Words matter.
Let’s do a thought experiment:
What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of “Alien?”
– Oblong head
– Pale
– Weird eyes
– No mouth
– E.T.
– A creature from the movie Alien
– Ugly
– Enemy
– Unwanted
– Undeserving
– Something that needs to be destroyed
You get the drift
What emotions does the word alien invoke?
Fear
– Fight or flight
– “Ewww…gross.”
Yet we use this word to describe someone who is in our country undocumented.
Let me ask another uncomfortable question:
When you read or hear the term, “Illegal Alien” what ethnicity first comes to mind?
Do we see how the term “Illegal Alien” can cause us to see certain people as less than human and deserving of inhuman treatment?
Yes, this is uncomfortable, but I believe these questions reveal an implicit bias we might have towards our fellow humans. But I would suggest that if we are not careful about the words we use to describe other people created in the image of God, we can easily see then as less than human (an alien) and treat them inhumanly.
Every person you see in the news, on the street, in your neighborhood, even your “enemy” is created in the image of God, just like you. It is a universal Biblical truth.
Genesis 1:27 “So God created human beings in his own image.
In the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
Being created in the image of God gives each person inalienable dignity and worth. This isn’t even debated in scripture.
“Illegal Aliens” is a derogatory, dehumanizing term that defaces the image of God. The term characterizes another person as less than human and therefore can easily be discarded, discriminated, throw aside, seen as the enemy, and sadly destroyed. (As can be seen in many of the recent ICE raids)
How about the term illegal?
Did people enter our country illegally? Yes..between 16-29 million people have illegally crossed our borders (land, air and sea). They broke our law and crossed our borders without proper documentation or processing. Honestly, we don’t know every story or reason why someone would risk leaving home to come to the United States, but I think we can all agree that the vast majority are non-violent, law-abiding people.
But does one action make them illegals? I broke the speed limit yesterday, I did something illegal. I rolled through a stop sign, I did something illegal. Does that make me an illegal? No, I did something illegal, but that does not make me an illegal.
As I’m sure we have all heard in our churches, our poor choices, do not define who we are as human beings created in the image of God.
To be clear, I am not advocating open borders and we need fair and just immigration laws and these laws must be enforced fairly, humanely, and justly. But let us use human language that at the very least gives everyone their God-given dignity regardless of immigration status. Let us treat everyone the way we would want to be treated, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Phil Steiner 