Baptist News Global
Sections
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Opinion
  • Curated
  • Storytelling
    • Faith & Justice >
      • Charleston: Metanoia with Bill Stanfield
      • Charlotte: QC Family Tree with Greg and Helms Jarrell
      • Little Rock: Judge Wendell Griffen
      • North Carolina: Conetoe
    • Welcoming the Stranger >
      • Lost Boys of Sudan: St. John’s Baptist Charlotte
      • Awakening to Immigrant Justice: Myers Park Baptist Church
      • Hospitality on the corner: Gaston Christian Center
    • Signature Ministries >
      • Jake Hall: Gospel Gothic, Music and Radio
    • Singing Our Faith >
      • Hymns for a Lifetime: Ken Wilson and Knollwood Baptist Church
      • Norfolk Street Choir
    • Resilient Rural America >
      • Alabama: Perry County
      • Texas: Hidalgo County
      • Arkansas Delta
      • Southeast Kentucky
  • More
    • Contact
    • About
    • Donate
    • Associated Baptist Press Foundation
    • Planned Giving
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Advertising
    • Ministry Jobs and More
    • Transitions
    • Subscribe
    • Submissions and Permissions
Donate Subscribe
Search Search this site

“They are children”: Preachers and politicians part ways at the border

OpinionAlan Bean  |  July 31, 2014

I stand with children

While politicians apportion blame for the thousands of unaccompanied Central American children arriving at our border, the faith community looks for ways to help.

I over-simplify, of course.  We confront a complex tangle of rhetoric and response, and there are plenty of exceptions on both sides of the politician/people divide.

Not all politicians want to send these unaccompanied children back to the chaotic violence that brought them to our border.

Clay Jenkins

Clay Jenkins

A few weeks ago, I heard Dallas County Judge, Clay Jenkins, announce that we would be welcoming at least 2,000 “border children” to our community.  Jenkins told the crowd that 85% of these children would be released into the safe keeping of family members as soon as they were processed by immigration officials; but the remaining 15% needed a safe place where they could receive food, shelter and basic services.  Last week, I attended a religious gathering hosted by a prominent Baptist megachurch at which Jenkins repeated his message to a room dominated by evangelical Christians.

On both occasions, the audience responded with a mixture of enthusiasm, surprise and relief.  If felt so strange to hear a politician speaking from sheer conviction.  Jenkins knew his initiative would be controversial, but when his own children asked him what he was going to do about the kids being warehoused at the border, his faith forced the issue.  He knew what Jesus would do, and didn’t dare take the opposite position.

Texas State Rep. David Simpson

Texas State Rep. David Simpson

And then there’s Texas state representative David Simpson, a telegenic Tea Party conservative with a cowboy hat and a smile.  Simpson outraged his constituency last week by urging a compassionate response to the border children.  “I don’t believe in treating people who’ve crossed the border as a murderer,” Simpson told a town hall gathering dominated by anti-immigrant activists.  “I do think there should be a path, a legal path, for naturalization or citizenship. We’re a nation of immigrants.”

Like Clay Jenkins, David Simpson is taking his cue from his religion.  He quoted Proverbs 20:28, Deuteronomy 10:18-19 and Leviticus 19:33, passages that call for compassionate treatment of resident aliens, “for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.”

Unfortunately, Jenkins and Simpson are bucking the political consensus.  The prevailing view is that we should send the children back to their homes without delay even if we have to rescind the 2008 William Wilberforce Act to do it.

The Wilberforce Act passed in the dying days of the George W. Bush administration, thanks to the tireless efforts of an unlikely coalition of conservative and liberal organizations.  President Bush welcomed the legislation and it enjoyed the enthusiastic support of evangelical Christians.  Immigrant children from Central America were being targeted by human traffickers and backers of the Wilberforce Act wanted the abuse to stop.

Six years later, Washington is on the verge of scrapping the bill.  No one anticipated tens of thousands of children fleeing north to escape violent drug gangs in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.  Why should we care whether the children huddled in our detention centers are being forced into sexual slavery or into the drug trade.  Children are children; pain is pain.

Prominent politicians on both sides of the ideological divide are holding their hands over their ears to block the elegant logic of compassion.  These kids fled their homes because they feared for their lives and only in America can they be protected.  But Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz, John Boehner, and both Democratic and Republican candidates for Texas governor want to toss the children back into the fire.

