I read an article posted by the Free Press, A Church Grows in Brooklyn. The article draws a line between immigrants working jobs Americans don’t want and immigrants upholding faith traditions that Americans are abandoning. the author says:

“Over two-thirds of today’s immigrants to the United States are Christians, and prominent religious scholars forecast that immigrants will single-handedly reverse Christianity’s decline in America.”

Yet, a large segment of “the American church” monolith seems to be completely disconnected from this reality. Many American Christians are proudly “anti-immigration”. They will say they are in favor of “legal” immigration, but they would turn away hundreds of thousands of refugees and “illegals” – as if grace played no part in the salvation of immigrants.

If the American Church is positioned against generous immigration, we have not only forgotten our American heritage (“give me your huddled masses”); we have forgotten our spiritual roots:

“And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.” (Deut. 10:19)

“‘Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow.’” (Deut. 27:19)

“The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” (Lev. 19:34)

“You shall not oppress a stranger, since you yourselves know the feelings of a stranger, for you also were strangers in the land of Egypt.” Ex. 23:9)

“For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors forever and ever.” (Jer. 7:5-7)

“You shall allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the aliens who reside among you and have begotten children among you. They shall be to you as citizens of Israel; with you they shall be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel.” (Ezek. 47:22)

“Thus says the Lord of hosts: Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another; do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor….” (Zech. 7:9-10)

“’Then I will draw near to you for judgment; and I will be a swift witness against … those who turn aside the alien and do not fear Me,’ says the Lord of hosts.” (Mal. 3:5)

These are just a few of the verses that weave like a rich gold thread through the tapestry of Scripture. This thread began with the first step Adam and Eve took out of the Garden of Eden – banished from their home with God and doomed to walk the earth as aliens and strangers. The entire sweep of the Bible is about God’s plan to bring them home – to welcome the stranger back.

When we are home in this world, we are absent from God. when we become born again, we are no longer “of this world.” (John 15:19; 17:16) Our citizenship is in heaven. (Phil. 3:20) We have become strangers and exiles on earth like the great men and women of faith. (Heb. 11:13-16) If, indeed, we are of the faith.

Hebrews 11 urges us to model ourselves after the great people of faith. Those people did not call this earth their home because they were waiting for a city, the architect and maker of which is God. Peter says that we are (or should be) aliens and strangers in this world. (1 Peter 2:11) If we truly believe that, why do we resist sharing our temporary country with real aliens and strangers streaming in from the mission filed God has commissioned us to go into?

If we are truly aliens and strangers here, we should not be quick to exclude anyone from entry into our country that is nothing but a temporary home for us. If we want to be robust in our embrace of the Great Commission, we should welcome the world that wants to come to us!

I recent poll of Evangelicals reveals that only about 13% of American Evangelicals have adopted a position on immigration that is based on the Bible. That means we are letting politics and culture and other things drive our views on immigration.

I was in that same boat back in 2014 when Obama was still in office. I didn’t know what to think about immigration, and I realized one day that I didn’t know what the Bible had to say about it – if anything at all.

I set out to read every passage that had anything to do with immigration. The bible, of course, does not address modern immigration, but it does have much to say about aliens and strangers and foreigners. When I searched those words, I was shocked at how much it had to say! (See Immigration: The Strangers Among Us)

Our laws currently are calibrated to let only a trickle of immigrants in. Yes, many people pour in, and we can’t even hold them all back. The huddled masses are no less seeking escape from poverty, oppression, corruption then our ancestors, and the desire for freedom (as we of all people should well know) is great.

We could treat them all as criminals and deport every last one of them back to the desperate circumstances they left. Instead, we are caught in a political tug-of-war that allows those masses to gush in with no plans for actually welcoming and assimilating them into our country as our ancestors were welcomed and assimilated.

If the American church took seriously Jesus’s command to welcome strangers, we would be fighting for laws that honor that command. Instead, we are so worried about the wolves, that we want to keep the sheep out.

As the article in the Free Press points out, we are actually turning away (or the course of action we seem to want to follow would turn away) huddled masses that are primarily Christian in their beliefs. Even if they weren’t primarily Christian, what amazing fortune that God would bring the mission field to our house?!

Either way, we are not taking seriously the biblical imperative to welcome strangers. That imperative goes back to the Mosaic Law when the Israelites were told to welcome strangers (love their neighbors) because they were once aliens and strangers in the land of Egypt. It was their identity, and God reminded them of it often.

It is our identity, also, if indeed we are in Christ. Embracing our identify and welcoming strangers as Jesus told us to do may even reverse the decline of faith in our country as most of the people who want to come here are already Christian, have a Christian heritage, or are open to the Gospel. By welcoming them, we may be welcoming in the harvest and welcoming in angels unaware.