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Yahoo
27-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
We're Republican and Christian. Trump is wrong to order these refugees to leave.
Just before Easter, many Afghan Christians in the U.S. were told they had one week to leave or face deportation. In fact, many worshippers were aghast upon hearing that Afghan Christian members of their own community have received emails giving them one week to get out. This crisis stems from a decision by President Trump's administration to revoke these Christians' legal status, effectively ordering them back to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan after Easter. We are conservative evangelicals and long-time Republicans. We are also the descendants of Chinese & Taiwanese immigrants. As a child my (Rich's) grandmother told me horrific stories of the 'Rape of Nanjing,' which taught me how easily the innocent can be slaughtered when others stay silent. As followers of Christ we see these Afghan Christians as part of our spiritual family. Their plight compels us to speak out, even if it means questioning a president who is so popular amongst us Evangelicals. This moment has a dark historical parallel. In 1930s Germany, many Christians stayed silent while their Jewish neighbors 'disappeared.' Will we repeat that mistake now? Warren Buffett recounts how a Holocaust survivor shared with him that before making friends with someone, she looks at them and asks herself, 'Would they hide me?' If the Taliban were hunting down our Afghan Christian neighbors, would we hide them? As Christians, we know what Scripture demands. In the book of Hebrews, we're told to 'remember those who are mistreated as if you were suffering.' Our Afghan brothers and sisters in Christ are suffering. They face torture and death if sent back. Wouldn't sending them away now betray our Biblical values? Opinion: I wasn't expecting emotional reaction to Pope Francis' death. Yet it was there. American evangelicals overwhelmingly agree that we should protect refugees. A January 2025 Lifeway Research survey found: 70% believe the U.S. has a moral responsibility to accept refugees fleeing persecution. 74% support a law like the Afghan Adjustment Act to let Afghan evacuees apply for permanent legal status. Support for protecting refugees remains high even amongst evangelicals who voted for President Trump. Extending compassion to persecuted people isn't a liberal notion – it's a faithful Christian one. Deporting these believers is not an abstract policy. It will absolutely affect real people right here and right now. Some of these Afghans have American spouses or children. Sending them away will not only endanger them but will also rip apart families and churches. This is not who we are as a country and certainly not who we are as Evangelical Christians. As conservatives committed to the rule of law, we are deeply concerned. These Afghan Christians have done everything right. They came here legally after fleeing terror. U.S. authorities have thoroughly vetted them. They have filed asylum claims and are following all the rules. They have obeyed our laws and committed no crimes. In short, they pose no threat. Yet the government is pulling the rug out from under them and threatening to send them back to certain death – all because they loved Jesus and because they helped us Americans over there. This is unconscionable. Opinion: Changes to Social Security would cost average Wisconsin resident $7,000 a year We must not only pray but also act. We ask you today to contact your members of Congress and urge them to: Pass the Afghan Adjustment Act, a bipartisan bill to let these refugees remain in the US until their applications for permanent status can be fully adjudicated and Insist that the administration reopen the Refugee Resettlement Program that is currently suspended so that persecuted Christians still stuck in limbo abroad can once again find refuge in our great country. We cannot let them be sent back to danger and certain persecution. In Proverbs it is written, 'Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves.' Let's make sure our legislators hear that message. This is a defining moment. Will we be like those silent churchgoers in the 1930s, or will we be the ones who answer the call to 'hide' and protect the vulnerable? We pray that we choose courage and compassion, refusing to abandon our persecuted family in Christ. Rich and Lena Eng are conservative Evangelical Christians and longtime Republicans who have taught 'Faith & Politics' courses at their church. They are descendants of Chinese & Taiwanese immigrants who live in New Berlin. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Trump shouldn't order Afghan Christian refugees to leave US | Opinion
Yahoo
20-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
What does society owe to Christians who celebrate Easter?
