Summary Of Christian's At The Border

The book Christian’s at the Border by M. Daniel Carroll R. is about immigration and the views that people have on it with the influence of the church and the Bible. The purpose that Carroll wants to make with his book is for Christian’s to take a look at immigration thinking about it in a Christian perspective. Often, people take an ideological view on things, but do not take the time as Christian’s to view it in a Christian way and the way that the Bible states things. I am pretty sure that there will and are those that disagree with what Carroll states in his book. In the beginning of the book, he states “my intention is to try to move Christians to reconsider their starting point in the immigration debate” (Carroll, xxv). This is important because people are often confused or do not know how to approach the topic of immigration.
Carroll begins chapter one by talking about the immigration and the beginning of it.
“Immigration is neither a new phenomenon nor only a recent political concern” (Carroll, 5). Immigration is something that has been around for years and years, but it is only now being something that is becoming more relevant because of the things that are happening, especially with the Executive Order. As the reading continues, he brings in the Old Testament and what parts of scriptures relate to the issues that are brought up from immigration. The first scripture that he refers to is Genesis 1, “above all else, immigration is the movement of people across borders. The bottom line is that it concerns humans: their worth, destiny, rights, and responsibilities” (Carroll, 45). People forget that people are moving across borders from one country to another one where they know nothing about it. Being able to recognize that they are actual people, and then we are able to try to understand why it is they are doing what they are
doing.
One of the Old Testament stories that were talked about was the story of Beth. Beth moved into a completely new town after her husband passed away. Her mother in law, Naomi, came back to her homeland, but Beth was an immigrant. Beth had to go to the fields to work to be able to provide for herself and her mother-in-law. Eventually, Beth’s hard work paid off because she was accepted into this new town where she is a foreigner and able to thrive. This is closely related to immigration that happens today because people are coming to foreign land where they do not know anything or anyone in hope that they are one day accepted by the people that lived there first. Carroll then continues to speak on scripture and goes on to talk about how there are no direct teachings about immigration in Gospel. “The decisions that are made and courses of action that are recommended should be commensurate with the life of Jesus—his actions, his teachings, his cross” (Carroll, 133).
Immigration is a controversial topic because many do not take the time to get informed about the topic and see what they can do contribute. Carroll does a great job in addressing the main problem that is going on with immigration and that is that people are so quick to judge them and not take the time to get to know them and see if they are truly genuine people or if they are as some refer to them “criminals.” Being a Christian means that you should have your heart open to accept others regardless their nationality, race, or religion. As followers of God, we should be like him and accept others as they are. Immigration happens for various reasons, and we should take the time to get to know those problems before we are so quick to “send them back.” The world is ever changing and there are going to be people that immigrate to the United States and other regions to be able to escape the problems that are happening in their home country or simply to provide a better life for their family. People pick up their things and migrate all the time, now we as Christians should accept or try to accept them into our community and see what we can do to better the situation.