Overview:
Evangelical denominations should confront complicity in anti-immigrant insurance policies and embrace unity with immigrant congregations
In recent times, many evangelical denominations in the USA have supported anti-immigrant insurance policies that divide households and criminalize harmless folks. Amongst these focused in ICE raids are undocumented believers who themselves establish as evangelical Christians.
Regardless of sharing the identical religion, immigrant congregations are sometimes seen as “different” by their white evangelical counterparts. That is troubling, since many of those immigrant church buildings are formally affiliated with main denominations just like the Southern Baptist Conference, the United Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church.
But their non secular contributions hardly ever translate into advocacy or safety from denominational leaders. As a substitute, political alignment inside U.S. evangelicalism has leaned towards insurance policies that disenfranchise and marginalize immigrant Christians.
An ethical and theological failure
Some believers could vote in good conscience, unaware that their selections hurt fellow Christians. Others dismiss immigration as a purely political difficulty. However scripture affirms that choices affecting one a part of the physique have an effect on the entire (1 Corinthians 12:26). Ignoring this reality betrays the unity Christ calls his followers to embody.
Immigrant congregations contribute considerably—financially, spiritually and numerically—to their denominations. They’ve the best and duty to carry their companions accountable. Silence within the face of dangerous insurance policies, as theologians like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King Jr. warned, turns into complicity in injustice.
Known as to take care of the stranger
On the coronary heart of Christian discipleship is love, hospitality and take care of the weak. The Bible persistently instructions believers to welcome the foreigner:
- “Love them as your self, for you have been foreigners in Egypt” (Leviticus 19:33–34).
- “I used to be a stranger and also you invited me in” (Matthew 25:35).
- “Don’t neglect to indicate hospitality to strangers” (Hebrews 13:2).
These are usually not strategies. They’re mandates rooted in God’s character and central to the message of Christ. Compassion just isn’t non-obligatory; it’s required.
A prophetic problem to the church
If the evangelical church within the U.S. is to keep up ethical credibility, it should confront its complicity in methods of injustice. Silence within the face of struggling just isn’t neutrality — it’s participation.
Christian religion just isn’t solely a private relationship with God but additionally a public witness to God’s justice and mercy. When immigrant believers are excluded due to legal guidelines supported by fellow Christians, the church should rise to embody the unconventional hospitality of Christ.
The Gospel is aware of no borders. Neither ought to our love for the undocumented households and congregations amongst us. To comply with Christ faithfully means standing in solidarity with immigrant Christians, rejecting nationalism in favor of kingdom dwelling and making certain compassion outweighs worry.