At first, this may seem like clickbait. It’s not meant to be, though it will probably get people’s attention, not to mention their ire. But I’ve grown extremely frustrated—to the point of anger—at the way so-called Christians/Evangelicals are treating this immigration issue. I’m especially pissed at the Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, who is at the forefront, leading the most egregious abuse of immigrants in this country.
I usually lay out my case and then provide the evidence I use to support my thesis, but I will start with the primary evidence at the top. Then I’ll lay out my case to show that I’m not just being hyperbolic, but that, according to Abbot’s Bible, he can be called a sodomite. The reason I use this term is they find nothing so disgusting as a sodomite. And somehow, we’ve got to get it through to them how disgusting their actions (and beliefs) are.
Let’s start with Ezekiel as he rails against the sins of Israel, particularly Judea, and the sins committed in the Temple.
“Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty and committed abomination before me: therefore, I took them away as I saw good.”
(Ezekiel 16:49)
Jesus himself may have believed this to be the case when he gave this command to his disciples:
“Whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when you depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of our feet. Verily I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city.”
Matthew 10:14-15, Luke 10:10-12
Note: The story of Sodom and Gomorrah likely had nothing to do with homosexuality. See Franklin Graham and the Real Sin Jesus Came to Abolish for a full discussion.
And now, I’ll lay out my hypothesis.
For several years, we’ve watched as men like Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, with the support of Evangelicals across the country, have been committing abominations toward immigrant populations, starting with caging children and tearing them away from their families.
During the Trump years, ICE sought out and arrested mothers and fathers, deporting them and once again rending parents away from their children. Then, these governors started dabbling in human trafficking, shipping immigrants to cities like New York, Chicago, and Martha’s Vineyard (cities that opened their arms to the immigrants) in the middle of winter with no warning that they were coming. Then, of course, there was the incident where the border guards watched as a mother and her children drowned in the Rio Grande and refused to lift a hand to help them.
Finally, the latest salvo in this atrocity is the raising of razor wire along the border to make sure that actual physical damage is done to any who might try to enter our country “illegally” from Mexico, which has even taken a more dangerous turn. The Governor is defying a Supreme Court order to remove the wire and has ordered the National Guard to continue adding the wire.
Among Evangelicals, there is an intense hatred toward immigrants, even though most of us are immigrants to this country. Evangelicals know this, and yet they still don’t care. Their hatred blinds them. They’ve even made up words for them. For instance, “illegals.” This is ironic since Jesus was illegal in the land of Egypt, according to Matthew. We were illegals when we first arrived in this country.
Evangelicals love to call themselves “Bible-believing,” all the while ignoring everything the Bible says. To be clear, treating the immigrant is not an abstract construct. It’s laid out clearly throughout the Bible. There are enough scriptures that make it clear that what Greg Abbott and the Evangelicals are doing is anti-God—anti-Christ—making them sodomites (going back to my original thesis).
I’ll start with the story of Ruth, the penultimate immigrant. Ruth is a widow who chooses to join her mother-in-law Naomi when she returns to Israel:
Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.
Ruth 1:16
She marries an Israelite (from the tribe of Judah) named Boaz.
At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She asked him, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me—a foreigner?
Ruth 2:10
According to Luke and Matthew, Ruth would become the great-grandmother of the greatest king of Israel, King David—who would ultimately become the patriarch of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Jesus, the illegal of Egypt.
Ruth is not the only immigrant. Abraham is an immigrant. Jacob is an immigrant. Joseph is an immigrant—though a forced immigrant. The Israelites themselves were immigrants—who did to the Canaanites what we did to the Native Americans. Lot was an immigrant to Sodom—treated the way Gregg Abbot would treat an immigrant to Texas.
Luke, in Acts, emphasizes what Jesus told us, that we are all one flesh.
From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.
Acts 17:26
That is the most important story. We’re all Adamites, according to Genesis. Aside from that little bon mot, the Bible has many mandates as to how Israel must handle immigrants, strangers, refugees, and asylum seekers—in other words, other Adamites.
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8
You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 10:19
Rewritten:
You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in America.
Continuing:
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: I am the Lord your God.
Leviticus 19:34
‘Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow.’ Then all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’
Deuteronomy 27:19
I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy, and I championed the cause of the stranger. I broke the fangs of the unrighteous, and made them drop their prey from their teeth.
Job 29:15-17
Rewritten:
I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy, and I championed the cause of the stranger. I broke the fangs of the Evangelicals and made them drop their preying on the immigrants from their teeth.
Continuing:
For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors forever and ever.
Jeremiah 7:5-7
I think you’re starting to get the picture. God has little tolerance for xenophobia, racism, nationalism (one might add “patriotism”), discrimination, and violence toward “the least of these,” as Jesus called them.
Am I saying there’s not a problem along our borders? Of course not. We’ve got challenges. But right now, we’ve got MAGA Jesus saying of them (reminiscent of Hitler): “They’re poising the blood of our nation. While calling on Republicans in Congress to oppose Biden’s bill, they are also violating God’s commandments toward the treatment of immigrants. And ironically, Evangelicals embrace his rhetoric—over God. Whereas Jesus would look at those coming through our borders through the lens of compassion. Through the lens of compassion, we can find a way to handle the challenge without bringing harm to actual humans—those whom Jesus loved.
I call Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis sodomites because we’ve got to stop tiptoeing around this issue. Words matter; we must call these people out for what they are. They have nothing to do with God, but even worse, they are everything God despises in a human being. And we’ve got to stop pretending they have the right to “believe.” By calling them what they are (what Ezekiel called them), we narrow their playing field and force them to deal with who they’ve become and who they’ve sold their soul to (hint: Satan). We’re staring down the barrel of the most virulent anti-Jesus group of people in American history, and they want to turn America into an intolerable dictatorship completely devoid of Christian love. Jesus saw this in his day, and we see it now.
And like Jesus, we must do our best to stop it. Will we succeed? Jesus didn’t, but it didn’t stop him from trying. We’re staring down the barrel of an autocracy, and we all know how that will end. The current front-runner of the Republican Party—as well as his minions—wants to create a world devoid of Jesus and compassion, all the while trying to mask their evil deeds as “Christian.”
Words matter. Yes, it sounds hyperbolic and over the top, but only when they’re called what they truly are will they finally realize what they truly are.