How should Christians respond in the so-called illegal immigration debate? Gabriel Salguero, president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, opposes laws like SB 1070. In fact, he favors immigration reform, a euphemism for amnesty. “Hospitality is not at the margins of Scripture,” he said earlier this year at the G92 South Immigration Conference at Samford University. “Jesus wasn’t kidding around when He said, ‘I was a stranger and you welcomed me.’”
Scripture misapplication notwithstanding, Christians certainly are called to be compassionate, but are we called to welcome lawbreakers? In light of such questions, Professor James K. Hoffmeier, author of The Immigration Crisis: Immigrants, Aliens, and the Bible (Crossway, 2009), investigated what the Bible has to say about foreigners/strangers/visitors in a host country. The relevant terms he found are ger,zar, and nekhar. Zar and nekhar refer to people passing through, but only ger refers to foreigners who live in the land with the host’s permission.
“The law is clear that ger is not to be oppressed,” Hoffmeier wrote in an email interview with the Gospel Coalition, “but to receive equal justice, and have access to the social support system of ancient Israel. And there was a provision for religious inclusion, but they were also obligated to live in accordance with the laws just like the Israelites.”
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The web is buzzing about an opinion article published by The New York Times last Saturday. “The Downside to Cohabitating Before Marriage” has been one of the most emailed and among the most viewed articles on the Times’ website this week, although it contains nothing new or groundbreaking. It merely confirms what most know or suspect: Living together before marriage increases the risk of divorce.
Meg Jay, a clinical psychologist and author, writes about a client she calls “Jennifer.” The client and her live-in boyfriend eventually married, but when Jennifer was in therapy with Jay, divorce was on her mind. During cohabitation—a euphemism for “shacking up”—Jennifer said she felt like she was on a “multiyear, never-ending audition to be his wife.” They’d bought furniture together and had the same friends. In their 20s when they moved in together, they married in their 30s seemingly by default. How romantic.
Jay notes that women and men tend to see shacking up differently. You don’t say?
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One side of the political aisle claims that requiring American citizens to show a photo ID to elect other Americans to positions of power presents a hardship to “the poor,” blacks, and Hispanics. The claim is absurd on its face and even more so when you consider that people have to show photo ID throughout their lives, including when cashing a check, boarding a plane, or even entering the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), which opposes voter ID laws.
Voter fraud doesn’t have to be rampant to pose serious problems. One fraudulent vote is one too many, especially in close contests. In a stunning and ironic display of potential fraud, James O’Keefe, who released undercover videos of ACORN employees advising operatives on how to break the law, released this week an undercover video that revealed how easy it is to commit voter fraud in the nation’s capital.
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This Sunday we commemorate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, the One we call the Christ. The resurrection is the foundation of our faith, and Christianity itself rests on the truth of the claim that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. His physical resurrection is a sign pointing to our own physical resurrection, but also a deeper, spiritual rising from the dead.
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We are spiritually dead and unable to do anything to save ourselves. Before salvation, we were as spiritually dead as Lazarus was physically dead in his tomb. Christ called to him and commanded him to come forth, and the dead man rose and came forth.
“I am the resurrection and the life,” Christ said to Martha, Lazarus’ sister. “Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
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