But the tide is turning.  You can feel it.  Last week, rallies were organized across the nation to protest the compassionate treatment of the border children.  In some localities only a handful of protesters showed up at these events, and in many cities proponents of compassionate immigration reform outnumbered anti-immigration people two or three to one.

And the surprises just keep coming.  Glenn Beck, the conservative firebrand, organized a caravan of provisions for the border children a few days ago.  Beck feared his followers wouldn’t like the idea (they didn’t), but his heart forced his hand.

George Will

George Will

And then there’s the conservative curmudgeon, George Will, telling the Sunday talk shows that America should welcome the border children with open arms.

“We ought to say to these children, ‘Welcome to America, you’re going to go to school and get a job and become Americans.  We have 3,141 counties in this country. That would be 20 [children] per county. The idea that we can’t assimilate these 8-year-old ‘criminals’ with their teddy bears is preposterous.”

Sure, Will is taking a lot of flak for his outspoken views, but I suspect he is buoyed by a tangible shift in the public mood.

Russell Moore

Russell Moore

Much of the credit for changing hearts and minds on this issue goes to conservative Christians. Recently, a contingent of Southern Baptist leaders and Roman Catholic bishops toured the overcrowded immigration facilities at the border.  Speaking at Parkhills Baptist Church in San Antonio, Russell Moore, the outspoken president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, pared the issue back to its theological core:

“As a follower of Jesus Christ, I recognize the answer to this question is going to be very complex politically and very complex socially.  But what is not complex is the truth and reality that every one of these children are created in the image of God, and every one are beloved by God and they matter to God. That means they matter to us.”

The tidal wave of compassion is building deep in the heart of Texas.  Cindy Noble Cole, a Dallas nurse, saw televised pictures of frightened children housed in what appeared to be dog kennels.  So she filled 50 hygiene boxes for the kids and delivered them to Catholic Charities of Fort Worth.  What began as a simple “this is what I’m doing” post on Facebook, quickly blossomed into Operation Matthew 25, a movement that has already sent 500 boxes of hygienic supplies, blankets, activity boxes and school supplies to the border.

Operation Matthew 25I first became aware of Operation Matthew 25 when scores of Facebook friends replaced the usual Glamour shot on their homepage with a little picture that reads, “I stand with refugee children: they are children.”

The folks highlighted above are all over the map politically and theologically, but they understand the elegant logic of Matthew 25: “Inasmuch as you did it unto these, the least of my brothers and sisters, you did it unto me.”

The growing people/politician divide on this issue is driven by a simple fact: politicians are running on fear; most people, when they’re sane and centered, are running on faith.

Compassion for the stranger and the alien is central to Jewish, Christian and Muslim religious teaching.  Jesus opened his public ministry with a quotation from Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me, to preach good news to the poor,” and he closed out his public ministry with the parable of the sheep and the goats. In the kingdom of God, Jesus says, many who are first will be last and the last will be first.

Distracted by politics and our ubiquitous culture war, Christians frequently lose sight of this teaching.  But then we have all these children on our doorstep, and the words of Jesus come flooding back to us.  And when that happens, we do what must be done.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)

OPINION: Views expressed in Baptist News Global columns and commentaries are solely those of the authors.
Tags:Alan BeanSocial IssuesJewishFaithful LivingImmigrationChildrenPublic PolicyChristianityJudaismreligion
More by
Alan Bean
  • Get BNG headlines in your inbox

  • Featured

    • First they came for them, then they came for us

      Opinion

    • U.S. immigration policies are harming persecuted Christians, evangelical leaders warn

      News

    • Hispanic students report highest levels of discrimination in some educational institutions

      News

    • Idolatry is alive and well today

      Opinion


    Curated

    • As psychedelic-assisted therapy grows, so does interest from a new group: chaplains

      As psychedelic-assisted therapy grows, so does interest from a new group: chaplains

    • Victims march to Rome to demand ‘zero tolerance’ on church abuse

      Victims march to Rome to demand ‘zero tolerance’ on church abuse

    • AI Has No Place in the Pulpit

      AI Has No Place in the Pulpit

    • This Christian text you’ve never heard of, The Shepherd of Hermas, barely mentions Jesus − but it was a favorite of early Christians far and wide

