Finding Common Ground on Immigration in a Polarized Moment
Dear friends,
If you’re like me, it’s been an exhausting month. Immigration enforcement operations – which already had been intense in places like Los Angeles, Charlotte and my home region of Chicagoland – have dominated national headlines as “Operation Metro Surge” hit Minnesota. Americans of all political orientations have been focused on the deaths of two U.S. citizens, the detention of large number of immigrants (including refugees and asylum seekers who are lawfully present and authorized to work in the United States), and the protests that have followed.
What’s struck me is how wildly far apart Christians of different political perspectives seem to be. We disagree not just over the best policy solution, but on the basic facts of what is happening. We watch the same videos but come to polar opposite conclusions.
And evangelical Christians – whom we would hope would be united by our commitment to the authority of Scripture over every aspect of our lives – often seem to be as divided as our society as a whole.
But I have also seen some evidence that we’re not actually quite as divided as things seem.
Social media algorithms amplify the fights and disagreement – they show me precisely the perspectives that will most outrage me, which keeps me looking at my screen longer (and might also keep me from sleeping well). But in real life, Christians are finding common ground even when they can’t necessarily agree upon who to vote for, which Super Bowl halftime show was better, which translation of the Bible to read or whether we should be baptizing infants or only adults.
Here are a few examples that I hope will encourage you:
- Recently, Mariners Church in Southern California invited me to be a guest on a podcast alongside theologian Wayne Grudem. Dr. Grudem and I share a lot of theological convictions, but we’ve approached some questions of immigration policy quite differently. Mariners pastor Eric Geiger invited us on to discuss how Christians who love Jesus and look to the Bible as their authority sometimes disagree on immigration. And we did disagree at points – but I was surprised, honestly, at how much we agreed, and how engaging with one another’s perspectives created greater space for common ground. I’d encourage you to watch or listen to this conversation.
- A long list of pro-life leaders – from a range of different political ideologies and religious traditions – joined a letter last week to President Trump, the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Acting Director of ICE, urging them to reinstate policies that protected pregnant or nursing women and their babies (pre- and post-birth) from being detained except in exceptional circumstances. Their advocacy follows an incident last month where a Burmese refugee mother, Ta Eh Doh Lah, was detained by ICE agents in her own apartment, taken from the five-month-old baby whom she was breastfeeding, and taken to Texas – despite being lawfully present and not charged with any crime. I encourage you to watch this conversation between my friend Bri Stensrud of Women of Welcome and a few leaders of organizations that signed onto this timely letter.
- As what I believe is a growing number of evangelicals come to the conclusion that a mass detention and deportation policy – and the resulting separation of families – is not the right policy, Republican and Democratic Members of Congress, many of them motivated by their Christian faith, are doing the hard work of forging consensus on alternative policies. The Dignity Act, co-led by Republican Maria Salazar and Democrat Veronica Escobar, now has 20 Republican and 20 Democratic cosponsors in the House of Representatives. The Evangelical Immigration Table and various of our leaders praised this bill – which would include an earned legalization process for millions of undocumented immigrants who meet appropriate requirements – when it was first introduced. We’re eager to see it build momentum. I encourage you to read National Association of Evangelicals president Walter Kim’s take on why this bill represents a wise, compassionate way forward, think about someone with whom you could share that article, and then take action to encourage your lawmaker to support this bill.
Our countries and our churches do face divisions – but there’s also more agreement than we might realize. Polling conducted by Lifeway Research last year found that at least three out of four evangelical Christians affirm each of the six principles of the Evangelical Statement of Principles for Immigration Reform.
As we enter into a season when many Christians observe Lent, I’m going to be intentionally spending less time on social media and more time meditating on God’s Word; we even have a 40-day Bible-reading guide focused on God’s heart for immigrants.
Would you join me in praying that God would unite His church in ways that lead to real, just solutions for our immigrant brothers, sisters and neighbors?
In Christ,
Matthew Soerens
National Coordinator, Evangelical Immigration Table
