Our Christian Call to Compassion and Companionship

Christians around the world wrestle with the moral dimensions of national and international policies and practices. During the week in which many across the United States will celebrate the Declaration of Independence, with its commitments to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, many Christians are grieved about current immigration practices in light of their commitments to faithful compassion and civil engagement.

Most of us are not policy makers with the requisite education and experience for shaping strategy and executing programs related to immigration laws or appropriate processes for fair adjudication. However, we do have the competence and should have the commitment to insist on ethical and humane principles that do not terrorize and traumatize children and adults. The integrity of our Christian witness in a fractured and fearful world requires followers of Jesus to call for reasonable resolutions that provide security and stability for all.

Governments have the responsibility to uphold law, security, and order. However, these aims must be pursued in a manner that reflects the values of dignity, compassion, and fairness. Policies that separate families, detain children, deny due process, or force the return of individuals to unsafe environments do not reflect God’s justice.

Scripture is unequivocal in its call to welcome the stranger, to protect the vulnerable, and to seek justice for the marginalized. Jesus Christ was a refugee as a child (Matthew 2:13–15). As an adult, he said to his disciples, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Matthew 25:35). God’s heart for the outsider is undeniably clear.

Observing laws, borders, and national sovereignty is appropriate. However, these things should never become instruments of injustice or excuses for indifference. All Christians should be troubled by words and actions that dehumanize migrants, weaponize fear, and disregard the image of God in every person.

Christians are not first citizens of any nation-state but citizens of the Kingdom of God. Our allegiance is to Christ, who broke down the dividing walls of hostility (Ephesians 2:14) and called us to be reconcilers. We are not called to participate in or tolerate fear and exclusion.

Christians and churches should stand in solidarity with immigrants and refugees in their communities through advocacy, aid, pastoral care, and companionship.

Christians and churches should courageously call on political leaders to shape and steward humane and fair immigration policies and practices.

Christians and churches should commit themselves to hospitality, which is central to our identities as disciples of Jesus.

Fuller Seminary seeks to form Christian leaders whose faithfulness to Scripture and its authority shapes their compassion for, and witness in, the world. We are called to engage complex realities with biblical fidelity, theological wisdom, and pastoral courage.

Let us pray and speak and act. Let your light shine so that people can glorify God.

In the grace of the One who welcomes us so that we are no longer strangers,

David Emmanuel Goatley
Clifford L. Penner Presidential Chair

David Emmanuel Goatley, PhD, is the Clifford L. Penner Presidential Chair and president of Fuller Theological Seminary. A respected theologian and former leader at Duke Divinity School and the Lott Carey Baptist Foreign Mission Society, Dr. Goatley is known for his scholarship, global perspective, and commitment to justice in Christian mission.