Fuller Immigration Reform March 11.18.13
Photos courtesy of Jonathan Stoner Photography
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On Monday, November 18th, members of the Fuller community—staff, faculty, students, and friends—marched on Pasadena City Hall as a call for immigration reform. It was not an anonymous march; we marched blatantly as evangelicals. Why? A wandering Aramean was our father Abraham, and a famine drove him to live as an immigrant, undocumented and often unwelcomed. Our story as Christians is that of strangers living in a strange land. From Abraham’s coming to Canaan, Joseph living in Egypt, the Israelites taken captive to Assyria and Babylon, and even Christ living in Egypt and Roman-occupied Israel, ours is the story of immigrants. Even now, we live as “strangers and immigrants” in a world where we do not belong (1 Peter 2:11). The immigrant is not simply an immigrant: he or she is a human being. We of all people should recognize that. So we stood up for our voiceless and fearful neighbors who try to earn a better life for themselves, who took seriously the inscription inside the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” May God enlarge our hearts and minds constantly so we may recognize the human being oppressed by the label and fight for their right to breathe free.
“DON’T MISTREAT OR OPPRESS AN IMMIGRANT, BECAUSE YOU WERE ONCE IMMIGRANTS IN THE LAND OF EGYPT.” Exodus 22:21 18
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