The Christian Left Needs to Focus on Immigration

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This post is the second in an Undone Doctrine series on immigration.

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The Judeo-Christian tradition is, at its core, a migrant tradition.

Both the Hebrew Bible and New Testament are written by, for, and about migrant communities. Nearly every major Biblical figure, including Abraham, Moses, Mary, Joseph, Jesus and St. Paul, was an immigrant.

The reasons for their movements vary. Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt to escape slavery. Many of the Hebrew prophets are exiles following Nebuchadnezzar's Siege of Jerusalem. Mary and Joseph migrate to Bethlehem at the command of an imperial edict (see Luke 2), while Jesus seems to actively choose the life of perpetual migration, declaring in Luke 9:58 that the "Son of Man has no place to lay his head."

With such a broad swath of migrant stories in our scripture, it is hardly an exaggeration that there is something distinctively Christian about the migrant experience. Theologically speaking, God elects to be known through the experience of migration. Our ability to experience the grace and goodness of God is at least partially contingent on how our society treats migrants and refugees.

One might think that the electorate of a nation where 47% see the Bible as the inspired word of God would empathize with immigrants and refugees seeking asylum, safety, and a sense of home in the United States.

And yet, we somehow arrived at a place where 81% of American Evangelicals, 58% of Protestants, and 60% of White Catholics cast their ballots for a man who unambiguously cast Latinx immigrants as criminals, drug dealers, and rapists. So how do we get ourselves out of this malaise of contradiction and hypocrisy before November 2020?

For starters, the American religious left (yes, we do exist) needs to speak louder. Preaching and proclamation take many forms in the 21st century, from sermons to podcasts to Facebook posts. Christians who take scripture seriously must commit to treating migrants and refugees with care, compassion, and welcome - not as some righteous act of social justice, but as a defining statement on what it means to be a Christian in America.

We on the left must also call out right-wing hypocrisy. When the President uses the State of the Union to imply that Mexicans are all complicit in the atrocities of MS-13, Christians should call it what it is: a racist lie that contradicts the Judeo-Christian tradition. When the GOP tacitly or explicitly makes derogatory remarks directed towards immigrants and refugees, Christians should denounce it as patently un-Christian.

But words are not alone - and neither are the efforts of a few well-intentioned Christians. Votes speak loudest. Elections have consequences. In the next Undone Doctrine, we'll look at how theology reveals the key immigration planks for the 2020 Democratic platform.

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@ryanpanzer is a Lutheran blogger and voter who is unwilling to lose in 2020. He sees nothing "pro-life" about greeting a caravan with armed troops. 

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