What Does the Bible Say About Immigration? A Holy Cross Professor Explains

Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Southern Baptist Convention have used religious arguments to make opposing points about how the issue should be handled.

So what does the Bible say? College of the Holy Cross scholar and Associate Professor of Religious Studies Mathew Schmalz examined that issue more than a year ago, in an article for The Conversation.

Schmalz said the Bible is unambiguous in affirming the obligation to treat strangers with dignity and respect.

"As Matthew 25 makes clear, the Christians should see everyone as 'Christ' in the flesh. Indeed, scholars argue that in the New Testament, 'stranger' and 'neighbor' are in fact synonymous," Schmalz wrote. "Thus the Golden Rule, 'love your neighbor as yourself,' refers not just to people whom you know – your 'neighbors' in a conventional sense – but also to people whom you do not know."

Schmalz, an expert on the papacy and the founding editor of the Journal on Global Catholicism, has published opinion pieces in Newsweek, Salon, the Washington Post, Commonweal Magazine, and The National Catholic Reporter.

"It is true that the application of biblical principles to contemporary matters of policy is less than clear to the many Christians who have taken opposing sides regarding how the United States should deal with immigrants, undocumented workers and refugees," Schmalz wrote. "However, in my reading of the Bible, the principles regarding welcoming the stranger are broad-reaching and unambiguous."

Read the entire piece at The Conversation.