About This ‘Special Issue of CET’

Editor by Nick Youngson licensed here.

By Patrick Anderson

We confront persistent and multiple moral and ethical issues daily. As editor of Christian Ethics Today, I am never faced with a lack of material. The content of the journal is typically a smorgasbord of articles on a selection of subjects, many readers favoring such a variety of topics.

Occasionally however, we have published “Special Issues” which present a collection of articles on a single topic, taking a deeper dive into that ethical matter of concern. Such is the case with this issue of the journal: the plight of a great number of people living in the United States, who are considered to be here unlawfully (said to be about 11 million people) and are said to be in need of removal. Some have fled war-torn countries and recently arrived seeking asylum.

Others have lived here for decades, working in diverse jobs, with no criminal history, often deeply involved in society, with children and grandchildren born in this country. Many are Christians. Some are United States military veterans. We see them being indiscriminately rounded up by masked government agents, detained, separated from families and communities, and sometimes secretly shipped off to other countries.

One of our regular writers and a member of our board of directors, Cody Sanders, agreed to help me develop an issue of the journal with articles written by a cadre
of writers who have special involvement in and knowledge of the subject of immigration. Those whom Cody identified are from among wide and diverse scholarly and ministerial relationships. We asked them to write from their own experiences and using their own exegesis of Biblical passages which speak to the subject and to address the urgency of this crushing issue which dominates much of the social and political discourse today and which affects the lives of so many people.

This collection of essays, written especially for the readers of Christian Ethics Today, attempts to help us understand and respond in a faithful, Christ-like manner to the moral issues surrounding immigration, which are of concern to Christian individuals, to the church and to society.

— Patrick R. Anderson, Editor of Christian Ethics Today.