19 Jun 08 — Some Thoughs on Immigration

Until the ever increasing spiral of gas prices and other economic woes knocked it out of our consciousness, immigration was a big and very emotional issue. Now it has faded into the background, but the hurt, pain, confusion and antagonism has not been resolved. Reading through the Abraham and Sarah narrative in Genesis reminds us that we are all immigrants. Every citizen of our country came from some where else. At one time or another, all of our ancestors heard God calling out to them to leave their home and find a better place. As Christians we call this the Promised Land; as citizens we call it “the land of opportunity.” Regardless of what we call it, at heart the motivation is the same: our hope for a better life.

Everyone of us also shares something else with Abraham and Sarah. When we get to that Promised Land, it is almost always already occupied by the Canaanites. For European-Americans, the Native-Americans who had arrived earlier were labeled and treated like Canaanites. For those Americans immigrating to the west coast, following the siren song of the Gold Rush, it was the Californios (the Mexicans who had already colonized parts of what is now our southwest) who were labeled and treated like Canaanites. For African-Americans, who were migrating north to escape oppression in the deep south in the earlier decades of the last century, it was the already entrenched and unwelcoming ethnic groups in the northern cities who became Canaanites. Guess what? For all those crossing our borders in search of the Promised Land today, we are in danger of being the Canaanites of this generation. And we know what God’s opinion of the Canaanites is. Let’s just say, that’s not a “label” I’m in any hurry to claim.

Now there are many ways of escaping the Canaanite label. We can welcome the immigrants, treating them as neighbors and not as enemies — giving them the same love we give ourselves — just like Jesus taught us. We can also help them to make their homeland better so they never feel the need to move. Sort of like sharing our blessings with those who are less fortunate — a good Christian virtue and pragmatic politics. Certainly there are many more ways, but you won’t hear anything like this in the political controversies which are sure to arise when this issue becomes a hop topic again. It will all be spoken and argued in the language of law, not in love. In the mean time, let’s seek ways of creatively addressing the problem so we aren’t condemned as Canaanites when that time comes.

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We are also all immigrants from the womb. The very moment we are born we enter a world in which the Canaanites are on the prowl. Worse, for the first several decades of our life, we are dependent upon many of those Canaanites! Sometimes they are good, and we find someone like a King Cyrus who will protect us and help us grow into the person we are supposed to. And sometimes they are like a Haman, set on destroying us, or like a Jezebel, keeping us in our place (or at least what “she” thinks our place should be). If we are going to find the Promised Land, or perhaps we should say, if we are to become the person God promised us to be, then we have to go on a voyage of discovery, seeking a place for ourselves in the World. If we don’t accept the challenge, then the Canaanites will always control our destiny.