      This Christian text you’ve never heard of, The Shepherd of Hermas, barely mentions Jesus − but it was a favorite of early Christians far and wide

    Read Next:

    SoConCon links Focus on the Family with secular politics of Heritage Foundation and Koch groups

    NewsSteve Rabey

    More Articles

    • All
    • News
    • Opinion
    • Curated
    • First Fresh Expressions United Methodist gathering won’t go to Florida

      NewsCynthia Astle

    • 50 years later, Celebrate Life still is the wind we soar on

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom allegedly ‘manufactured’ wedding cases to battle gay rights

      NewsSteve Rabey

    • Never say never: The Now and Forever Windows at the National Cathedral

      OpinionGreg Garrett, Senior Columnist

    • LBJ’s Great Society hurt Blacks more than slavery, Tim Scott declares

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • For the Bible tells me so: The Bible and the Civil Rights movement

      OpinionKaitlyn Schiess

    • Candidates seek to increase LGBTQ representation in public office

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Templeton Foundation funds first-of-its-kind research into the religious ‘nones’

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Listen to the woman: Cassidy Hutchinson

      OpinionJulia Goldie Day

    • Cats and dogs at Bubba-Doo’s

      OpinionCharles Qualls

    • Hispanic students report highest levels of discrimination in some educational institutions

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Idolatry is alive and well today

      OpinionNapoleon Harris

    • Conspiracy theories link Jesus, JFK and Trump

      NewsSteve Rabey

    • First they came for them, then they came for us

      OpinionBill Leonard, Senior Columnist

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • U.S. immigration policies are harming persecuted Christians, evangelical leaders warn

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • The importance of remembering the March on Washington in 2023

      AnalysisJeremiah Bullock

    • Don’t call it burn-out

      OpinionTodd Thomason

    • SoConCon links Focus on the Family with secular politics of Heritage Foundation and Koch groups

      NewsSteve Rabey

    • Together for Hope names Appalachia director

      NewsBNG staff

    • Why potluck and Wednesday night dinners are important

      OpinionMaina Mwaura

    • Remembering BNG columnist Terry Austin

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Are Americans ‘spiritual’ or ‘religious’ or both or neither?

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Chi Alpha campus ministry leaders indicted in Texas

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Why the Haitian shoe seller can’t sell shoes

      AnalysisCynthia Vacca Davis

    • First Fresh Expressions United Methodist gathering won’t go to Florida

      NewsCynthia Astle

    • 50 years later, Celebrate Life still is the wind we soar on

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom allegedly ‘manufactured’ wedding cases to battle gay rights

      NewsSteve Rabey

    • LBJ’s Great Society hurt Blacks more than slavery, Tim Scott declares

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Candidates seek to increase LGBTQ representation in public office

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Templeton Foundation funds first-of-its-kind research into the religious ‘nones’

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Hispanic students report highest levels of discrimination in some educational institutions

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Conspiracy theories link Jesus, JFK and Trump

      NewsSteve Rabey

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • U.S. immigration policies are harming persecuted Christians, evangelical leaders warn

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • SoConCon links Focus on the Family with secular politics of Heritage Foundation and Koch groups

      NewsSteve Rabey

    • Together for Hope names Appalachia director

      NewsBNG staff

    • Remembering BNG columnist Terry Austin

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Are Americans ‘spiritual’ or ‘religious’ or both or neither?

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Chi Alpha campus ministry leaders indicted in Texas

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • This week’s BNG webinar: Amy Butler

      NewsBNG staff

    • A former victim of Boko Haram terrorism finds love in America; meanwhile, others remain in captivity 

      NewsAnthony Akaeze

    • Falwell accuses Liberty University of financial and sexual irregularities in legal filing

      NewsSteve Rabey

    • Samford students mark one-year anniversary with another silent protest for LGBTQ inclusion

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Most Americans see immigration as a good thing, but Republicans disagree

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • United Methodist court exonerates suspended Latina bishop on four charges

      NewsCynthia Astle

    • Kate Campbell is glad to be back in the room where it happens

      NewsMaina Mwaura

    • In South Africa, fire deaths shine a light on immigrant churches in ‘hijacked’ slum buildings”

      NewsRay Mwareya

    • Finding a pastor today is nothing like it was 30 years ago, consultants caution

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • SBC expels Oklahoma church over pastor’s racial impersonations

