We are responsible for this
Last week felt like a dark week, the kind of darkness that feels palpable, smothering. It sticks to you like glue, and you can’t seem to shake it.
I know what darkness feels like. As a kid, I lived in the basement of my parents’ ranch house, not as punishment but because there weren’t enough bedrooms upstairs. It was actually pretty cool, literally, especially during the heat of summer. And it was dark—so dark—with the only light coming from two small casement windows away from my bedroom in the half-finished part of the basement. That was it. I worked on a dairy farm in high school, so the darkness meant I could do the early milking—2 AM—and go back to bed after returning home mid-morning. The darkness was helpful, allowing me to function almost normally as a weekend farmer during high school. My day could become night almost as soon as I descended the stairs to the basement.
The darkness I have felt lately is not the same kind of helpful darkness I experienced as a kid. It is more threatening, evil. It settles in. It feels suffocating.
However, the darkness I have experienced might not seem significant to most people, as the government handles the ‘dirty work’ to keep our hands clean. That’s what elections and government payroll are for. Is it our problem if the government we have elected is abusing foreigners? After all, I am not the one perpetrating the abuse.
That’s not our problem, right?
There is significant biblical precedent, particularly in the Old Testament prophetic books, that indicates the entire society (including the general populace) is held responsible by God for allowing and participating in the government’s/leaders’ oppression and abuse toward the poor and vulnerable.
The key to this responsibility is the concept of collective guilt for social injustice. The prophets speak for God. They often indict the leaders, the priests, the prophets, and the common people (The people of the land) for systemic oppression. They warn of judgment and plead for people to change their ways.
No one was exempt from guilt. Neither the leaders nor the people of the land escaped God’s judgment when injustice prevailed. Let’s look at a few of the passages from a few of the prophets that emphasize this truth.
Ezekiel
The prophet Ezekiel indicted everyone in their oppression of the vulnerable. You couldn’t claim that you were innocent just because you weren’t directly involved in the abuse.
“The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery; they have oppressed the poor and needy, and have extorted from the sojourner without justice. And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none.” (Ezekiel 22:29-30) (ESV):
Responsibility for oppression is assigned not just to the rulers (mentioned earlier in the chapter), but to “the people of the land” (the common citizens). God’s search for anyone to stand in the gap (v. 30) implies that even among the populace, a lack of righteous action sealed the nation’s fate.
But Ezekiel isn’t finished. In Ezekiel 22:25-29, the prophet details the sins of the four main groups of society, showing the pervasive nature of the corruption:
Prophets (v. 25): Seeing false visions for profit.
Priests (v. 26): Violating God’s law and desecrating holy things.
Princes/Rulers (v. 27): Like wolves tearing prey for dishonest gain.
The People of the Land (v. 29): Oppressing the poor and sojourner.
The failure was systemic, with the entire nation sharing in the guilt and bearing the judgment.
Micah
The prophet Micah also shares Ezekiel’s warning that the corruption of the leaders, tolerated by the people, will lead to the total destruction of the city.
‘Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel... who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with iniquity. Its heads give judgment for a bribe; its priests teach for a price; its prophets practice divination for money; yet they lean on the Lord and say, ‘Is not the Lord in the midst of us? No disaster shall come upon us.’ Therefore, because of you, Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height.” (Micah 3:9-12) (ESV):
While this passage focuses on the corrupt leaders, the final judgment falls on the entire place (”Zion shall be plowed”), indicating that the general population who supported, followed, or passively endured this corruption was collectively judged with their leaders.
Jeremiah
Jeremiah challenged the people directly, warning them that their continued presence in the land depended not just on their leaders, but on their own behavior.
“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place... For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place...” Jeremiah 7:3-7 (ESV):
The people were required to “amend their ways and their deeds.” Their failure to stop oppressing the vulnerable was presented as a condition that, if it continued, would result in their exile (captivity). The responsibility to act justly was an individual and collective requirement for remaining in the land.
