Day 1: opening argument from John Cavanaugh-O’Keefe
Mr. Parrott rejects the Bible – accidentally but firmly.
The Maryland Dream Act is about education, not immigration. We have students here whose parents are undocumented immigrants, in our schools; and unless there is a huge change in policy somewhere, they are staying. They will be a part of our lives, our neighborhoods, our workforce. I am so pleased they are here! The question is, if they have been here for years, why shouldn’t they get in-state tuition rates for college? Mr. Parrott argues that their parents entered the country illegally, so Maryland taxpayers should not have to pay for them.
Mr. Parrott’s ideas about the rights of immigrants, which affect this education bill, are profoundly opposed to Biblical teaching. Jesus Christ asked in very clear language that his followers welcome immigrants. Many Christians, not just Mr. Parrott and his friends, overlook the clear teaching of Jesus Christ asking that we welcome immigrants. There are three details to this common oversight.
#1: SKIP IT. Most Christians, including people who love Scripture and are pretty familiar with it, make the same interesting mistake about the Last Judgment passage in Matthew 25. About nine people out of ten, recalling Jesus’ words about service, remember that we should feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty and, and … what’s third? Most people simply skip #3, which says: “I was a stranger (or immigrant) and you welcomed me,” so meet my Father. Most people just skip that one, and go on to the next.
There’s nothing particularly awful about forgetting a line in the Bible, as long as you live by it. But if you forget the line and reject the idea, both, that’s a problem.
#2. WATER IT DOWN. When people do remember the third item in the Last Judgment list, they often use a weak translation: “shelter the homeless.” Sheltering the homeless is a great idea, and it is pretty close to what the line says. But if that’s the translation you use, you miss the real message. The original Greek word is xenos, which means a person from another country.
#3. A NEW WORD. Many people rely on an old and very reliable translation, the King James Version, which refers to “strangers.” That was an excellent translation at the time. The problem is, 200 years the KJV was published, a new word came into the language: “immigrant.” With this new word, the old word – stranger – did not always mean the same things it had meant. In 1650, the word stranger was the best word to use for a person from a distant land (“a strange land”). Today, we don’t use the word that way. When we want to talk about people from another country who have come to live here, we call them “immigrants.” The KJV does not say “welcome immigrants,” because the word wasn’t in the language at that time.
Jesus’ words are clear: welcome immigrants.
Mr. Parrott?