      NewsMaina Mwaura

    • Never say never: The Now and Forever Windows at the National Cathedral

      OpinionGreg Garrett, Senior Columnist

    • For the Bible tells me so: The Bible and the Civil Rights movement

      OpinionKaitlyn Schiess

    • Listen to the woman: Cassidy Hutchinson

      OpinionJulia Goldie Day

    • Cats and dogs at Bubba-Doo’s

      OpinionCharles Qualls

    • Idolatry is alive and well today

      OpinionNapoleon Harris

    • First they came for them, then they came for us

      OpinionBill Leonard, Senior Columnist

    • Don’t call it burn-out

      OpinionTodd Thomason

    • Why potluck and Wednesday night dinners are important

      OpinionMaina Mwaura

    • American idols: Andrew Whitehead on American faith and Christian nationalism

      OpinionGreg Garrett, Senior Columnist

    • Creating inner peace

      OpinionPhawnda Moore

    • ‘Nobody wants to be an addict’

      OpinionTambi Brown Swiney

    • Men and congregational singing: The rest of the story

      OpinionCharlie Fuller

    • Things Christians need to know, for our own sake, about Yom Kippur, Judaism’s Day of Atonement

      OpinionKen Sehested

    • The real religious crisis in America

      OpinionMartin Thielen

    • Fear of dancing and the courage to be serious

      OpinionGreg Jarrell

    • Ken and Angela Paxton do a little sidestep — while quoting Bible verses

      OpinionRodney Kennedy

    • This is why people are leaving the church

      OpinionJulia Goldie Day

    • Criticism of Andy Stanley is rooted in father wounds

      OpinionRick Pidcock

    • What do we mean by ‘affirming’?

      OpinionRobert P. Sellers

    • How long before a revolution?

      OpinionJamar A. Boyd II

    • On death

      OpinionGlen Schmucker

    • Al Mohler vs. Andy Stanley: What’s really going on?

      OpinionMark Wingfield

    • More religion in public schools raises concerns about religious liberty

      OpinionBryan Kelley

    • In biblical truth-telling, we need to mind the gap between clergy and laity

      OpinionMark Wingfield

    • A ‘sad day’ for America?

      OpinionRodney Kennedy

    • As psychedelic-assisted therapy grows, so does interest from a new group: chaplains

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Victims march to Rome to demand ‘zero tolerance’ on church abuse

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • AI Has No Place in the Pulpit

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • This Christian text you’ve never heard of, The Shepherd of Hermas, barely mentions Jesus − but it was a favorite of early Christians far and wide

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Greek court: Orthodox students cannot be exempted from religion classes

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Why separating fact from fiction is critical in teaching US slavery

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Everything is political, oh my! Why churches should build better capacity for political dialogue

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Pastors Wonder About Church Members Who Never Came Back Post-Pandemic

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Meeting between Jewish leaders and Benjamin Netanyahu broaches judicial overhaul — and gets personal

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • West Side Story: Diverse NY Church Represents 5 Continents

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • National Cathedral windows shift from themes of Confederacy to racial justice

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Culture War Is Not Spiritual Warfare

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • AI won’t be replacing your priest, minister, rabbi or imam any time soon

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Who is Siggy Flicker, the ‘Real Housewife’ behind Trump’s Rosh Hashanah message condemning ‘liberal Jews’?

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Ideological rifts among U.S. bishops are in the spotlight ahead of momentous Vatican meeting

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Two mainland China bishops to attend big Vatican meeting after tensions

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Nazi Germany had admirers among American religious leaders – and white supremacy fueled their support

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • How Japanese American Pastors Prepared Their Flocks For Internment

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Belly dancers, terrorists or taxi drivers: Arab American comedians spoof stereotypes

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Freedom struggles of China’s Christian rights lawyers

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • ‘Holy Food’ explores American history and religion through food

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Connecting With the Good News Generation

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • What’s the news impact of the intense racism investigation at Wheaton College?

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Who was Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the Sikh activist whose killing has divided Canada and India?

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Riding a wave of converts, one group aims to fuse Orthodoxy with Southern values

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    Conversations that Matter.

    © 2023 Baptist News Global. All rights reserved.

    Want to share a story? We hope you will! Read our republishing, terms of use and privacy policies here.

    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • RSS