Bible and Immigration

Questions for Individual Reflection/Group Discussion: 

Dr. Baden begins the lecture reminding us that in Genesis, the stranger is not defined by nationality, rather by their language, particular gods, and geography. 

• In what ways does our current context of living in a world made up of “nations” lead us to misunderstand the Bible in its cultural context?
• What kinds of differences are obscured today by the way in which we categorize people by nationality when we cross borders or immigrate? 
• In what ways does defining people by nationality limit our thinking about the identity of “the stranger” in our country? 

Journal and/or discuss your reflections.

Questions for Individual Reflection/Group Discussion: 

God says that God will judge others by how they treat Abraham. 

• What do you think this text is emphasizing with this particular language? 
• How would you explain to someone else how to interpret that in a contemporary setting?

Journal and/or discuss your reflections.

Dr. Baden summarizes, “Genesis is the story of an immigrant family, in a land of their sojourning;” Abraham is always the outsider…” 

• What is compelling to you about the Bible’s account of the immigrant experience in Genesis? 
• Do you identify with Abraham as an outsider? Why or why not? Who are the outsiders in your community? And how are they treated by their neighbors? 

Journal and/or discuss your reflections.

Questions for Individual Reflection/Group Discussion: 

In Genesis, Abraham and his family were consistently treated hospitably in the land of their sojourning – although Abraham was worried that he would be treated poorly.

●     How has Genesis set up expectations for how a stranger is to be treated in someone else’s land? Why is this important in the text? What is the role of the land itself?
●     How does this reflect immigrant experiences that you are familiar with today? ●     Do you or your family have an immigrant identity?

Journal and/or discuss the story that your family tells about your relationship to the land where you live now.

Questions for Individual Reflection/Group Discussion: 

Dr. Baden introduces this section saying,“If in Genesis we find the positive models for how to treat the immigrant, in Exodus we get the strong counter example…” 

• What rhetoric have you heard about restricting immigration that has seemed persuasive or important to you? 
• What leaders can you name in the Bible whom you would estimate governed by fear? 
• When have you noticed governing through fear in our country’s leadership? 
• Can you think of parallels to the Exodus immigrant experience and what immigrants experience today? 

Journal and/or discuss your reflections.

Questions for Individual Reflection/Group Discussion: 

“On multiple levels, the Exodus is the embedding of cultural memory and cultural praxis. The identity of Israel as a stranger in a foreign land…determines how Israel, when it comes into its own territory, is to treat the stranger in its midst.” 

• When you think about the Biblical stories in Exodus, including: the Pharaoh who did not know Joseph, the midwives who saved baby Moses, the plagues, and the 40 year journey in the wilderness etc; what wisdom do they convey about immigrant experience? 
• “When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not wrong him. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” (Leviticus 19:33-34) Why is it important that Egypt is the frame of reference for this law? 

Journal and/or discuss your reflections.

Questions for Individual Reflection/Group Discussion: 

“Israel, even in its own land, retains the identity of the stranger…” Dr. Baden emphasizes that in its own land, the children of Israel continue to hold the identity of immigrants; God owns the land, and the children of Israel are sojourners there. 

• How does removing direct ownership of the land affect the identity of the children of Israel? 
• How does removing direct ownership of the land change their relationship to the land? 
• How do you think about the ownership of the land that you live on? And the ownership of the land that your parents or grandparents lived on? Is there anything that troubles you about the ownership of your family’s land? 

Journal and/or discuss your reflections.

Questions for Individual Reflection/Group Discussion: 

The New Testament goes on to develop the themes of refugees, migrants, and immigrants. Jesus and his family become refugees when they flee to Egypt in Matthew 2, Stephen’s sermon in Acts 7 recounts the story of migration and refuge in the wilderness, and the prologue to the Gospel of John develops the theology of incarnation as a migration of God from heaven to earth. 

• In your view, why does the New Testament center the experience of the outsider? 

In your journal or in discussion list instances of encounters with outsiders in the New Testament. Discuss and/or record your reflections. 

Questions for Individual Reflection/Group Discussion: 

Dr. Baden reviews Biblical laws and admonitions on how the stranger is to be treated in Israel, and corollaries in New Testament teaching and writings. 

• What stands out to you in this series of laws and teachings about how immigrants are to be treated? 
• Why does the Bible emphasize cursing for those who do not treat the stranger well, such as in Deuteronomy 27:19 “Cursed be he who subverts the rights of the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow”?
• How do you think about the final purpose “the eschaton” that includes a unity of the nations? Is that something you work towards? If so, how? 

Journal and/or discuss your answers.

The Bible and Immigration Full Lecture

Scripture on Immigration and the Stranger

Links to other YDS webinars or content

Revelation of John and Immigration