Debates about immigration in the United States usually focus on extremes. A small minority of Americans believe national borders are a social construct that shouldn’t be subject to laws and regulations. A more sizable minority, but a minority nonetheless, believes God has established the nation’s current borders, and they should remain sacred, impenetrable and static. (Unless, of course, God wills the United States to expand them.)
Thankfully, more reasonable voices have entered the conversation to offer alternatives to these extremes. One of these alternatives has come from the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), whose messengers passed a resolution titled “On Immigration and the Gospel.”
The resolution appeals to the migrant status of Jesus and the ancient Israelites in the Bible, as well as to the fact that God’s kingdom includes “persons from every tribe, tongue, nation, and language” (Revelation 7:9). It also states that “[t]he Scriptures call us, in imitation of God Himself, to show compassion and justice for the sojourner and alien among us” and that many immigrants are “fleeing brutal economic and political situations.”
In what many will consider the most powerful line from the resolutions, SBC messengers declared that “our response to the most vulnerable among us is a response to Jesus himself,” drawing from the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25. Furthermore, they resolved that “any form of nativism, mistreatment, or exploitation is inconsistent with the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
The resolution has elements that will frustrate the extremes on both sides. It leans heavily on an interpretation of Romans 13 that implies maintaining strict borders is a mandate from God. It also calls on government leaders to provide a “just and compassionate path to legal status” for undocumented immigrants.
Notable Southern Baptists who endorsed the resolution included Russell Moore and, in a later statement that implied support, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Al Mohler.
Voices from the Past
The most encouraging aspect of the SBC’s “On Immigration and the Gospel” resolution is that it is an acknowledgment by one of the nation’s most conservative denominations that the nativism and mistreatment of immigrants is antithetical to the good news of Jesus. The least encouraging aspect of it is that it was passed in 2011.
It’s easy to forget that, in our relatively recent history, people from different ideological backgrounds committed to finding practical solutions to our outdated immigration system. The SBC resolution on immigration was one stream in a movement that would eventually lead to a bipartisan group of senators proposing a workable compromise to counter extremist voices. That compromise was rejected by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, and would eventually lead to the rise of Donald Trump’s oppressive immigration policies.
We now know the SBC resolution, like the rhetoric of many conservatives at the time, had a “poison pill” embedded in its more reasonable language that would prevent any substantive action toward a humane immigration policy. One line of the document read, “[W]e ask our governing authorities to implement, with the borders secured, a just and compassionate path to legal status, with appropriate restitutionary measures, for those undocumented immigrants already living in our country,” (emphasis mine).
“With the borders secured” did much more heavy lifting than most of us realized at the time. What many thought was support for a path to legal status for our most vulnerable neighbors was, instead, hypothetical and shackled with a near-impossible condition to meet.
A “secured border” is open to wildly different interpretations. Does it mean zero people entering the country, or does it mean we have general control over who is coming in and settling here?
Regardless, over the past year, we have been told the border has been successfully secured. “We have closed the borders” is a constant refrain from Donald Trump and his political supporters. Al Mohler has praised the President’s actions in restricting movement across the border.
In fact, the most prominent Southern Baptist in the country, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, has declared that “President Trump has kept his word to the American people and secured the border.”
With this accomplished, can we count on Southern Baptists and other evangelicals to vote in this year’s midterms for candidates who will advocate for a humane path to legal status for all immigrants currently in our country?
I’m not holding my breath.
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Senior Editor at Good Faith Media.