How should Christians approach the query of immigration? Given that those that profess faith in Christ span an important range of views on the topic, from Tim Farron to Tommy Robinson, it’s certainly not obvious what the “correct” answer is likely to be.
Making the attempt is Tim Dieppe, writing for the Affinity church network in the most recent edition of its Social Issues Bulletin. Dieppe argues that a distinction must be made between the responsibilities of the federal government and people of the person believer.
The government has an obligation to guard the nation, which definitionally means securing its borders, while odd Christians are commanded to like all who cross their path, each the native and the stranger.
He believes that Christians should take part calling on the federal government to guard the nation’s borders and limit the variety of migrants.
Dieppe states, “A government’s primary responsibility is to guard its residents. This necessarily means limiting who can and can’t cross the border.
“The government has didn’t do that for a few years.
“Christians should join with others in calling for the federal government to properly control our borders for the nice of the country, while at the identical time loving, welcoming, evangelising and having compassion for all immigrants in our local communities.”
As well as basic questions of law enforcement and Christian love, Dieppe also checked out the thorny query of integration, citing the Casey report which found that public institutions were actively undermining efforts at integration, particularly with the Muslim community.
The report stated, “Too many public institutions, national and native, state and non-state, have gone up to now to accommodate diversity and freedom of expression that they’ve ignored and even condoned regressive, divisive and harmful cultural and spiritual practices, for fear of being branded racist or Islamophobic.”
Muslim immigration, Dieppe notes, has presented particular challenges arising from attempts to establish sharia courts, impose effective blasphemy laws, and advance polygamy, in some cases even support terrorism. This contrasts sharply with large numbers of immigrants from Ukraine, Hong Kong, Nigeria and South Korea.
More broadly, assaults and sex crimes by migrants are widely reported within the mainstream media.
Dieppe writes, “Today nobody will say that the issue has gotten any easier or that any sensible steps have been taken to enhance integration. Instead, levels of immigration have increased to levels that nearly everyone agrees are unsustainable.”
Despite the size of the issue, there may very well be a silver lining within the opportunities for evangelism.
“Christians can see the immigration of Muslims to Britain as a unbelievable evangelistic opportunity,” says Dieppe.
“It could be very difficult and even dangerous to be a missionary in an Islamic country so it’s great that they’re coming here where we are able to freely preach the gospel to them!”
He added, “Muslim immigrants are sometimes disillusioned by what they’ve experienced of Islam of their counties of origin. This is an important opening for the gospel, and lots of churches are actually seeing growing numbers of converts from Islam amongst migrant communities.”
Dieppe concluded his argument by calling on Christians to look to the Bible to guide each their individual response and concepts around government policy.
“The Bible has radical ideas that conform to neither left-wing nor right-wing simplistic ideologies. This is a possibility for Christians to talk right into a debate with compassion and conviction demonstrating the enduring relevance of Biblical principles,” he said.
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