Who are our neighbors?
A startlingly large number of Americans support immigration arrests in houses of worship.
Source image: Thomas Berberich / iStock / Getty
Just two days into his second term, President Donald Trump, self-declared defender of the cross of Christ, took action to make churches less safe: he reversed a long-standing federal policy preventing immigration agents from arresting people inside houses of worship.
A new survey confirms that Trump did this with solid support from his political base. According to the Pew Research Center, 52 percent of Republicans say they are in favor of immigration arrests inside houses of worship. Only 15 percent of Democrats say they support this policy. A similar number of Republicans (50 percent, compared to 9 percent of Democrats) also say that deporting people living in the US illegally would make life better for “people like them.”
People like them. This small phrase is perhaps the weightiest part of the survey data. Is our moral responsibility only for those we consider to be like us? What if we had the chance to ask Jesus, “Who is our neighbor?” What would we want his answer to be?
