Biblical ethics, government, and refugees

By Jesse Johnson - Posted at The Cripplegate:

Relevant Magazine recently ran a post called “What the Bible says about how to treat refugees.” To help you understand where they are coming from, remember that Relevant seems to exist primarily to tie Christian ethics to whatever cause célèbre has captured the kids these days. The list was frustrating to read not because of what it said, but what it omitted (to spare you the click, the gist is that Christians should open their boarders to refugees).

But the actual refugee problem runs deeper than that, and it is yet another evidence of the juvenilization of evangelical thought that actual theologians think the issue of Syrian refugees should be settled by pointing to Levitical law about letting foreigners reap in your grain field.

At risk of sounding pedantic, this is a complex issue with competing interests and ethics. Namely:

Christian ethics in government?

First, should governments exercise Christian ethics? If in the context of a debate about a bill in Congress regulating refugees from Syria, a person is going to argue that Levitical Law should guide us, does that mean that Congress should be influenced by the Bible’s ethics?

I say yes, Congress should be guided by biblical ethics. But I couldn’t help but notice that people making the “Leviticus says you should receive refugees” argument were—only a few weeks ago—saying that government workers were not supposed to follow their religion whilst on the clock. Remember Kim Davis?

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