As nearly 10,000 runners took to the streets of Jersey City, New Jersey, on Sunday for the city's annual marathon, churchgoers in the area struggled to find parking spots. Since this year's race fell on Palm Sunday, a popular religious service that starts the Holy Week journey to Easter, it was more disruptive than usual for the churches situated along the race route. Christian leaders and their congregants spent weeks this winter fighting for changes to the marathon plan, which they said would cause unacceptable disruptions to a sacred event. City officials acknowledged the frustration, but said, when scheduling the marathon, it was essentially impossible to avoid overlapping with a holiday of some kind. 'We are somewhat a victim of Jersey City's rich cultural and religious traditions and heritage,' said marathon organizer Steve Lipski during a city council meeting in March, according to the Jersey City Times. Although anyone who's organized a spring event likely sympathizes with Lipski's perspective, there's a growing sense among churchgoing Christians that the practice of pausing regularly scheduled programming during Holy Week has fallen out of style. It was once common for schools, sports clubs and other community organizations to acknowledge and accommodate religious aspects of the Easter season. Now, after major shifts in the U.S. religious landscape and, in the case of public schools, some legal battles, it's increasingly left up to Christians to carve out the time they need for Easter around secular events. To be fair, Christian attitudes about churchgoing likely helped drive the change. These days, even committed church members often feel comfortable missing worship services to sleep in, go on a hike or watch sporting events, said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research, which conducts surveys on faith and culture. 'Even on Easter, there's no longer this expectation that literally everybody's going to be there,' he said. The way McConnell sees it, an uptick in scheduling conflicts around Easter is a natural result of recent religious trends. Since 2007, the share of adults in the United States who identify as Christian has fallen from 78% to 63%, according to Pew Research Center. Today, just one-third of Americans say they attend religious services in person at least once a month. Nearly half (49%) say they seldom or never attend worship over the course of a typical year. To be clear, it's still common for Christians to attend church on Easter, and most Protestant pastors say the holiday is among the best attended Sundays of the year, as Lifeway Research reported in 2024. But Easter attendance has declined as church attendance overall has declined, and it's created a situation in which secular event organizers have more leeway to schedule competing events. 'Culturally, it feels like we're beyond the point' where organizations take Easter breaks, McConnell said. Another factor fueling scheduling conflicts this year is that Easter falls about as late on the calendar as the holiday ever does. Unlike Christmas, Easter is not celebrated on a fixed date. It's also not linked to a specific week in a specific month, as Thanksgiving is. Instead, Easter's date shifts each year because it's determined by a full moon. It generally lands between March 22 and April 25. 'The simplest way to explain the date of Easter is that it falls on the first Sunday after the full moon that follows the spring equinox,' according to USA Today. Last year, Easter was on March 31. This year, it's on April 20. Next year, it'll be on April 5 before moving back into March in 2027. While Easter jumps around, many secular events that happen each spring do not. That's why the NCAA's March Madness often involves a handful of Easter games, and why the Boston Marathon, held each year on the third Monday of April, falls on Easter Monday this year. When Easter lands in mid-April or late April, it's less likely for it to match up with spring break. Some schools still offer long weekends for Easter each year, but others have abandoned the practice in response to lower demand for time off or lawsuits claiming that public school holidays on Good Friday violate the First Amendment's establishment clause. The emerging norm in some schools is for Christian students to receive a religious accommodation to miss class for a Good Friday church service or some other Easter-related event. In other words, Christian families are taking the same approach used by non-Christian families who celebrate holidays that aren't widely observed in the U.S. Families can also ask to be excused during Holy Week from other types of community organizations, such as soccer clubs. It's unlikely there will be pushback, especially when around 8 in 10 Americans still celebrate Easter in some way, whether with chocolate bunnies or church services — or both. 'As American culture grows increasingly secular, big Christian holidays are still going to be within everybody's consciousness, and so Americans are not going to be surprised if someone is celebrating Easter or Christmas,' McConnell said. 'But there won't be a cultural expectation to cancel sporting events, work or other things happening.' Without cancellations, tough choices will sometimes have to be made. For example, Christian athletes who qualified for this week's NCAA gymnastics championships will have no choice but to spend Good Friday in Fort Worth if they earn a spot in Saturday's finals. Gymnasts from the University of Utah who are missing their typical Holy Week traditions are planning to create new ones in Texas by spending Good Friday doing charitable work. Utah gymnast Jaylene Gilstrap said she always leans on her faith during competitions, and that this weekend will be no exception. 'When I compete I really bring the Lord into it everything I do, with prayer and everything. So it's just another chance to show appreciation (to the Lord), to preach and give prayer, giving him a little extra love and support,' she said. For Christians who are frustrated by the current state of affairs, there are at least two reasons for hope that Easter weekend schedules may be more open in the future. First, some large retailers are showing interest in giving their employees additional time off. More than two dozen major stores, including Target, Lowe's and Costco, will be closed on Easter Sunday this year, a slight uptick from recent years, according to The Washington Post. Those closures likely have more to do with the rise of online shopping than renewed enthusiasm for the religious holiday, but the push to prevent worker burnout could still pay off for churchgoing Christians moving forward. Second, the situation in Jersey City shows that change is possible when Christians speak up. Although this year's marathon wasn't moved from Palm Sunday, community leaders have committed to holding the race in early May from now on. 'I want to make it the best for our community as well as the best for runners,' said Lipski, the marathon organizer, about avoiding religious conflicts in the future. Contributing: Trent Wood
