We evangelical Christians should advocate for immigrants as strongly as for the unborn

Earlier this month, I traveled to Washington, D.C., at the invitation of the National Association of Evangelicals to speak to my elected officials on the topic of immigration reform. We specifically focused our conversations around the need for a permanent pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, including those who have benefited from Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and Afghans who were evacuated to the U.S. last summer but offered only temporary legal status.

As an evangelical pastor, I am compelled to advocate on the basis of my faith convictions, rooted in the precepts and practices of Jesus, who declared “I was a stranger and you welcomed me” in Matthew 25:35. To trace the foundation of this work even deeper, it stems from the same root that compels me to advocate for the unborn: the truth from Genesis 1:27 that all people are made in the image of God and are thus endowed with dignity, worth and value.

Interestingly enough, I was in D.C. advocating for immigration reform the same day the draft opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court regarding Roe v. Wade was leaked. I say interestingly because within the Christian worldview, these are both pro-life issues.

Unfortunately this is not how these issues are often framed in the public square or fit within the political zeitgeist of our cultural moment. More often than not, abortion and immigration are fundamentally seen as partisan issues, with the former primarily the concern of Republicans and the latter the concern of Democrats. Yet within the biblical worldview, there is no such line of ideological demarcation. Both are matters of biblical justice and are thus worthy of attention, advocacy and action.

While most evangelicals have no need to be convinced that advocating for the unborn is an inherently Christian concern — and most in the broader culture expect that position from us, whether they share our convictions or not — the same cannot be said as confidently regarding the work of welcoming and caring for the immigrant. This is perplexing to me, because the Scriptures repeat countless times the importance of seeking justice for the foreigner. Those commands are often directly tied to the heart of God and the identity of God’s people.

Leviticus 19:34 tells us: “You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”

This is why as a Christian, an evangelical pastor and a Kansan, I am compelled to advocate both for the “Value Them Both” amendment at the state level here in Kansas, which seeks to protect both vulnerable women and unborn children, and for federal policies such as the Dream Act, which would allow DACA recipients and other Dreamers to apply for permanent legal status.

While they may appear to be ideologically opposed to one another, based upon the polarized partisan perspectives we tend to view all issues through, the faithful follower of Jesus sees no tension in standing for them both. In fact, the vast majority of Americans are in favor of a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, especially if paired with improvements to border security and to reforms to ensure a legal, reliable workforce for our country’s farmers and ranchers. A recent poll found that 79% of Americans — and an even larger share of evangelical Christians — want to see Congress work toward a bipartisan solution that bundles together these three key immigration priorities.

After speaking with Kansas’ two U.S. senators, Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall, I was encouraged to know that they too desire to see a bipartisan bill to allow a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers. I urged them to put those sentiments into action and to collaborate with senators in both parties to actually pass legislation. And my hope is that a Dreamer solution would be just a start, building the will for bipartisan solutions for broader immigration reforms. Maybe that makes me a dreamer, too.

Reid Kapple serves as the campus pastor of Christ Community Church in Olathe.