DE Thoughts by Kevin Kessler

Leviticus 19:33-34

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: I am the Lord your God. 

The community of Canton has again this year read a book together through an initiative called Spoon River Reads. The book is a classic authored by Willa Cather entitled My Antonia. It is a story about a particular immigrant family from Bohemia who settle in Nebraska, near a little town called Black Hawk. The story depicts the challenges associated with trying to start life in a new country, including the difficulties of learning a new language, developing new relationships, and understanding different customs.

The two main characters in the book are James Quayle Burden, or Jim as he is referred to most often, and Antonia Shimerda. Antonia is the daughter of the Bohemian immigrant family. Jim is a young lad who lived in Virginia but because of the premature death of his parents he goes to live with his grandparents in Nebraska.

The story is actually told from Jim’s perspective. He remembers fondly the friendship that he and Antonia forge as they learned to know each other in their new home of Nebraska. Jim also remembers the difficulty and stress the Shimerda’s, the immigrant family, endured.

Mr. Shirmerda was not a farmer until he came to Nebraska. Learning this new occupation was more than he could handle. The family could not speak English, except for Antonia who spoke a few words. Their one son had a mental disability and the other son was angry. Mrs. Shimerda possessed some rather strange idiosyncrasies. They did not fit in with the other settlers and townspeople, thus they felt alone, isolated, rejected.

The immigrant family was considered alien, strange, foreign, peculiar by their neighbors except for Jim’s grandparents, Josiah and Emmaline Burden. This caring, loving couple looked past the uncommon exteriors of the immigrant family to see the deep needs of a hurting, displaced people. The Burden’s understood the imperatives of Leviticus 19:33-34.

Immigration seems to be of such great concern in our country these days that impatient state governments are passing immigration laws pre-empting the work of federal lawmakers. The legislation being enacted seems to be most concerned with economic issues. The fear is that immigrants, primarily illegal immigrants, are getting a larger slice of the social benefits pie than Americans. The concern is more about economic issues than understanding the reasons people come to this country.

What are the needs of immigrants? What difficulties in their homeland may have forced them to move? War? Loss of work and the inability to support a family? Oppression? Hopelessness? From a Christian perspective, is it not unfair to ask immigrants, even those here illegally, to go back to live in the oppression from which they came?

Doesn’t Leviticus advise to not oppress the alien/ foreigner/stranger/immigrant? Don’t these same verses suggest that we are to love the alien/ foreigner/stranger/immigrant as we love ourselves? The verses also impress upon us that historically we have all been aliens/foreigners/strangers/ immigrants. How were we treated? How would we want to be treated?

Jim and Emmaline Burden give us an example, and an answer.