Myths of Christianity & Immigration, Part One

This is Father Jared Cramer from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven, Michigan, here with today’s edition of Christian Mythbusters, a regular segment I offer to counter some common misconceptions about the Christian faith. A friend of mine recently reached out to me because he is deeply concerned about the commitments Trump has made with regard to immigration. He wanted to create an open letter and get area pastors to sign it. He sent it to the pastors of twenty-seven churches here in Grand Haven. Only two pastors responded: me (I said I would absolutely sign it) and one other pastor who found the statement reprehensible. Now, I’m not here to lecture my colleagues on whether or not they choose to sign public statements on political issues that have deeply ethical implications… but I do think this gives me an opportunity to hopefully break some of the myths surrounding a Christian response to immigration. My colleague who was opposed to my friend’s statement on immigration based much of his opposition on the fact that, in his mind, undocumented immigrants have broken the law. And, so, there is no responsibility he bears for their choices. In his words, “If someone breaks into my house, I don’t have to make them breakfast.” And I know his perspective here is one that many Christians share. A 2022 survey from LifeWay research found that 42 percent of evangelicals, for example, do not agree that Christians have a responsibility to assist immigrants, including undocumented immigrants. Part of their resistance is very likely the same resistance of my colleague: these immigrants broke the law and so they need to face consequences. You may be surprised to find out that the idea that crossing a national border without authorization is a criminal offence is actually a rather new idea. It wasn’t until 1929 that our own country passed a law criminalizing undocumented immigration. That law was part of efforts by nativist politicians and white supremacists who believed that the United States should be a nation of white Anglo-Saxon protestants. One way that is abundantly clear was that the immigration laws passed around the same time established a quota system that gave preference to people from northern and western Europe while banning almost all immigration from Asia. This racist quota system lasted until 1965 but even the current system, based on the Immigration Act of 1990, is not much better. In the current system, every country is allotted 7 percent of the available green cards. As an essay from the National Immigration System points out, “In practice, this results in the Marshall Islands, with a population of 42,000 people, and India, with a population of 1.4 billion, having the same number of allocated green cards. This also leaves some countries – the ones with a large number of people who want to immigrate to the U.S., such as Mexico, China, and India – with enormous backlogs. The State Department regularly publishes the Visa Bulletin, letting people know how long the wait for a green card is. The one from August of 2024 indicated that they were now processing applications from Mexico from 2002… people who have been waiting twenty-two years. By contrast, if you are trying to immigrate from Germany, France, or Sweden, the applications take between six months to two years. So, telling people to just get in line and immigrate legally isn’t really a solution, especially when the very law itself creates a bottleneck to keep people from Mexico, for example, from immigrating legally. What is a Christian to do? Well, getting educated about our broken (and more than vaguely racist) immigration system is a first step, recognizing that these are not people who want to break the law… but feel they have no other choice for the safety and health of their families. And, one hundred years ago, people coming here without authorization wasn’t even a criminal offense. It only became one through the efforts of white supremacists. Surely, we can do better. That’s all the time I have for today. Next week, though, I’ll unpack further what I think a Christian response to this problem might look like. Thanks for being with me. To find out more about my parish, you can go to sjegh.com. Until next time, remember, protest like Jesus, love recklessly, and live your faith out in a community that accepts you but also challenges you to be better tomorrow than you are today.