While it is true that the Bible has much to say about the humane treatment of strangers in our land, these Scriptural admonitions, like all others, can only be properly interpreted in the light of context and other Scripture. As it is often said, “The best commentary on the Bible is the Bible.” When particular verses are pulled out of context and severed from all other Scripture the inevitable result is heresy. Cults are good examples of the inescapable consequences of such poor exegesis. Though they claim the Bible as their spiritual authority, they are guilty of twisting the Scripture “unto their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:16).
Many Christians make a blanket-application of every Scriptural admonition concerning the treatment of strangers to every foreigner in our land. By doing so, they paint themselves into many precarious corners. For instance, should Exodus 22:21—“But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you”—be applied to foreign Al Qaeda members who have snuck into our country to carryout terrorist attacks? Obviously, such an application of this admonition is not only unscriptural, but absurd; something made abundantly clear elsewhere in Scripture. For example, Nahum 3:13 warns us that our nation will be devoured by fire if “the gates of [our] land shall be set wide open unto [our] enemies.”
The strangers that Scripture admonishes us to treat as our fellow citizens are those willing to be assimilated into our culture, not those antagonistic to it and determined to supplant it with their own (Leviticus 17:8-9; 24:16; Deuteronomy 5:14; Ezekiel 44:9). Contrary to the opinion of today’s multiculturalists, America is not obligated to change its culture, become multilingual, and renounce its Christian heritage in order to accommodate each and every immigrant crossing our borders or coming to our shores. Instead, it is the obligation of all immigrants to assimilate themselves to our culture, learn our language and respect our Christian heritage. Any who refuse to do so should be denied entrance into our land.
No president of the United States ever articulated the Christian position on immigration better than Theodore Roosevelt. On January 3, 1919, Roosevelt said the following about immigration: “In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American. There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag. We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language. And we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."