Miami Herald
12-02-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Controversial ‘Hell has open borders' sign isn't about US immigration, IL church says
An electronic sign with a controversial immigration-related message lit up outside of a church in Illinois, but according to the church's pastor, the sign was not about U.S. immigration policy. 'Heaven has strict immigration laws. Hell has open borders,' flashed the sign outside of New Hope Community Church in Palatine, drawing backlash from several community members who took the sign as politically charged commentary against immigration. 'Part of why we moved to Palatine was the diversity — being able to show our kids that,' Katharine Huddleston told WLS-TV. 'Seeing something like this is really upsetting.' The message — which was displayed on the sign for about six days, according to Pastor James Pittman — comes amid new immigration guidelines from President Donald Trump's administration, including one directive that allows immigration officials to enforce laws in places of worship and other previously considered 'sensitive' locations. Twenty-seven religious groups filed a lawsuit Feb. 11 challenging the recent policy change, McClatchy News reported. For the church, however, the sign was meant to give community members an opportunity to examine their relationship with God, not an attack on immigrants, Pittman said in a Feb. 11 YouTube video addressing the controversy. In the video, Pittman pointed to Bible verses in the book of Matthew that reference a 'narrow gate' to heaven. 'We often times take issues of the day and put it up on our sign pointing people to the righteousness of God and who he is,' Pittman said in the video. Later in the video, Pittman stated that the church is 'against illegal immigration' as it teaches that Christians are to 'obey the laws of the land,' but he emphasized that the church's sign was not about that. Still, many thought the message was in poor taste and did not receive the pastor's justification well. His church sign is not only insensitive but also perpetuates harmful stereotypes. It's a thinly veiled attempt to stoke fears and push a divisive agenda, masquerading as a message of faith,' one person commented on Facebook. Some residents made plans to place signs of encouragement around the church, WLS-TV reported. According to a recently released Lifeway Research poll, a majority of evangelical Christians said they believe the U.S. has a moral responsibility to accept refugees and to help immigrants who are undocumented, McClatchy News reported. Palatine is about a 30-mile drive northwest from Chicago — a city that has received some of the most migrants in recent years, with about 40,000 people since 2022, according to the latest data from the Migration Policy Institute.
Miami Herald
11-02-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Do evangelicals support Trump administration immigration legislation? What poll finds
Evangelical Christians — a group seen by experts as one of President Donald Trump's biggest constituencies — have mixed views on his immigration legislation, a recently released poll found. Nearly three quarters of evangelicals (70%) said they believe the U.S. has a moral responsibility to accept refugees, with 34% saying they strongly agree and 36% saying they somewhat agree, according to a Feb. 5 poll by Christian media company Lifeway Research. When it comes to helping immigrants who are undocumented, however, the number of evangelicals who said they believe they are responsible to do so dropped to 55%, according to results. The poll of 1,004 Americans who identified as evangelical was conducted Jan. 13-21 and has a margin of error of 3.1%, researchers said. The results come on the heels of a Trump administration executive order suspending decisions on applications for refugee status, citing that the U.S. cannot take in large numbers of refugees 'in a manner that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans, that protects their safety and security, and that ensures the appropriate assimilation of refugees.' Evangelicals' views on immigration issues have been stable over the years, researchers said. A majority of those polled say they think immigration is helpful, but they want more legislation that respects the rule of law and dignity of every person, guarantees secure national borders, ensures fairness to taxpayers and establishes a path toward citizenship for those who are undocumented. 'Evangelicals' care for refugees and immigrants is as steady as their political preference,' Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research, said in a Feb. 5 news release. According to the poll, 80% of evangelicals say it is important that Congress passes significant new immigration legislation in 2025. Amid the Trump administration's mass deportation plans, the poll also asked evangelicals about which immigrant groups they thought should be prioritized for deportation. Sixty-seven percent said individuals who have been convicted of violent crimes should be prioritized, and individuals reasonably suspected to present a threat to national security were next at 63%, according to the poll. People who entered the country more than 10 years ago, are parents of at least one U.S. citizen child or are married to a lawful resident or U.S. citizen were at the bottom of the priority list, the poll found. Only 3% of evangelicals responded with none of the above, and 5% said they were not sure, according to the poll.
