The current chapter in that book I mentioned yesterday is titled "The Alien Among You" and discusses how the church should deal with aliens, especially illegal. While the book was published in 1998, could there be a more relevant topic in our culture today? The author takes the stand that the church must reach out to these people, love them, help them gain citizenship, etc. He quotes an article by Joe Maxwell referencing a raid in a Latino neighborhood where the church members were concerned about their future and whether the church would sell them out, but the pastor reassured them by preaching "This is not the office of immigration... It is the house of God and the door of heaven." Along with that he cites how difficult it is to gain citizenship in America today and that since the new immigrants are brown and not white, we are less hospitable to them.

One of the problems I have (had?) with this is that I would like those from different countries to enter legally and not use our government, as reports show that many do. (Of course, not all however.) Reports also show that the illegals commit a higher perecentage of crimes and use up public resources of which they don't contribute to. However, the thought also entered my mind that it shouldn't be the churches duty to worry about this, our duty is to love and build up. Maybe if we did a better job of that the government wouldn't have to worry so much about them as they wouldn't be doing things illegally and would be carrying their share of the burden in society. This is one of many areas the church needs to separate from government.

Another area, also discussed in the book, is the way Christians don't consider marriage valid unless it is blessed by the state. How absurd! Marriage is from the Lord! Sure, there are tax and other benefits of one's marriage being considered by the state, but beyond that, if a pastor wants to marry a couple and the state says no, God's Word trumps that and it should happen and is valid. A good example is that a couple we know is from Ghana and they are considered married in Ghana but not in America. I could care less, they are married in my eyes.