Maybe the people of Murietta are just too many miles from the Lady of the Harbor.

Maybe in their comfortable Southern California town, far away from Liberty’s statue, it’s just too easy to forget that we’re all immigrants.; and that even the men (yes, men) who signed the declaration we celebrate this day were also all immigrants. (Or the sons of them).

I’m ashamed of Murietta, frankly. Yes, ashamed. We are better than this, America.

The young children who are flocking to our shores are doing to for just the same kinds of desperate reasons that our forebearers did. It takes a special kind of desperation for a mother and father to willingly allow their children to travel to a foreign land by themselves.

Unlike the reaction these children got in Murietta, I for one look forward to some of them coming to Dallas, and trust that the good folks of Northaven will be eager to work with Judge Jenkins and others to do our best to welcome to stranger.

Even if you find yourself angered by Murietta, we must remember that their short-term memory problems are present in every American generation. In previous eras, the children of immigrants screamed about the scourge of the Irish, the Italians, the Jews.

But our short memory loss goes back even farther. It goes all the way to Biblical times. When God said to the people of Israel:

“When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.“ Leviticus 19:33

You can find dozens of passages in the Bible that say exactly the same thing. You can find an extended blog from me about the clear call of the Christian God to welcome the immigrant, the alien, and the foreigner here.

In fact, I’ve done a lot of blogging on immigration issues and Christian faith. You can read them here.

Note the part of that scripture that I’ve underline. God call us to embrace and welcome the immigrant “because you were aliens in the land of Egypt.”

It’s well established that there was no distinguishing between “illegal” and “legal” in Biblical times. That is a distinction the Bible does not care about.

So, today, on this Fourth of July, I have two things running around my brain.

The two things are the picture from Murietta along with a song from my friends Brother Sun.” Brother Sun is a great trio of my friends, Joe Jencks, Pat Wictor, and Greg Greenway. The song is “Lady of the Harbor.” Give it a listen:

The final verse calls out to me today, on this July 4th:

“And will the dream, survive the strain?
Will huddled masses have the chance to learn it’s sweet refrain?
Or will we fall, into our fear, and turn our backs upon The Lady of the Harbor?”

Good questions.

She still calls to us. Our faith still calls to us.

Shine on, O You Lady of the Harbor.