Here's an issue which is really hot in our country right now.  And I do mean hot.  On either side that you try to touch it, you'd better be careful lest you get burned.  There are laws which govern immigration.  That is true.  How well they have been upheld and enforced, well that is another matter.  Obviously not, if it is true that millions of "illegal aliens" are in this country.  Another part of that issue is that many of these persons work for US businesses and corporations which thrive on the "cheap labor' which these illegal immigrants provide.  Some shout loudly that they have taken away jobs which by right should go to legal American workers.  Then American businesses say, "American workers will not work these jobs.  They consider them beneath them, or they are just too lazy to do them.  The illegal immigrants will and do work."

Here is another part of this issue:  The USA is a nation of immigrants.  Story after story could be lifted up proving the success of people who have come here, gotten jobs, worked hard, become naturalized citizens, and made great contributions to our country.  So if you talk about cutting off or restricting immigration, aren't you biting the hand which feeds you, or are you cutting off your nose to spite your face?  Apparently many of our citizens feel not.  They feel that we are being overrun by "foreigners."  The recently failed immigration bill looked to too many of them like an "amnesty" for illegal aliens.

There is another issue here which we do not mention as often.  It is the faith issue.  Full religious liberty is the law of our land.  Anyone can worship according to his/her conscience without interference from government here.  Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians all fought hard for this liberty--each in their own way.  This liberty is enshrined in the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution.  But there is a down side to religious liberty.  That down side is that you and I may live next door to someone who believes totally different from us.  What's the problem?  you may ask.  We who are so accustomed to pluralism may not see this as a problem, but in the days of the Old Testament, God viewed it as a serious problem.  In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses was instructing the "new generation" who were about to enter the Promised Land.  They had not been at Sinai when Moses came down from the mountain with the Law.  They needed to be taught before they went over.  One of the things Moses warned about was the people who already were in the land.  Seven nations were there.  The children of Israel were to drive them out and destroy their religious apparatus.  Why?  God did not want any of these groups to cause the children of Israel to lapse from their worship of the only true God.  You can worship God more easily if everyone around you worships Him, also.

We cannot drive out people who believe differently from us, but we can and we must be on our guard; else, we will be like the children of Israel in the Promised Land.  We will become as pagan as the neighbors who have influenced us to leave off following God.  We must be on our guard and know what we believe.  Do you?  Really?  If a Buddhist, HIndu, Muslim came up to you and challenged your belief in God, would you be able to stand and answer them?  I guarantee you they know what they believe.  In the second place, we must not be intimidated by those who believe differently from us.  We must know what we believe and we must stand up to them and not let them brow beat us or convert us.  Then in the third place, we need to learn in some detail what they believe.  Why?  So that we can be "good witnesses."  We are to be a lighthouse to the nations of the world, even when they are in our own community or in our own neighborhood.  We can't make a credible witness unless we know what they believe.  We must buy their holy books and learn what they believe.  When we make a counter witness to theirs, then we are not only standing our guard, but we are being  aggressive in return.  The rate of Muslims becoming Christians on the continent of Africa right now is increasing.  It does happen.  It must happen.  You and I must be a part of this worldwide effort.

You didn't bargain for all of that when you clicked on this column, but I feel very deeply that this is where we are on this issue.  I don't hate anybody or any people group.  I am concerned about belief systems, and I don't want my country to become Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, etc.  I am Christian, unapologetically so, and I want my country to become more instead of less Christian.  Within the freedoms, guidelines, and laws of this land, that is what I intend to do with the rest of my life.