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February 17, 2015|10:56 pm

The following essay is in response to an opinion piece that appeared in The Christian Post earlier this month entitled, White Evangelicals and Immigration Reform.

There are biblical and prudential reasons for opposing "comprehensive immigration reform," but your otherwise thoughtful article did not acknowledge them.

I concur with the statistical conclusion of Kellstedt and Hoover, that evangelicals, "white" and otherwise, largely oppose the kind of "comprehensive immigration reform" that President Obama is attempting to enforce despite the disapproval of Congress and most Americans.

In fact a 2014 Pulse pollfound that only 11% of evangelicals feel that the Biblical teaching to "love the stranger" means to offer citizenship. Most feel that "loving the stranger" means to "treat the stranger humanely while applying the rule of law." I believe that this answer is biblically informed and therefore also wise and compassionate.

Almost all evangelicals support lawful, reasonable immigration. What they oppose is lawlessness and a disregard for the rights of citizens. To reduce the sincere concerns of American evangelicals to under-educated, white Republicans, as the Feb. 6th article implies, is the kind of simplistic characterization we've come to expect from politicos, but not from friends. To the contrary, evangelicals look to the whole counsel of Scripture and the careful discernment of consequences as the most reliable sources of wisdom for human living and cultural thriving. Consider just five (5) points:

1 Scripture: The Bible's teaching does not equate "welcoming the stranger" with our emerging 2015 scenario of anonymous entry through open borders, disregard for laws and customs, blanket amnesty, and cradle-to-grave social services. This is not biblical "justice." It is unsustainable presumption and theft.

God loves us all. God teaches us to love the well-intended sojourner who comes lawfully as a blessing (the 'ger' in the Old Testament), and so we welcome and protect lawful immigration. (America is likely the most welcoming nation on the planet.) There are three other words in Scripture for foreigners to whom citizenship is not to be extended (watch Todd Wagner's sermon Declaration, or read scholar James Hoffmeier's The Immigration Crisis). We are for legal immigration, but not for lawlessness that weakens our culture.

In Scripture, we see both welcome and walls. We see welcome extended to kindred spirits, such as Ruth and Rahab. And we also see Nehemiah, upon his people's return from Babylonian exile, organizing the nation of Israel to rebuild the walls around Jerusalem that protected the nation from danger and syncretism. This allowed a repentant Israel to rebuild its faith and culture in the life-giving ways of the Lord. They did justice to the DNA, story and future of their culture and nation.

2. Political scheming:Evangelicals oppose the use of "immigration reform" as a means to advance a political agenda.

See original here:
Evangelicals For Biblical Immigration and Cultural Flourishing