God and the Illegal Alien

Christian identity, the racialized migrant and the development of virtue: extending Robert Heimburger’s account of neighbours and borders

“…To a certain extent, it is a case of determining who we are by establishing who we are not, by identifying the they that makes us a we. Citizen status establishes the US we: 'status before the law makes all the difference for ordinary life in the US', 2 not status before Christ. Heimburger reminds Christians that their membership in the nation of the United States of America may stand in tension with membership in the body of the Christ, especially in relation to migrants as neighbours.…”

“…As the Church, Christians claim a heritage of physical and spiritual migrancy as sojourning settlers, through the story of God with Israel, and through Paul, 'the migrant missionary, the alien apostle'. 3 Heimburger argues that the Christian pilgrim's way is -should be -one of drawing together. The firstcentury Gentiles gained their Christian identity by being physically and spiritually drawn together with, grafted onto, Israel through Christ.…”

“…The Church struggles, today as ever, to remember how its identity as adopted by Christ can cooperate with national identity determined by legal citizenship. He recommends that the nation state should exercise a humbler authority, and the already settled Christians should attend more closely to 'solidarity with migrants', 4 'fellow human creatures and neighbours', 5 near national borders.…”