Boaz’s Hospitality Towards Ruth: Inspiring Our Hospitality Towards Latin American Temporary Farm Workers

Abstract

This chapter looks at temporary migrant farm workers in Canada (specifically, in southern Québec) and how they are received by farm owners, as well as by faith-based volunteers ministering to them. The overarching theme is to see how the dynamic of hospitality operates in light of the Book of Ruth of the Hebrew Scriptures. The first section presents a brief overview of the workers’ situation and assesses attitudes of employers and volunteers. The second section examines the Book of Ruth to discover criteria to serve as a basis for trustworthy hospitality. What sets Boaz’s hospitality apart, in the Book of Ruth, is mainly its socio-economic scope based on faith precepts. One of the main tasks of this section is to catalogue Boaz’s principles of hospitality and to analyse them in order to figure out how to apply them. Parallels are drawn between the Book of Ruth and the reality that Latin American farm workers experience to see what such a “Boazian” perspective of hospitality can mean for a receiving society today.