‘all we need is love’
Friday, 7 November 2008
I couldn’t help but point this out. Typically religious conversatives are anti-homosexual and anti-immigration. Thankfully enough the Israelites were already given laws by God in how to deal with both of these issues. The aforementioned group has already found the laws concerning what my Bible calls the “unlawful sexual relations”, at the end of a long list of prohibitions against incest there is short description stating, “do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.” The language is different than what is used earlier of wickedness. The summary shortly after the statement is question uses the language of defilement, you end up defiling the land which will vomit you (you being the collective whole) out. So the question of right or wrong seems clear, but this verse is in the middle of a lot of other laws which we are very poor in keeping also. How well are any of us in keeping the Law; Paul has already spent time describing that failed endeavor. On the next page it states:
“When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”
This seems like a clear call to accept whomever comes as if they were born here. Even if the Church can’t change the legislation on this issue(though it definitely can put a lot of pressure) it seems that we need to be the most welcoming place for a illegal immigrant to come. It is so frustrating that we can miss God so often on issues of ideologies or policy. When people use the Bible as a tool to use in their fight they are misusing the name of the Lord; which again is commanded against, this time being a matter of higher importance being that it is in the top ten list. So what are we supposed to do about all this? Jesus summed it up really well, Love God & Love People. If we aren’t loving people then it doesn’t matter how many sins we can point out in the Other. The blame that God gives to the people about the sexual conduct seems to be centered on the community, not the individual so much. If we create a community where people don’t understand Love & love then immorality is going to be played out in numerous ways. We shouldn’t be accusing the Other for the problems of the land; the blame should be riding on [each of] our shoulders. We our responsible for our contribution to the misconstruing of Love & how that is played out in all its forms, from sexuality immortality to immigration.
No. 1 — November 8th, 2008 at 9:29 am
i’ve never heard of religious conservatives being anti-immigration. (i don’t doubt that there are some, just like there are some with that label who picket funerals with “God hates” people signs. but i haven’t heard of them.) my impression is that they generally favor regulation of immigration, and honoring the rules. i think most people, religious conservative or not, agree with that. the main debate is what those rules should be for legal immigration, including how easy to make it and how many people to allow to do it (per unit time).
No. 2 — November 11th, 2008 at 11:26 am
Maybe I missed stated myself by saying that religious conservatives believed in anti-immigration as a plank in their platform; I don’t would say that exactly. But that doesn’t mean that the majority of these group wouldn’t agree on this issue. If anything about your comment struck me strongly it would be the standing behind immigration regulation because it is ‘honoring the rules’. What about what Martin Luther King did? He was honoring a higher law than the one of the land. I think that is what I was trying to get at. It sees we shouldn’t just keep our blinders on and not consider immigration not about legality issues but rather in the spirit of radical hospitality, ala Derrida & Levinas.