Conservative Evangelical Denomination Repents for Providing Basic Human Rights Information to Immigrants
- Norman Viss
- Feb 15
- 3 min read
On January 9 the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) through their North American church planting arm (Mission to North America) posted a website entitled “Helpful Resources for Churches to Share with Immigrant Members and Neighbors as They Prepare for Upcoming Policy Changes 2025”.
It gave a list of resources and information so that immigrants of all kinds (including undocumented immigrants), and those supporting immigrants, would know what their rights are as the Trump administration rolls out its “crackdown” - "shock and awe" - on illegal (and legal) immigration.
Here is the website (an archived version because the page has since been taken down):
Go ahead, click the links: there is information about the rights of every person regardless of immigration status, and how to ensure that those rights are protected. The information is designed for immigrants under threat of arrest and those communities who believe that immigrants have rights that should be protected and desire to be supportive of immigrants.
On Feb 12 MNA took the website down and apologized - no, not just apologized, repented - for posting it.
“We affirm that it is our Christian duty to obey the lawful commands of the civil magistrate and be subject to their authority (WCF 23.4; Romans 13:1-4; 1 Peter 2:13-14). To counsel otherwise is a sin. We confess that we fell short of our Biblical and Confessional standard. We repent and apologize. We also apologize for causing confusion and consternation in our church…MNA’s Refugee & Immigrant Ministry, along with other MNA ministries, seeks to serve our churches with resources that enable them to faithfully follow our Lord’s call to love the stranger. However, MNA does not engage in providing legal advice, political campaigning or partisan positions…”
Every single person living has basic human rights, even the most hardened violent criminal on death row. It is not a sin, political campaigning, or partisan to advise people of their basic rights under international and American law. The fact that the PCA would consider this kind of advice political or partisan shows how political they have become.
That MNA and the PCA would consider this kind of advice worthy of repentance goes against biblical and American values. It is a result, I believe, of 10 years of the drip, drip, drip, of dehumanization of immigrants since DJT came down the escalator and declared Mexican immigrants to be (mostly, not all of them, of course, there are probably some good people among them) criminals and rapists. That kind of language, resulting in heartless and cruel policies, has continued and escalated, and evangelicals have succumbed to it like a frog boiling to death as the water temperature slowly increases.
Now they can’t even distinguish between advising someone to do something illegal and advising someone of their rights.
I am heartbroken, furious and deeply discouraged about the church.
You may wonder why I care. I am not a part of the PCA. I care because these are my people. This is where I come from, I was formed in the theology and culture of the PCA. People I know and love belong to the PCA. I do not understand how this can be, in light of what the Gospel of Jesus actually is.
Please, any PCA people reading this, for the love of Christ, communicate to your leaders and encourage them to follow Jesus, who preached good news for the poor and freedom for the captive.
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