The Right Thing To Do

Believers individually, and Churches collectively. must face the reality that we live in a world that has problems. Often we are required to take a position in matters that create confusion regarding the right thing to do. Consider the following:

According to Roy Beck of NumbersUSA, “. . . the 75-member board of directors of the National Association of Evangelicals unanimously sent word to the U.S. Senate that it believes the Gospel requires Christians and the U.S. government to forgive the 12-20 million illegal foreign workers and dependents in this country and to give them U.S. citizenship.”

The Scripture is clear. We (believers) are to be obedient to the law — period. Those who have entered this Country illegally, ahead of those who have worked and waited for legal immigration, taken jobs with counterfeit identification, failed to pay social security and taxes legally, usurped the benefits (food stamps, health care, section eight housing, etc.) meant for citizens, and undoubtedly filled jobs that could be taken by millions of unemployed legal citizens, are serial lawbreakers. If we forgive them (and I am a strong believer in forgiveness) and make them citizens without any restitution, repayment, penalty, and/or punishment, do we not owe the same kind of forgiveness to all those citizens in prison who have committed some relatively minor crime? I know a man, for example, who was convicted of having an altered Texas driver’s license. That’s it! Nothing else. He was sentenced to, and is serving,  thirteen (13) years in a Texas prison. How about we forgive him?

The law is the law. We are called to obedience. There are legal paths and methods for entry to this Country, and ultimately, to citizenship. It begins from outside the country. Until and unless it changes, let’s follow the law in this matter.