God is an “open borders” sort of God. The Bible tells me so.
It also tells me that God loves justice, especially for the poor, the
oppressed, and the stranger.
“In the beginning when God created the heavens and the
earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep,
while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.”
God’s earth became a Garden, providing everything humans
needed. No borders; just the earth populated by the first humans for whom God
had a vision of shared reality. Borders are human constructs designed to thwart
God’s will by perpetuating economic, political, and social inequality. That was
not part of God’s plan.
In his book “Just Immigration: American Policy in Christian
Perspective,” Mark R. Amstutz restates this view of borders and immigration
restrictions. “Immigration control is a way by which citizens in stable,
prosperous societies give precedence to their own needs over those of people
from foreign states.”
In fairness, Amstutz doesn’t agree but acknowledges that
under this view, which is quite Biblical, “the division of the world into
sovereign nations legitimates radical inequalities.”
God understood that and, thus, created no borders. Humans,
on the other hand, selfishly need to divide up God’s creation. Borders were
created to make sure that the very best belonged to the powerful and the less
powerful had the leftovers. Borders became the means for dividing God’s creation
between the haves and have nots. Border were the means by which humans
institutionalize injustice and inequality.
As stated and restated in scripture, God’s plan was for
those who have to share with those who don’t. The Old Testament story comes
with the caveat that we must treat foreigners with respect, for we were all
foreigners at one time ourselves. The New Testament is fundamentally built
around the notion that what we have done to the stranger, we have done to
Christ.
Human unwillingness to adhere to these Biblical precepts,
ironically, creates the perceived need for security, which then becomes the
basis for implementing walls and immigration laws designed to keep the poor and
the oppressed on the other side of our borders.
So, where does that leave us in today’s acrimonious debate
over immigration and refugees? It leaves us between a rock and a hard spot. God
is the rock. Pandering “America First” politicians are the hard spot.
No question we are far removed from that day when “the
Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.” A lot of that water has
run under the bridge and we humans continue moving away from God’s hope for the
world.
We spent centuries creating the world in our selfish image.
That doesn’t mean we should not at least begin to take steps to return it to
God’s original intent.
The United States has been among the greatest beneficiaries
of human greed. Our nation is built on stolen land, slave labor, and by
millions of hard-working immigrants. Yet today we refuse to recognize God’s
blessing ought to be shared and not hoarded as we reduce the numbers of
refugees who are allowed to resettle her, tear families apart at the Southern
border as a means of deterring them from seeking a better life among us, and
deport people who were once invited here to do work that our own people
wouldn’t.
The U.S. can atone for its past just as any individual. While
the sinful condition of the planet and its inhabitants won’t immediately permit
the kind of open borders God created, we can take steps. The closer we move to
God, the more the possibilities. For now, we can validate the lives of DACA
kids and the 12 million undocumented humans among us by creating a pathway to
citizenship. Wholesale deportations should end. Those fleeing violence in their
homeland should be welcomed to ours.
These are changes that determine whether we give priority to
what God wants over what the demagogues among us want.
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