Christmas Refugees

Did you know that in 1911 a Senator Dillingham reported to congress that “certain kinds of criminality are inherent in the Italian race” and that “the high rate of illiteracy among the new immigrants was due to inherent racial tendencies”? Or that once the railroad was finished, so was our country finished with the Chinese they’d conscripted and enslaved to finish it?

For instance, Californian legislators began passing ordinances designated to drive out the Chinese. They passed bills making it illegal for Chinese to get a business license, to fish, or marry a white person. In Santa Cruz (where I lived for 20 years) there was an ordinance that stated, “No person shall carry baskets or bags attached to poles carried upon backs or shoulders on public sidewalks.” In 1876 a congressional report in order to halt Chinese immigration to the US stated: “There is not sufficient brain capacity in the Chinese race to furnish motive power for self-government,” and, “There is no Aryan or European race which is not far superior to the Chinese.”

Neighborly: Characteristic of a good neighbor, especially helpful, friendly, kind, obliging, helpful, hospitable, civil, generous…

Did you know that prior to 1941 California had on the books a so-called “Anti-Okie Law” which prohibited the bringing of a non-resident “indigent person” into the state? “Every person, firm or corporation, or officer or agent thereof that brings or assists in bringing into the State any indigent person who is not a resident of the State, knowing him to be an indigent person, is guilty of a misdemeanor.” 

Even more nauseating to me are what some U.S. cities called “Ugly Laws,” which made it illegal for persons with repulsive disabilities to appear in public. “No person who is diseased, maimed, mutilated or in any way deformed so as to be an unsightly or disgusting object or improper person to be allowed in or on the public ways or other public places in this city, or shall therein or thereon expose himself to public view, under a penalty of not less than one dollar nor more than fifty dollars for each offense.”

Who are the “Okies” or “Uglies” being detained at our church doors or borders today?

My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. James 2:1-8

Whether at the entrance to our gated communities, at our national borders, or the front door of the church, some feel it their duty to stand guard to keep undesirables from entering the neighborhood. They’ve proven that they don’t know God’s definition of “neighbor,” which includes people from all four corners of the earth, or understand his command to love our neighbors who come from the other corners.

Some people just don’t realize how large the neighborhood is when self-appointed “Neighborhood Watch Groups” stand guard at the border with signs that say, “This is my neighborhood, not yours. You’re not welcome here. Go home!” How does their inhospitable rant differ from the suburban complaint, “There goes the neighborhood!”? Since “the neighborhood” belongs to God, who are we to judge it going anywhere?

“‘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. I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 19:33-34)

If you want to read more on this topic, I recommend both Enrique’s Journey, by Sonia Nazario and Welcoming the Stranger, by Soerens and Hwang.