Fresh off his controversial advice for brides to give their husbands whatever they want sexually on their wedding nights, Texas megachurch pastor Josh Howerton is dishing out advice about how President Donald Trump’s immigration policies are biblical after all.
While Christian leaders nationwide — including many evangelicals — are warning Trump’s harsh anti-immigration campaign defies clear biblical teaching, Howerton sees it differently. The pastor of multi-campus Lakepointe Church in suburban Dallas gives out his biblical counsel on Instagram in a series of images titled “Christians, Borders, Illegal Immigration, Deportation: 10 (extremely difficult) thoughts.”
Mark Wingfield
Truth is, Howerton is making this more difficult than it has to be. But then again, it’s difficult to twist Scripture to fit your political agenda. Thanks for the warning, dude.
He advises up front: “Christians are going to have to think biblically about illegal immigration and deportation. And when emotion gets high, logic gets low.”
I’m pretty sure you’d be hard-pressed to find biblical scholars who agree with Howerton’s logic twisted into a pretzel. But judge for yourself.
Spoiler alert: The crux of his argument is that Trump is ridding the country of lawless immigrants not because they are crooked businessmen, rapists or sexual predators — Oh, wait, that’s the president — but because they broke the law by their very presence in the country.
What the white pastor living in one of the reddest of red counties in Texas doesn’t seem to understand is that it’s our immigration system that’s broken. If you are a refugee fleeing violence in your home country, it is exceptionally hard and long to work the “legal” process for admission to the U.S. And never mind that most of the immigrants Trump’s minions are rounding up have declared themselves to the government upon arrival and are following the legal process.
“Howerton seems to have been watching too much Fox News.”
Remember Trump’s ICE goons are arresting people at courthouses where they are reporting as required by law. That makes them by definition not lawless. The Department of Homeland Security reported this week that of all the immigrants detained by ICE in fiscal year 2025, less than 10% had criminal convictions.
Howerton seems to have been watching too much Fox News.
In reason No. 5, he says those who cite the Bible’s command to “love the immigrant” and “care for the sojourner” are guilty of “category confusion.”
“The conversation is not about ‘loving immigrants.’ It is about punishing criminals. The actions being taken have nothing to do with people being ‘immigrants’ (which is why legal immigrants are not being deported). The actions being taken are because people broke the law (and the biblical role of the government is to punish crime, Romans 13:1-5).”
This is a common conservative justification for mass deportation and it has been stoked by Trump and his commandant, Steven Miller, who hates all immigrants equally. But as with so many things Trumpian, it’s not true.
Howerton continues: “’Improper entry by alien’ has been a federal crime since 1929, and it’s not a victimless crime (like jaywalking).” What he fails to mention is that the vast majority of those being deported today have followed the law upon arrival.
The point that made me laugh out loud and nearly spew Peanut M&Ms across the table is this gem: “Jesus never broke immigration laws. His family traveled to legally register themselves in a national census. Jesus did not ‘immigrate’: He left Nazareth (in the Roman Empire) to go to Egypt (also in the Roman Empire). Jesus commanded obedience to laws.”
And just what were the immigration laws of the Roman Empire? Nothing akin to modern laws — except for the part where they allowed some people to “earn” citizenship. Go back to junior high world history and refresh yourself on what it meant to be a “citizen” in the Roman Empire.
Howerton’s comparison here is ludicrous.
Here are some other great lines from his 10-point slide show:
- “Christians as individuals are commanded to love immigrants and should not let debates about IMMIGRATION POLICY erode their love for IMMIGRANTS as people.”
- “In the Bible, God establishes borders, nations and border walls.”
- “Nations build walls for the same reason you have a lock on your front door — not because you HATE the people on the outside, but because you LOVE the people on the inside. The reason we have a legal immigration process is to vet who comes into the country, just like a good father vets who comes into their home.”
- “If a dad cares for other people’s kids in a way that harms his own kids, that doesn’t make him a good man, it makes him a terrible father. If a nation’s leaders care for another nations’ citizens in a way it harms its own citizens, that doesn’t make them merciful people, it makes them terrible leaders in dereliction of duty.”
Rebutting these in order: Love for immigrants as people should compel us (and Congress) to pass reasonable immigration laws, which we have not done. God did not establish the borders of the United States, Mexico or any country from which contested immigrants come. Exactly how many immigrants have threatened families locked up in their homes? That dad line is straight out of JD Vance’s odor amoris nonsense.
“We must also be careful not to pick and choose which verses of the Old Testament we apply and do not apply to modern immigration discussions.”
And let us not overlook this gem from Pastor Howerton: “We must also be careful not to pick and choose which verses of the Old Testament we apply and do not apply to modern immigration discussions.”
Hmm. Just like you pick and choose passages from the Holiness Code in Leviticus to enforce today? Gotcha.
And then the crowning biblical smoking gun: “This was also a warning God gave to the people of Israel that is rarely discussed, Deuteronomy 28:43-45.”
Josh Howerton posing with Donald Trump’s Tesla at the White House.
Here’s what that passage says: “Foreigners who live in your land will gain more and more power, while you gradually lose yours. They will have money to lend you, but you will have none to lend them. In the end they will be your rulers. All these disasters will come on you, and they will be with you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the Lord your God and keep all the laws that he gave you.”
Whoever taught Howerton Old Testament interpretation needs to call him back to class. How can you take God’s judgment against the Children of Israel and apply it as God’s warning to Americans today?
What Howerton actually demonstrates here is the very fear that motivates so many white evangelicals — the fear of demographic change and losing white majority rule: “They will be your rulers.”
Howerton’s final word is this: Love people. And graciously oppose lawlessness.”
I’m waiting on that next Instagram post on how the pastor proposes evangelicals oppose the lawlessness of the president who has declared himself above the law. If you’re really concerned about opposing lawlessness, look inward and at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
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