Hello everyone,

I have a question about legal immigration. l got recently intrigued by what one guy wrote about a non-Christian country: In that country, "you can get arrested for wearing a cross or having a Bible in your suitcase." Assuming this is true (and I don't know whether it is, but for the sake of example, let's assume it is possible), suppose that you are a Christian and are to legally immigrate to that non-Christian country which is culturally so different and sometimes even hostile in its foreign policy. Once there, how would you behave towards your host and its laws? Would you "just" protest once arrested for wearing the forbidden cross or having the forbidden Bible in your suitcase? (=Answer 1, to include public debates, non-violent demonstrations, etc.) How far would you go in your protests? Assuming that immigrants like you would account for not more than 2% of the local population, would you mobilize Christians abroad to back you up in your fighting the host country once offended by its customs? (=Answer 2)

I am just curious because these are all abstract situations for me. My idea of being an immigrant outside such religious contexts, though, would be that of respect of my host's house and its rules. I have a hard time imagining myself in a situation described in the first paragraph because I am not religious in an institutionalized way. In other words, if I, not identifying with Christianity as an institution, knew that wearing a cross or having a Bible in my suitcase would land me in jail in a country, I would simply refrain from wearing a cross or having a Bible in my suitcase in that particular country. (=Answer 3) That's easy for me. But what would you as a Christian do?

(For the purpose of this exercise I disregard the option of my eventual participation as a legal resident in a constitutional movement aiming at reforming the host system because that would probably be a long-term project while what I am interested in are people's gut feelings and behavior during the first years of their life as immigrants.)

Jacek