All ten Democratic presidential candidates raise their hands to indicate their agreement when asked if their government healthcare plan would cover for undocumented (i.e. illegal) immigrants. The Democrats have become the party of immigration treason. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
– Deut. 10:19
If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.
– 2 Thess. 3:10
“Raise your hand if your government plan would provide coverage for undocumented immigrants,” asked moderator Savannah Guthrie to the ten assembled Democratic presidential candidates. All ten raised their hands in support.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) regularly lectures Americans on their supposed obligation to provide for foreigners via their tax dollars. One recent example from this organization can be found in a June 26, 2019 press release, where the bishop’s tell us, “Congress has a duty to provide additional funding to address the needs of children in federal custody.”
Another example of the Roman Catholic Church-State’s (RCCS) belief that immigrants, migrants and refugees are entitled to the support of American taxpayers is a letter from Catholic Charities opposing the Trump administration’s proposed rule change that would bar legal immigrants from getting green cards – a green card allows an immigrants to live and work permanently in the US – if they have received certain types of public assistance.
The notion that immigrants – legal and illegal – are entitled to taxpayer support is not limited to Roman Catholics and secular liberal Democrats. Organizations that claim to represent Evangelicals say much the same thing. For example, lest one thing that the USCCB and the liberal Democrats are alone in demanding American citizens be taxed for the benefit of foreigners, the Evangelical Immigration Table (EIT) voiced its objections. In their objection, the writers at EIT call for an immigration policy that prioritizes “the unity of the immediate family.” Since, in the eyes of EIT, the public charge law could lead to separation of families, it must be opposed.
In the four examples cited above, there is an assumption, sometimes implicit, at other times explicit, that there is a Christian, or at least a moral, obligation on the part of Americans to be taxed by their government to provide entitlement benefits to foreigners. One will often hear supporters of this view quote the Bible in support. For example, the liberal “Evangelical” organization Sojourners has a page on its website 22 Bible Verses on Welcoming Immigrants. Given Sojourners’ socialist politics, the implication is that, of course, immigrants (legal and illegal), migrants and refugees are entitled to welfare benefits.
But is Christian charity the same thing as government welfare? No, it is not. And if not, then the demands of the USCCB, Catholic Charities, the Democratic presidential candidates, EIT and Sojourners, that American taxpayers pick up the welfare tab for foreign citizens, some of whom are in the country illegally, hold no water.
Christian Charity is Not Government Welfare
The conspicuous lack of a welfare state in ancient Israel is a major problem for those, who – as do the Democrats, the RCS and various confused Protestants – demand that American citizens underwrite the cost of so-called entitlements for foreigners.
Israel had no Department of Housing and Urban Development, no EBT cards, and no Medicaid. In short, there was no public dole for anyone – either Israelite or sojourner – to go on.
Now someone may ask, “What about all the verses in the Bible about welcoming the stranger and remembering the orphan and the widow?” Yes, there are quite a few verses to this effect. Here are a few more passages that Sojourners did mention:
- When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. And you shall not glean your vineyards, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger; I am the LORD your God (Lev. 19:9-10).
- When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field when you reap, nor shall you gather any gleaning from your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the strangers: I am the LORD your God (Lev. 23:22).
- When you reap your harvest in your field, and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get bit; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over the boughs again; it shall be for teh stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it afterward; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this thing (Deut. 24:19-22).
So don’t these verses, all which command the Israelites to leave something of their harvest for the poor and the stranger, justify the welfare state and obligate Americans to support foreigners – whether in the country legally or illegally – with their tax dollars. No, they do not.
One important point to keep in mind is that, while these are commandments of the Lord and violating them was a sin, there were no civil penalties attached to any of these injunctions. The Bible makes a distinction between sins and crimes. The way you can tell the difference is whether civil penalties apply. Stealing was both a sin – it was prohibited in the eighth commandment – and a crime – it was punishable in the law of Moses.
There was no bureaucracy in Israel set up to go around and inspect whether farmers were adhering to the “anti-gleaning laws” found in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. There were no fines imposed upon the vineyard owner who gleaned. For him to do so was a sin, but it was not a crime.
Contrast this with the modern welfare state advocated by Democrats, the RCS and confused Protestants. Do American taxpayers have the ability to opt out of paying for these programs. No they do not? Try it sometime and sooner or later you’ll find yourself on the business end of a government gun.
What about hospitals and schools? Hospitals are already required to provide services to all, regardless of immigration status. If they don’t, they will find themselves on the business end of the government gun.
The same goes with schools. The federal government mandates that local school districts provide education to all children, regardless whether they are the children of illegal immigrants. If they don’t, they will find themselves on the business end of a government gun.
Unlike the charity called for in the law of Moses, the modern welfare state is a socialist institution that takes by force the property of one man and gives it to another. This is the nature of government welfare. It is not Christian charity, which is voluntary, but theft.
Another nail in the coffin of the socialists is Paul’s command to the Thessalonians. He wrote, “If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.” There is no command in the Bible for Christians to support those who will not work to support themselves.
