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More than 6M European Jews were systematically murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust. That’s a horrifying figure that has been rightly seared into our public consciousness. What most people don’t realize is the self-proclaimed land of the free and home of the brave had restrictive immigration laws that turned away hundreds of thousands of those exact same Jewish refugees. It’s a classic yet tragic example of social psychology’s bystander effect. It’s also why I place secondary responsibility and guilt for those murders squarely upon the American people.1
What does the Old Testament have to say on this matter? Exodus 22 instructs, “Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt.” Deuteronomy 27 warns, “Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow.” Leviticus 19 declares, “When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt.” You’ll be hard-pressed to find anything but overt hospitality, compassion, and equality.
OK, but what about the New Testament?2 If you require an explicit principle in propositional form, Hebrews 13 echoes the Pentateuch: “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.” As for the narrative teaching, in Matthew 2 an angel intervened to save the infant Jesus from Herod. Lemme make that crystal clear: our Lord fled as a refugee to Egypt. Bear in mind Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 25, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”3
Sometimes the redemptive arc of Scripture bends, morphs, and solidifies over time. Justice and restoration are there but it takes deliberate attention to connect the dots and understand the spirit of the sweeping text.4 However, acceptance and hospitality for foreigners is not one of those complex narrative developments. It’s emphatically there from start to finish with zero ambiguity and quite literally comes to fruition with the Jesus-centered Kingdom ethic of solidarity. As you do unto others, so you do unto Jesus. As you don’t do unto others, so you don’t do unto Jesus.5
The original beatniks identified with the the marginalized, the oppressed, and the desperate. Is there a group that’s more beaten down than refugees? Look, there’s a time to get into the exact definitions and geo-political distinctions between immigrants and refugees, asylum seekers and stateless people, but if those conversations are in any way used as a means of hostility, apathy, or indefinite avoidance then you’re out of sync with The Way of Jesus. Sorry not sorry, but this is another area where there is no wiggle room for political disagreement among Jesus followers.6
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The U.S. fairly easily could’ve saved them and millions more while Europe was in chaos but instead chose policies of isolationism, nativism, xenophobia, antisemitism, and economic security. Just last year Ken Burns did a three-part documentary on The U.S. and the Holocaust. Check it out.↩
Maybe that was one of those old covenant deals, right? After all Leviticus 19 also prohibits trimming your beard, getting tattoos (for the dead), and wearing clothing with blended fabrics woven of two types of material.↩
See: Holocaust, The.↩
This is what happens with women in the Bible, for example.↩
If you oppose radical compassion for and solidarity with immigrants and refugees, then you oppose radical compassion for and solidarity with Jesus. There is no obfuscating. It’s that simple. Don’t give me that America First idiocy. That crap indirectly led to the Holocaust and is an unacceptable way for Jesus followers to think, feel, believe, or behave.↩
The next self-professing Christian who rants to me about white nationalists’ “The Great Replacement” conspiracy theory bullshit is going to challenge my inner commitment to radical nonviolence.↩
