Preserving the Beauty of our Biblical Foundations as We Face Real Problems: Thinking About Immigration

In Canada, we do have a serious immigration problem. I don’t deny that. I don’t gloss over it.

Yes, I love immigration when it’s done well. I love the beautiful mosaic of cultures that have informed and blessed my life through my vast diversity of friends. Each friend has been a treasure. I am excited to learn from their unique experiences and cultural influences. They bring a sweet balance to my life, broadening my narrow view of the world. My husband is Cambodian, and I couldn’t imagine having it any other way. I have been deeply humbled as I learn about Cambodia, and thrilled by the beauties that this country has (even if much of it has been brought low, due to Pol Pot). I love South East Asian food, and prefer it above any other food in the world! I love being challenged to consider suffering in a far more complex and tragic context than I experience here in Canada and in my own life. I am blessed to live in possibly the most multicultural city in the world. I have celebrated this for most of my life.

However, in the last decade or so, Canada has encountered some problems with immigration. As a lay person, trying to wrap my head around these issues, it looks like there are few things that are at the heart of these problems. Forgive me for where I am bound to fall short in my evaluation as a lay person. Please correct me if I conclude anything erroneously. I did attempt to have conversations with those who are better informed on these matters:

A) More immigrants/visitors/refugees were allowed in by the Trudeau government than our country could handle. Now we are facing economic troubles due to a housing crisis and job crisis. Our medical system cannot handle the increase in population (we don’t have enough doctors, nurses or hospitals, etc). It looks like our jails are overcrowded and can’t handle the increase in population. It seems likely we don’t have enough judges in order to fulfill the need for cases that have come before the courts. Even things like transit, or traffic seem to have been hit hard. The whole system is under pressure. It’s impacting all of us pretty hard. Canada needs to build a bigger and better infrastructure before it tries to add to our population.

B) As I seek to speak to different people and learn more, it does look like more recent immigrants/visitors/refugees and even foreign students are not being vetted properly. Sadly, even terrorists have made it through. Canada has seen a rise in crime. The rise in crime has various causes, not just this one. Please hear me, I am not blaming crime rates on our immigration problems alone! Here are some other factors for the rise in crime: the pandemic and poor mental health in young people; the bad economy; the rise in homelessness; the higher drug addiction rates; and more. However, anyone I speak to, no matter where they are originally from, do not want violent offenders to be allowed to come to Canada. Sadly, this is an area where the Trudeau government dropped the ball. Some of the rise in crime, is possibly due to failure to properly vet newcomers to our country. And we seem to not have enough room in our prisons to keep offenders, and that means they are often released on bail, and back in the streets to offend again. Most people who live in cities are afraid due to the rise of crime.

What Are Some Answers?
I have confessed often that I am not very political. I am very ill-equipped to answer this question. I am praying that people who are well-equipped to solve this problem will work towards good and healthy solutions. 

I do believe we should have non-partisan coalitions working together to put pressure on the government to solve these problems. I think we can even start small, talking to our own neighbours. Most people, no matter who they voted for, are not keen on violent offenders being given the privilege of coming to Canada. I think we need to work together.

What Will Make this Worse?
If we allow our fear and anger to be directed at immigrants instead of the source of the problem: our government’s mishandling of immigration. If we do this, we will cause more problems rather than help the problem. Sadly, I am hearing responses of racism more often than ever before. I know people who believe the only good neighbour is a Caucasian neighbour. This is not true. The best neighbours I have ever had were not Caucasian! What makes a good or bad neighbour is character, not colour of the skin, ethnicity or immigration status. Sadly, we are seeing the recent rise in neo-Nazi fight clubs training for a ‘race-war’ in Canada. There are members of our Canadian military who are white supremacists.  We must be on guard against racism.  

Embracing racism will not fix our immigration problem, but instead will inflame another serious problem. Especially for those of us who are Christians. I am deeply dismayed by Christians who are promoting racist agendas. We are called to love our neighbours. Therefore, let us instead press into getting to know our neighbours, and create a bigger and better coalition to combat the problems that face this country. Let us unite, not divide. Let us have courage, rather than paralyzing fear. 

The Tremendous Beauty of our Biblical Foundations
Let us remember who we are, and what we have been called to:

A) Most of us are Gentiles
Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Gentiles have been grafted in to be called the people of God. If you are not Jewish, you are a Gentile. You were outside of the Covenant that God made with Israel. But in God’s compassion, He has made a New Covenant, one for anyone who would believe in God. If we are Christians, let this be our primary concern, that we give thanks for the kindness of God to graft us in, and to seek to share this glorious news with our neighbours, no matter where they come from. For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. See Romans 11

B) Trials are to be expected
We must not be surprised by trials. We are to respond to trials in faith, and not fear or anger. When we suffer, we partake in the suffering that Christ suffered on our behalf. We are united to Christ as we suffer in faith, glorifying God. Let us be sober-minded! Judgment starts with the household of faith. Let us not be found giving ourselves over to hatred and all other manner evil due to our fear of others. 

“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christs’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” 

~1 Peter 4:12-17

C) Welcome the foreigner and love our neighbours as ourselves
In the final judgment, the Son of Man will receive those who welcomed the foreigner. May we be found as those who love our neighbours and welcomes those who are new to Canada with joy.

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ …Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels… ‘Truly I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.’” ~Matthew 25:31ff

Furthermore, we are called to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, souls, strength and minds, and we are called to love our neighbours as ourselves. May we joyfully pursue this love for God and neighbour. May we love the way Jesus asks us to love, even those who we might have reason to fear (as Samaritans and Jews did). May we press into the heart of mercy, even as we live in complex times. See Luke 10:25-37 (Parable of the Good Samaritan).

Conclusion:
Much of Western Culture has been built on these foundations. This is the air we have breathed. I propose we double down on these foundations, and seek to glorify God by continuing to hold fast to these things. Sadly, I am seeing Christians reject all they have learned of Christ, and seek something else. Let us not forget, judgment comes to the household of God first. May we be found living faithfully for God, even as we seek to navigate complex issues of immigration as well as many other complex issues in our culture.

Yesterday, Gavin Ortlund exhorted believers with a reflection on Galatians 5:15: “But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.”

Ortlund said: “Leftism is the far more anti-Christian option, all other things being equal – it has a very high view of human nature, it says people are basically good and it is the systems and structures that need to be taken down. The oppressor vs oppressed categories are super-imposed on everything. It is far more anti-God. There are real conversations that we need to have. How do Christianity and politics relate? We need to be able to think through this. Some people want to pull Christianity and politics completely apart. But another danger is some using Christianity for politics, and politics is in the driver seat. All of that we need to talk about. But the amount of vitriol and hate in the conversations makes it extremely difficult. It’s extremely important for Christians to think about…how do we conduct conversations? How do we keep from biting and devouring, and sucked into unproductive conversations?”

We live in challenging times. There are real problems with the ‘left’. One probable reason Canada has a serious problem with immigration is because of the high view of human nature in the Trudeau government. They failed to anticipate the depravity of man, and what would happen if many criminally-minded people are allowed to enter our country. They failed to remember we have enough of our own criminally-minded Canadians, and our jails do not have capacity for both our own criminals, and new criminals allowed to come to Canada. I pray that Christians will take this opportunity to unite with their neighbours, and seek to speak sanity to those in government. I also pray that God will prevent the ‘right’ from becoming the more anti-Christian option, if it embraces hatred and cruelty and everything the gospel opposes.

Lord, have mercy.