Faith, Justice, and Immigration

Consider what you do, for you judge not for man but for the LORD. He is with you in giving judgment. Now then, let the fear of the LORD be upon you. Be careful what you do, for there is no injustice with the LORD our God, or partiality or taking bribes. 2 Chronicles 19:6-7

Within Christianity, we are divided by many schisms. One such schisms, the topic of today’s blog, has a fault line that runs through the issue of social justice. The best historical example of this that comes to my mind involves racial inequity and Martin Luther King Jr. As the civil rights war raged on, Martin Luther King Jr. – a Baptist pastor – fully expected the support of white Christianity. Instead, he got silence at best. At worst, he received direct criticism and rejection. He was assassinated before I was born, but still, I remember that in my white evangelical culture we didn’t celebrate the man or champion his cause. In my memory, this was in large part, because of his own moral failings. In the eyes of many, his multiple extramarital affairs disqualified him from being a pastor, moral leader, or social justice crusader.

Conservative Christianity saw Martin Luther King Jr. as a liberal charlatan who championed social justice while giving sexual sins a pass. This may have been a convenient excuse to avoid racism and segregation, but, at least in my experience, was a very real reason that white Christianity couldn’t support him. It also displayed the fact that within Christianity, there are those who are more interested in social justice and those who are more interested in personal holiness. As a Christian, I felt like I had to pick between the two.

Today’s passage, however, reveals that justice is an attribute of God and that it cannot be separated from, but rather is an integral facet of, personal holiness. God loves justice and desires that his people are champions of it. To pursue holiness is to pursue justice and to ignore justice is to offend God. A Christian shouldn’t have to pick between personal holiness or justice, but rather, should pursue both.

This has played out in real time over the last year for me. As ICE cracked down on illegal immigration in Minnesota, like a lot of people, I wanted to believe that they were only after the worst of the worst criminals. As I personally witnessed the innocents who were swept up in their crusade, I had to reconsider my position. Maybe I’m wrong, but it appeared to me that white, evangelical Christians were largely on the side of ICE. I wasn’t anti-ICE, but I couldn’t stand back and do or say nothing. In my observation, innocents were suffering an injustice and as a Christian, it was my moral duty to object. Jesus loves justice and hates injustice. If I call myself a Christian, then I must strive to be like him.