Evangelicals Battle Over ‘Biblical’ Immigration

One branch of the evangelical Christian community knows what it wants up next on America’s political agenda: comprehensive immigration reform. Another would prefer what it calls “Biblical immigration.” As Congress turns back to the business of governing ahead of the holidays, the two sides are ramping up their rhetoric–and their lobbying–with dueling interpretations of the gospels’ guidance.

For months, some Christian groups have prayed for immigration reform. For eight days in October, over 100,000 Christian backers of the Evangelical Immigration Table have asked God for guidance on the issue through “Pray4Reform” events. Next week, they plan to visit Washington and press Congressional leaders directly about the issue.

The millions of undocumented people that live in the U.S., the Evangelical Immigration Table says, should be treated with charity as the book of Matthew says Jesus was. Leaders cite the gospel passage that quotes Christ saying, “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in.”

“Evangelicals finally realize that how we treat the stranger, these 11 million undocumented people, is how we treat Christ himself,” said Jim Wallis, the president and founder of Sojourners, a Christian social justice organization.

According to Wallis, and the leadership of the Evangelical Immigration Table, which includes the National Association of Evangelicals, and the Ethics and Religious Liberty Convention of the Southern Baptist Convention, the evangelical community has “never been more united on an issue.”

Yet, not everyone in the evangelical community agrees with Wallis. Others on the Christian right dissent, including one group of Christians who call themselves the Evangelicals for Biblical Immigration.

Evangelicals for Biblical Immigration argue that taking care of home should trump what they consider blind acceptance of foreigners. They have been openly critical of the Senate immigration bill that passed the upper chamber in late June. Kelly Kullberg, the leader of what she says is an “ad hoc movement of citizens” behind Evangelicals for Biblical Immigration, says the Senate bill would grant blanket amnesty.

In June, referencing the Book of Timothy’s guidance on how to treat widows, Kullberg wrote in a letter to Congress that similar guidance should be adhered to when it comes to immigrants.

“While the Bible teaches us to be kind to the sojourner or ‘resident alien,’ it also teaches that kindness to the sojourner ought not to be injustice to local citizens and their unique culture,” Kullberg wrote. Over a thousand evangelical Christians signed the letter.

The Bible, the group says, gives more instructions when it comes to the acceptance of immigrants than just “be kind to strangers.”

“Like Ruth and Rahab, many are to be embraced,” Kullberg wrote. “We also find in the books of Nehemiah and Ezra, men who were called to build walls in order to protect, to cultivate the good and to grow a healthy culture.”

In September, Kullberg, on behalf of the Evangelicals for Biblical Immigration, sent another letter to members of the House of Representatives, calling for “biblical balance” when lawmakers consider immigration reform.

A biblical approach to reform, Kullberg says, would mean considering Americans first; securing the borders to keep out criminals, making sure unemployed Americans have access to job opportunities by mandating use of E-verify.

“There is no set view,” says Mark Tooley, the president of the Institute of Religion and Democracy and a signatory of the biblical reform letter. “There are tens of millions of evangelicals and Protestants. There is no consensus on this issue.”

Polling data is mixed on that score. On one hand, data from the right leaning “immigration reduction” organization, Numbers USA, suggests that 46% of Republican evangelicals say they would deport most undocumented immigrants. Another 32% say they would deport some, but “ensure no jobs or assistance for the rest.”

A Pew Research survey from March 2013 shows, on the other hand, that 62% of white evangelical Protestants say undocumented immigrants should be allowed to stay in the U.S. legally. Forty percent believe they should be able to apply for a path to citizenship, and 35% of those surveyed said those in the U.S. illegally should not be allowed to stay.

“There are people on both sides, Tooley said. “But the people who are speaking up are on the pro-side and those that are skeptical are not represented much at all.”

The skeptics, Galen Carey, the vice president of government relations at the National Association of Evangelicals says, don’t represent as many people within the evangelical community as more conservative groups are suggesting.

“We have a large number of people enrolled in the ‘Pray for Reform’ effort and it keeps growing,” Carey said.

Wallis says one reason for that is the church’s relationship with immigrants, many of whom are evangelicals themselves. “This is a personal issue,” Wallis said. “The undocumented are our brothers and sisters within the church.”

Viewpoint: Judaism is Too Afraid Of Assimilation

Once again, we’re supposed to be wringing our hands. Every decade, another poll comes out showing that American Jews are more likely to “intermarry” and less likely to support controversial Israeli policies. This statistical one-two punch to Jewish preservationists becomes front page news—”Poll Shows Major Shift in Identity of U.S. Jews”—and Jewish philanthropies get the ammunition they need to press the urgency of the crisis: be more Jewish, or your generation will be to blame for extinguishing the everlasting light.

On one level, such crises work. Every convincing threat to Judaism and Israel leads to a strong bump in fundraising for both. But while it may yield more checks from ardent supporters, to the Jews in danger of further assimilation, such messaging begins to sound more like the desperate plea of an obsolete religion and culture than it is a relevant, compelling path to spiritual inquiry and ethical behavior.

A decade ago, when the last poll like this came out, I wrote a book— Nothing Sacred —arguing not to panic: Judaism was becoming an “open source” religion, and rather than moan at our assimilation, we should instead celebrate the incorporation of Jewish ideals into the culture at large. If we want to promote Judaism and its practices, we might need to transcend our rather primitive misconception of Judaism as a race.

It was Pharaoh who first called the Jews a “people”. The notion of a Jewish bloodline didn’t emerge until the Inquisition as a justification for executing even those Jews who had converted. And it was Hitler (repurposing a bit of Jung) who called the Jews a race.

As I look at history and the Torah, Judaism isn’t really a religion at all, but a path beyond religion. It was developed by the equivalent of recovering cult members, as a way beyond the idolatry and death worship of Ancient Egypt. Instead of “believing” things, a disparate amalgam of tribes (those mythic sons of Jacob), developed a living myth together – as well as a system of law that could be amended as civilization evolved. Everything from the Sabbath to the US Constitution came out of these insights and this continuous process of revision and renewal.

By applying the techniques of the census taker to the Jewish people (a practice actually forbidden in Talmud – we’re not allowed to count ourselves) the would-be protectors of Judaism are practicing a dangerous game with diminishing returns. Amazingly, when I suggested as much after the 1999 poll, I was banned from speaking at events funded by the most centrist of Jewish institutional charities.

Yes, the core tenets of Judaism are radical. They suggest that human beings are responsible for this realm. They insist that our racial labels, and even our nation states, are mere social constructions. The principles of Judiasm are as progressive as the ideas of Buddhism or the Tao —systems of thought that have attracted many of the Jews now being blamed for the current exodus.

All Judaism needs to do is bite its tongue and stop putting this frightened, scarcity-based logic at the forefront of its effort to engage its people. Instead, spend as much time just doing and celebrating whatever Judaism means to you. The rest will follow.