Scripture seems clear. In this short glimpse at prophet literature, the biblical precedent shows that when the governing authorities fail to uphold justice for the poor and vulnerable, the people are held responsible as they demonstrate:
Active Participation in the oppression (Ezekiel 22:29).
Passive Complicity by failing to heed the prophetic warnings and demand justice (Ezekiel 22:30; Jeremiah 7:5-7).
Collective Accountability for the moral state of the nation (Micah 3:12).
This should make us uneasy, at least. We can ignore God’s heart for the foreigner and vulnerable and take our chances, but that didn’t go so well for God’s people in the past. Oppression and abuse of the foreigner was a covenant-breaking activity. How we treat others is important to God.
Zechariah 7:9–12 (ESV)
9 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, 10 do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.” 11 But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear. 12 They made their hearts diamond-hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the Lord of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great anger came from the Lord of hosts. . . “
The U.S. government has a responsibility to treat both citizens and immigrants fairly, justly. It is not just something nice to aim for, but it is part of what it means to be a just government. Governments, ‘have been instituted by God . . . (and are) God’s servant for your good’ (Rom 13:1,4). But governments remain under the authority of Jesus Christ and overstep their authority when they are unjust. I explore this in more detail here.
That line has been regularly crossed by the current administration. At around 1 a.m. on Tuesday morning, armed federal agents rappelled from helicopters onto the roof of a five-story residential apartment in the South Shore of Chicago. The agents worked their way through the building, kicking down doors and throwing flash bang grenades, pulling men, women, and children from their apartments, residents and witnesses said. Some of them were naked. Agents approached or entered nearly every apartment in the five-story building, and U.S. citizens were among those detained for hours.[1]
A witness said she saw agents dragging residents, including kids, out of the building without any clothes on and into U-Haul vans. Kids were separated from their mothers, she said.
“It was heartbreaking to watch,” said Watson. “Even if you’re not a mother, seeing kids coming out buck naked and taken from their mothers, it was horrible.”
Watson said she went into the building to help one of the residents and was shocked by what she saw. “Stuff was everywhere,” said Watson. “You could see people’s birth certificates and papers thrown all over. Water was leaking into the hallway. It was wicked crazy.”
These are the voices right in our own backyards, with stories of abuse shown in vivid detail on big-screen TVs in living rooms across the nation. We see what’s happening, but don’t want ‘them’ in our country and assume the government is just doing its job. The treatment undocumented migrants face seems harsh and might make us uncomfortable, but these people are undocumented and we don’t want them taking our jobs (they aren’t, by the way) or taking our hard-earned money (they aren’t, and in fact pay into the tax system much more than they ever take out in most cases).
The military-style raid was part of a broader immigration crackdown by the Trump Administration in the country’s third-largest city, called “Operation Midway Blitz,” which has led to a sharp rise in federal raids and arrests. The ruthless nature of the raid was showcased in video footage praised by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.[2] Maybe it is intended as a recruitment tool for ICE agents. Maybe it is just meant to normalize violence against ‘others.’
Regardless, prophetic warnings mentioned earlier are not meant solely for God’s people a few thousand years ago. They also apply to us.
Do we believe that God still cares for the vulnerable in our society? Do we believe that he will punish those nations that mistreat and abuse vulnerable foreigners?
You have to ignore large parts of Scripture to find any comfort in how the U.S. government currently treats immigrants. And while we applaud the mistreatment of vulnerable people in our society, we are paving the way for judgment. Sadly, many Christians are among the loudest supporters of the cruelty of the Trump administration.
As Americans, we are all responsible for the injustices committed by our government and will be held accountable. Without a change in policy, this darkness will be impossible to shake.
[1] https://time.com/7323334/ice-raid-chicago-pritzker-trump/
A sin of omission is as deadly as a sin of commission - we are in for a rough ride.