With this one command, Paul upends the entire modern welfare state’s notion of entitlement. No man is entitled to the property of another except as punishment for a crime. There is no support in Scripture for entitlement programs – whether for citizens or illegal aliens – that allow one man to live at the expense of another.
Altruism, the idea that need – whether it be the need of a citizen or the need of a legal or illegal immigrant – gives one an entitlement to the property of another, is a concept foreign to the Scriptures.
Christian Charity is Private Charity
Christian charity is always private charity. We can see this is the parable of the Good Samaritan. Here was a man who voluntarily gave of his own time and money to help a stranger in need. The Good Samaritan put himself in danger just by attempting the rescue. After all, the brigands who committed the original crime could still be in the area. He inconvenienced himself by diverting from his business trip to take the wounded victim to a town, and then he bore the cost of lodging and care of the man.
This was a private act of charity. No one forced the Good Samaritan to do what he did. And whatever giving was done was given from his own resources, not from government coffers.
As Christians, we are commanded to do our giving voluntarily in the name of Christ. But there is nothing voluntary or in the name of Christ when it comes to the welfare state. Socialism is all brute force. It’s all about the government gun. “Give us your money our we’ll come take it from you,” is the language of the bureaucrat, not the language of Christ.
Conflating Government Welfare with Christian Charity
The dishonesty of the Democrats, the RCS and the confused Protestants at EIT and Sojourners is that they attempt to conflate the notions of government welfare and Christian charity, speaking of them as if there were the same thing.
Christian charity is voluntary, given from one’s own resources and done in the name of Christ. Government welfare in involuntary, takes from the resources of others, and is done in the name of some socialist theorist, Karl Marx for example.
Shifting the Focus
The various socialists mentioned in this post are masters at shifting the focus. They draw your attention to what they want you to see, and leave out those things they don’t want you to think about.
For example, the USCCB and EIT both like to beat their breasts, rend their garments and decry the conditions in migrant detention centers, especially as it affects children. They then follow their cries of outrage with a demand that more taxpayer funds be given to improve conditions in these centers. What they don’t want you to consider, however, is the distinct possibility that making the detention centers nicer than they are just may further incentivize people to do what they shouldn’t be doing in the first place: illegally entering the United States and then falsely applying for asylum as persecuted individuals.
Further, the USCCB, Catholic Charities, EIT and Sojourners don’t want to you start asking whether the massive, unchristian and unconstitutional American welfare state may lie at the root of the migrant crisis in the first place. Ask yourself this, if there were no free goodies for asylum seekers, would there be more of them, or fewer of them? Quite obviously, there would be fewer.
If you’re curious about what sort of benefits are available to asylees and refugees, to the federal government’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) website, asylee’s may be eligible to receive, “cash and medical assistance, employment preparation and job placement, and English language training.
But it doesn’t stop with this. What happens if an asylee has a child while in America? That child is automatically considered and American citizen opens up a whole new world of possibilities for the asylee to claim welfare benefits on behalf of the child.
The USCCB, Catholic Charities, the Democrats, EIT and Sojourners don’t want you to think about any this. No. They want to sell you a sob story and then lecture you about your supposed obligation to fork over your hard earned money. After all, it’s what Jesus would do, right?
Nonsense.
The welfare state is immoral and unconstitutional when its limited to Americans. How much more is this the case when foolish presidential candidates and corrupt nominal Christians seek to make the American people foot the welfare bill for all the world?
Closing Thoughts
It is this author’s contention that the conflation of the welfare state with Christian is among the most pernicious lies of the proponents of the mass, nation-breaking migration seen both in Europe and in America.
When immigration patriots say “enough is enough” when it comes to welfare for foreigners, some wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing is always standing at the ready, prepared to lecture them about how the Bible enjoins Christians to “welcome the stranger.” As has been shown above, this is nonsense. There is no command from Christ to put migrants on the public dole. And to say that there is is simply an attempt to guilt Christians into allowing their nations to be overrun by welfare seeking migrant hordes.
Were this to happen, not only would it be disastrous for the citizens of the United States and other capitalist (or at least semi-capitalist) nations, but it would not even good for the migrants in the long run. For if the altruists among the liberals and pseudo Christians get their way, the capitalist nations of the world soon will sink beneath the weight of unlimited welfare demands and end up in the same dire straits as the nations the migrants fled in the first place.
The Bible tells us that the only jobs of the civil magistrate are to punish evil doers and to praise the good. There is no Biblical command for governors to provide housing, education, medical care, food stamps or any of the other accoutrements that the socialists tell us people are entitled to.
The very term “government entitlement” is a lie.
The welfare state is not only unbiblical, it’s also, at least in America, unconstitutional. As such, it is incumbent up the government, not only to not increase benefits for migrants, asylees, refugees and immigrants, but actually to cut them.
It is bad enough that American taxpayers are robbed to provide welfare benefits for their fellow Americans. It is far worse still when Americans are robbed to provide welfare to foreigners, some of whom are in violation of American immigration law.
It is way past time for Americans, in particular American Christians, to demand an end to the great immigration welfare scam.
Lux Lucet 