A book about my neighbors

I am looking forward to reading Neighbor: Christian Encounters With "Illegal" Immigration. The publisher has sent me a review copy, would you like to publish a review next month?

(el) abolicionista = abolitionist

Pronounced: ah-boh-lee-see-oh-nées-tah
Type: noun
Example: Los abolicionistas eran mayoría en los estados del norte antes de la Guerra Civil.
Translation: The abolitionists formed a majority in the Northern states before the Civil War.

Copyright 2010, GB Blanchard

I get a new Spanish word each day. I thought this one is interesting.

Immigration and Worldview from Chuck Colson

Chuck Colson says we need leaders who act for the common good on immigration. Since we don't have that, he has some suggestions here: Immigration and Worldview. He also has some links to some good resources.

Evangelical mega church looks at immigration issue

Last week, Matthew Soerens, coauthor of Welcoming the Stranger: Justice, Compassion & Truth in the Immigration Debate was interviewed at Willow Creek Community Church near Chicago. Matt does a great job walking through the issues as someone who works as an attorney handling the cases of immigrants and refugees in his work at World Relief. Bill Hybels, pastor at Willow Creek asks some hard questions.

If you are new to this issue and want to learn more, this might be a good place to start. This video is available to watch and listen to on Willow's website here.

The book is available at Amazon:

Books that I recommend: the Bible, Christianity, Immigration, Church

Welcome Back!

Sometimes the conversations about immigration are so full of rancor, I find myself feeling pretty low. Personally, I find very little satisfaction in the small political victories, court decisions or protest. But I am compelled to these things by friendships with real people with whom I work, and worship, who live in my neighborhood. Some recent conversations have left me feeling beat up by the weapon of ignorance. I do not use “ignorance” as a pejorative here. It was fully earned and owned by the person with whom I was speaking when he said he did not care about more information or the perspective of other people because he had already made up his mind. Books were just too hard for this man to read. I am not sure if that is because of a learning disability. A video would just be too much as all those new ideas were unnecessary.

Shortly after that, I stumbled into another conversation that was inviting, kind, and curious. These people were connecting faith, religion and spirituality into a discussion that could have been just as rancorous as the one before.

To that second set of listeners, I recommended, and recommend to you these books that have brought many people to a new understanding of the Bible, faith and immigration. If you are local, I may have a copy that I could loan to you. And, I also have a video that you might enjoy.

This is what I said: “If you want to look at some books on religion (from a Christian perspective) that are positive on the immigration issue, I have a few to recommend. Welcoming the Stranger: Justice, Compassion & Truth in the Immigration Debate by Matthew Soerens and Jenny Wang is an excellent overview of the issues and a Christian perspective that affirms the Bible’s positive words about immigrants. I reviewed this book on Amazon, you can read it and vote for it if you find it useful: Welcoming the Stranger Review. Christians at the Border: Immigration, the Church, and the Bible by M. Daniel Carroll Rodas is a theological book, published by Baker Academic, that focuses first on the Old Testament. Danny is an Old Testament professor at the seminary where I earned my M. Div. Trails of Hope and Terror: Testimonies on Immigration is by Miguel de la Torre and contains deeply personal stories about immigrants walking across the desert. Each chapter has a prayer and/or a poem. This book was deeply moving for me. Miguel's book is published by Orbis Books.” My review of this book appeared in Prism Magazine, a publication of Evangelicals for Social Action.

A new book is coming out later this month that I hope I can recommend: Neighbor: Christian Encounters With "Illegal" Immigration is by Ben Daniel, a pastor from San Jose California.

Again, I did not get into this to win arguments or the be political. It is about love. 

If you read or have read any of these books, I would love to hear from you.

Your ideas matter here! Please leave a comment.