Evangelicals support immigration reform
As potential presidential candidates descend upon Iowa, some pundits will likely suggest that using sharp anti-immigration rhetoric is a smart strategy to win over Iowan evangelical Christian voters, who usually make up more than half of voters in the GOP Iowa caucuses.
But as an evangelical Iowan, I’m looking for a candidate who reflects my own values, including a commitment to the Biblical mandate to welcome and love immigrants. I’m not alone: A new poll by Lifeway Research finds that seven in 10 evangelical Christians support immigration reforms including both secured borders and an earned pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Half of evangelical voters say they would be more likely to support a presidential candidate who championed these policies, while only 15 percent would be less likely to support a pro-immigration reform candidate. Would-be candidates have much to gain, and little to lose, by supporting immigration reform.
Immigration is a personal issue for many evangelical Christians. Many of our churches have responded to immigrants as Scripture instructs us: by reaching out, welcoming them into our churches, sharing the hope of the gospel, and helping to meet human needs as an expression of our faith. As we’ve done so, we have seen the human impacts of a dysfunctional immigration system. The case of Max Villatoro, an Iowa City pastor who was deported to Honduras, highlights the impact on families of a dysfunctional immigration system and the urgency of reform.
Immigration is also a Biblical issue. Scripture actually has a lot to say on the topic of immigration, with more than 92 references to the Hebrew ger — the immigrant — in the Old Testament alone. Immigrants are referenced alongside orphans and widows as uniquely vulnerable groups for whom God commands His people to care. We are consistently commanded to practice hospitality, which literally means the love of strangers. Xenophobia — the fear of strangers — is not an option for followers of Jesus, nor is dehumanizing rhetoric.
We’re also commanded in Scripture to honor the law. But our current immigration system, rather than honoring the law, makes a mockery of it. No administration in recent history has seriously contemplated fully enforcing the law — which would mean deporting more than 11 million people, most of whom are hard-working individuals who have been here for a decade or more —because it would have devastating consequences for our economy. But Congress has been unwilling to change the law to make it make sense for the needs of our economy, which would restore order to an antiquated, unenforceable system.
Hundreds of evangelical Christian pastors, including many here in Iowa, have urged Congress to come together on a bipartisan basis to reform our immigration laws in ways consistent with Biblical values. The Evangelical Statement of Principles for Immigration Reform calls for reforms that respect the rule of law, secure our borders, and are fair to taxpayers while also recognizing the dignity of each person, maintaining intact families whenever possible, and establishing a path toward legal status and/or citizenship for those who qualify and wish to become permanent residents of the United States. In between the extremes of either mass deportation, on one hand, or blanket amnesty, on the other, we believe there is a reasonable path forward on immigration consistent with Biblical values.
On the other hand, if candidates choose to speak out against immigrants and immigration reform, they are likely to scare away the voting U.S. citizen children and grandchildren of recent immigrants, many of whom share the conservative social values of most evangelical Christians, but who are unlikely to vote for a candidate who threatens to deport their family, fellow church members, and friends who are undocumented. By pushing away immigrant voters and their children with strong anti-immigration rhetoric and policies, supposedly conservative candidates are actually increasingly the likelihood that the next resident of the White House will be someone who does not share conservative Christian values, whose policies and judicial appointments will erode religious liberty and protections of unborn children.
My appeal to candidates visiting our state would be to tune out the media personalities and pundits who do not really know any Iowan evangelicals, and instead spend some time reading what the Scripture has to say about immigrants, visiting our ministries that serve and reach out to our new immigrant neighbors, and seeking God’s wisdom as you formulate your positions.
THE REV. JOHN SHAULL of Winterset serves as the director of missions for the Metro Baptist Association of Iowa. Contact: pastor_j@hotmail.com