USA Today
06-02-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Evangelical Christians have mixed views on immigration, survey finds
Evangelical Christians have mixed views on immigration, survey finds Show Caption Hide Caption What we know: How far can immigration officials go under new laws? From executive orders on birthright citizenship to deputizing federal agents, how far can immigration laws go? Here's what we know. Evangelical Christians are supportive of legislative action to protect refugees and provide pathways for legal citizenship, despite sometimes mixed views on immigrants and their impact on U.S. society, a new survey finds. A new study from Brentwood-based Lifeway Research paints a quantitative picture of the messy reality for a religious group that's increasingly loyal to President Donald Trump's hardline politics but is also supportive of the ministry work of caring for those whom Trump's policies are targeting. As part of that, the data seems to align with some evangelical groups' recent statements about Trump's executive actions related to immigration and refugee resettlement. 'It's easy to presume the loudest evangelical voices on television or social media ‒ who tend to advocate the extreme positions of either mass deportation and shutting out refugees on one hand or open borders and amnesty on the other ‒ are the majority opinion, but this polling confirms my anecdotal experience in local evangelical churches across the United States,' Matthew Soerens, vice president of advocacy and policy at the evangelical nonprofit World Relief, said in a news release Wednesday about the new Lifeway Research study. World Relief was among several partner organizations that supported the recent survey administered by Lifeway Research, a division of the Southern Baptist Convention's publishing arm. Many of the same groups involved with the survey co-signed a Jan. 24 letter to the newly inaugurated president, asking Trump to reconsider suspending the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program and to modify an executive action that allows U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement to conduct detention activity at 'sensitive locations' such as churches and schools. 'President Trump, you have said that you want people to come into the country 'in the largest numbers ever' — but to do so legally,' the Jan. 24 letter said. 'Lawfully admitted refugees who have fled persecution on account of their faith could help you to achieve this goal, meeting the needs of the U.S. labor market in an economy we hope will thrive under your leadership, while also offering protection and freedom to individuals persecuted and denied religious liberty abroad.' The Jan. 24 letter's signatories included World Relief, the National Association of Evangelicals, the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, and the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, which is the Nashville-based SBC's public policy arm, and others. This spirit of dissent toward some Trump executive actions on immigration mirrors that of other U.S. religious groups, especially the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Both evangelical Protestant and Catholic groups, including conservative and Republican-leaning ones, are on the frontlines of ministering to immigrants and refugees. This sympathy toward refugees on an institutional level among evangelicals is reflected in Lifeway Research's new study, which found 70% of respondents believe the U.S. 'has a moral responsibility to accept refugees' and 64% say 'Christians have a responsibility to care sacrificially for refugees and foreigners.' Among the study's 1,000-plus respondents, 61% voted for Trump in the 2024 election and 50% identify as conservative. But only 31% of respondents said the positions of elected officials have influenced their views on immigration, whereas more evangelical respondents cited personal encounters with immigrants as influencing their views. 'Evangelicals' care for refugees and immigrants is as steady as their political preference, but some leaders may not be listening,' Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research, said in a news release Wednesday. Still, multiple surveys ahead of the 2024 election in November identified immigration as a top issue for many evangelicals who planned on voting for Trump, of whom more than 80% ultimately did so. Some of that discourse is also present in the latest Lifeway Research study. More than 40% of respondents in the Lifeway Research study say immigrants to the U.S. 'are a drain on economic resources' and 'a threat to the safety of citizens.' In contrast, only 25% of respondents said immigrants' benefit 'America's cultural diversity' and 16% agree immigrants are 'a boost to entrepreneurial activity.' Some of the statistics showing that evangelicals believe immigrants are harming the U.S. economy and society are higher than similar data reported by Lifeway Research in 2024 and 2022 studies. A quarter of respondents said immigrants who have entered the country in the past five years should be 'prioritized for deportation' and 45% of respondents support at 'zero tolerance' policy at the U.S.-Mexico border. But Lifeway Research also found a wide appetite for legislation that creates pathways for citizenship, with 81% of respondents showing support for 'bipartisan immigration reform' that includes a path to citizenship for Dreamers, those who were brought to this country as children. Digging deeper: Immigrants power job growth, help tame inflation. But is there a downside for the economy? Liam Adams covers religion for The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at ladams@ or on social media @liamsadams.
