Undocumented Immigrants and Refugees "Living in Sin"?
Some argue that undocumented immigrants and refugees, as well as those who protect them, are living in sin. For, we are required in Romans 13 to obey our Governments (e.g. Hoffmeier, "Crisis at the Borders"). Mark G. Brett responds, “How anomalous the surface meaning of Romans 13 is when considered against the wider background of the Bible’s relentlessly reiterated critique of unjust monarchies and empires, including the Roman empire of Paul’s own day” (Political Trauma and Healing: Biblical Ethics for a Postcolonial World, 164). Brett is not here denying the importance of social order and of a Government’s authority. Rather, he is pointing to God’s higher authority, while also reminding us that in appointing Governments God does not thereby exit the human stage .