Ruth 1:1-18

Have you ever “left home”? Most of us can relate in some way to the theme of  “leaving home,” perhaps to go away to school, enter the work force or to start a home of our own. Some people leave not only their home, but their home country. Some leave their homeland in search of a better life, or perhaps even for survival. As we hear the story of Naomi and Ruth, we learn that a famine in Judah has caused Naomi to leave the home of her birth to live in Moab, a country foreign to her. We can imagine that Naomi must have felt the hardship of learning to live in a new culture, learning a different language, and feeling like an outsider.

Over the years of living in this new land, Naomi’s two sons take Moabite wives, Orpah and Ruth. With the death of Naomi’s husband and ten years later the loss of her two sons as well, there must have seemed no reason to remain in this foreign land. So as Naomi prepares to make the trek back to her homeland, we can imagine her surprise when her daughter-in-law Ruth implores her to allow her to return with Naomi to Judah, even though Ruth is a Moabite, an ethnic group hated by those who thought of themselves as “people of God.” Something about the God Naomi worshipped has captivated Ruth, and she is willing to give up her homeland to come to this new country, a place where she could well face rejection and be labeled a foreigner.

These two courageous women, each with her own circumstance, become aliens in a strange land. However, in Naomi’s homeland, the legislation of the Torah governed the treatment of foreigners. Aliens were categorized along with widows and orphans, those who had no right to own land, and thus had no livelihood. These marginalized groups depended upon the generosity and concern of those who did have the means of production. The law required farmers to be less than one-hundred-percent efficient in their harvesting, leaving part of the crops in the field and thus allowing aliens, widows and orphans a means for survival.

Not only did the law give foreigners a way to survive with some measure of dignity, it commanded the people of Israel to treat aliens living in their midst as some of their own “native-born,” admonishing them to “love them as yourself,” and reminding them that they, too, were once foreigners in Egypt (Leviticus 19:34).  Exodus 22:21-22 echoes this reminder of the time when all of Israel were aliens in Egypt, forbidding any mistreatment or oppression of aliens. Even though Ruth was not a native-born “citizen” of this adopted land, she was to be afforded certain protections under the law that ensured her survival.

Stories such as the one of Naomi and Ruth challenge us to consider how “aliens” are treated in these United States, the country whose Liberty Bell proudly displays the text, “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all the inhabitants thereof” (Leviticus 25:10).

Recently I attended a day-long sensitivity training workshop. It was an excellent event, reflecting on what it means to be sensitive to differences in gender, culture, ethnicity, sexual orientation and race.  One of the topics was “white privilege,” which has been defined by Dr. Peggy McIntosh of the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women as “unearned advantages —privileges that ease life and progress for those who are white Americans, and that impede life changes for those who are people of color.” “White privilege” continues to be a very important and necessary reflection. It was during our discussion about “white privilege” that I came to think about another privilege that was not included in our workshop, but perhaps should have been: “U.S. citizenship privilege”. 

Working on a daily basis with many Latinos who are in North Carolina without documentation, I have become more and more aware of the privileges granted to U.S. citizens. Because many people categorize undocumented immigrants as law-breakers who have entered the U.S. illegally, it somehow makes it “okay” to discriminate against them. After all, why don’t they just stay in their own country? Like Naomi who left her homeland because of famine, many are forced from their native country for economic survival. Even so, why do they enter illegally? Can’t they just go get the proper documentation and enter legally?

What many of us fail to realize is how unjust U.S. immigration laws are, and how in many cases it is impossible for those who want to come to the U.S. to enter legally. Except for individuals who enter as farm workers under the H2A program, it is very difficult for an immigrant with less than a college degree to be granted a work visa. As U.S. citizens, our experience of going to a foreign country is very different. We think nothing of crossing the border to visit Tijuana, Mexico, for a day of shopping and sightseeing, but Mexican citizens must qualify economically to obtain even a tourist visa to enter the U.S., and there are a great many who do not qualify.

Over the last few years, I have attended several gatherings of undocumented Latinos who volunteered to share their heart-wrenching stories of hardship in crossing the border to enter the U.S.  I have asked myself, “What would compel me to risk my life, crossing a barren desert for days without food or water to enter the U.S.?” As I have learned more about the hopeless economic situation that many come from, I have concluded that I would do the same for my family given similar circumstances. But the risk is high:  an estimated 2,500 people have died crossing the border since the early 1990s. No one knows the exact number; only God knows.

A few years ago I participated in a program called “Borderlinks” which is based in Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales in the state of Sonora, Mexico. On the Mexico side of the border, we spent the night in a shelter for those who were about to brave the hot, dry Sonoran desert to cross into the U.S., without documents, of course. I will never forget the statistics listed on the walls there which recorded the number of people who had died crossing into the desert. We followed the trail that many had taken and noted evidence of their crossing through clothing and plastic water bottles strewn in the desert. One woman who worked in the shelter told us about a young couple from Guatemala who had stayed there the night before they set out to cross. They had a newborn baby with them. She pleaded with them not to make the treacherous journey, but despite her warnings, they left the next morning. A few days later, the couple was back at the center, just the two of them, having been arrested by the border patrol in the U.S. and returned to Mexico. The worker asked them where their baby was. “Lost,” they said. The desert had proven too inhospitable an environment for such a young infant—a tragic sacrifice made by a young couple in exchange for their hope for a new beginning in a strange new land.

I have been guilty of taking my U.S. citizenship privilege for granted. What about you? What does it mean to have the privilege of U.S. citizenship?  Here are a few benefits to consider:

1. If I want to get a driver’s license, it’s a simple matter of bringing along my birth certificate, Social Security card and insurance information and taking the test. There’s no need to worry about whether I have the proper documents to get a driver’s license.
2. If I apply for a job, I do not have to worry about what to write under “Social Security Number.”
3. When Social Security and Medicare are taken out of my paycheck, I have a reasonable hope that someday either I or my dependents will receive the benefit of those taxes.
4. I can go in any bank and set up a checking account.
5. If a police officer pulls me over, I can be sure I haven’t been singled out because of my immigration status.
6. I am not worried on a daily basis about being “discovered” and being deported along with my family.
7. I can be reasonably sure that if I need legal or medical advice or help, my citizenship status will not be a consideration.
8. I can apply for a passport that will allow me to travel back and forth to most countries in the world.
9. I can vote and consider running for political office.
10. I or a member of my family can apply for scholarship aid to institutions of higher education and expect to compete on level ground with other U.S. citizens.

When we reflect on the issue of immigration and the existence of borders between countries, it is good to recall that when seen from outer space, the earth does not reveal any borders. Borders are human-made creations that separate people who are governed by different governments. God’s world has no borders. God does not create “illegal” people. The human condition has created these barriers to the shalom that God intends for creation.

In his book, Resident Aliens, Stanley Hauerwas reminds us of the Apostle Paul’s assertion that Christians are a colony of heaven, and as such, are “resident aliens” in this world. As “resident aliens” we have something in common with people of Israel who were once aliens in Egypt. We have something in common with Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus who fled the wrath of King Herod and were aliens in Egypt for a time. We have something in common with Ruth and Naomi. And we have something in common with the eleven million undocumented aliens in the United States.

By Rev. Alice Kirkman Kunka, Director, Corazon