize that the mission field has come to us. Preaching the Gospel, feeding the hungry and ministering to those in need is part of our job as Christians. To withhold help because we think they might be doing something wrong isn't.

As I said before, it's not my job to report crime except in the case of someone doing imminent harm to themselves or others.

 

I didn't say they were. but the op question asked about illegals.
It is not alright to teach new christians criminal activity is alright for them. What kind of discipleship is that, teaching them they do not need to live different then the world around them.