• Latest
  • Trending
immigration travel passports visa

The Great Commission, Immigration and Christian Hypocrisy

October 17, 2017
jesus statue Christ the Redeemer

Why Is There Christianity If Jesus Was Jewish?

September 21, 2023
JoAnne Epps

Temple University Acting President JoAnne Epps Dies Suddenly on Campus

September 20, 2023
UMC Bishop Minerva Carcano in a 2008 file photo

UMC Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño Suspended, Faces Church Trial

September 20, 2023
doctors

Just 2 Percent of US Doctors Are Latina. These Women Want That to Change.

September 20, 2023
COGIC Presiding Bishop J. Drew Sheard

Head of Major Black Christian Group Backtracks on Mormon Partnership, Apologizes for Causing ‘Discontent’

September 18, 2023
Slavery memorial at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

Christian Seminary Founded by Enslavers Thankful for Forced, Unpaid Labor

September 18, 2023
Kirk Franklin and Richard Hubbard

Kirk Franklin Finally Finds His Birth Father After 53 Years

September 18, 2023
Pastor Kevin Smith

Pastor Kevin Smith Is First Black Man in SBC Org’s History to Serve as Chairperson

September 18, 2023
vehicle car

Here’s How to Donate a Car to Charity and Write It Off as a Tax Deduction

September 13, 2023
Tony Evans and Carla Crummie engaged to be married

Dr. Tony Evans Engaged to Former Pastor’s Wife and Widow Four Years After Lois Evans’ Death

September 12, 2023
Haiti

Christians Plea for Prayer, Help Amid Haiti’s Surging Gang Violence

September 12, 2023
Coco Gauff prayer

Coco Gauff Talks Faith After US Open Win: I Don’t Pray for Results; I Pray for Strength.

September 12, 2023
Faithfully Magazine
Cart / $0.00

No products in the cart.

  • About
    • Advertise
    • Submit Content
    • Give Via PayPal
  • Q&As
  • Specials
  • Subscribe
  • Shop
  • Events
    • Community Events
    • FM Live Q&As
  • Black Christian Content
  • Log In
Donate
No Result
View All Result
  • About
    • Advertise
    • Submit Content
    • Give Via PayPal
  • Q&As
  • Specials
  • Subscribe
  • Shop
  • Events
    • Community Events
    • FM Live Q&As
  • Black Christian Content
  • Log In
No Result
View All Result
Faithfully Magazine
Home Features

The Great Commission, Immigration and Christian Hypocrisy

Beth Watkins by Beth Watkins
October 17, 2017
in Features, Inspiration
Reading Time: 8 mins read
0
immigration travel passports visa
389
SHARES
ShareTweetPin It

Editor’s note: In light of ongoing debates and looming legislation regarding the status of immigrants impacted by DACA, the travel ban and other related issues, as a former missionary, and one who still supports and affirms missions, the author shares what she views as inconsistencies in Evangelical thought and practice regarding immigration, particularly as it relates to missions.


A group of friends—a married couple, their newborn and their two young, single friends—get three-month visas to visit the United States. They are Muslim missionaries, passionate about America and really want to share the truth of Islam with this people group. They’ve been praying over these Americans for years and speaking about them in mosques to raise support for their mission. They are so excited to share the prophet’s teachings.

They arrive in the U.S. with their three-month tourist visas and when asked by customs agents about the purpose of their visit, say they’re here to see America and visit friends. They’re not outright lying. They will go see a few museums and national parks. They just omit fundamental details about the true intention of the trip—converting lost Americans to Islam.

Perhaps they also fail to mention that they in fact intend to stay for a few years, to focus on language and culture. They would really love to start some Quran studies in the community and maybe even start a new mosque, if things go really well.

RelatedArticles

migrants

When Faith Says to Help Migrants — and the Law Says Don’t

May 23, 2023
couple with child

Missionary System That Brought US Man Accused of Abusing African ‘Orphans’ Was Always Deeply Flawed

May 3, 2023

They know they will have to renew their visas in a few months, but have a plan for a few different avenues to try when the time comes. Maybe they will try to get business visas. Or, if that doesn’t work out, they could see about enrolling in a school that can fix visas for them. Sure, they might overstay their visas in the time it takes to figure this out—but, no sweat. They are working for God. He is in control. The logistics and the laws come second when you are following God.

Right?

Reading that story, you might have felt shock or outrage. America is a country of laws, after all. You might feel that people who flout immigration rules don’t deserve to stay, particularly people coming in to disrupt our traditions, beliefs and values.

Now, the above scenario is unlikely—American immigration rules are incredibly difficult to flout. Visa processing, particularly for people in the Middle East, involve rounds and rounds of screening, interviewing, evidence checking and cross-checking. But replace our hypothetical Muslim missionaries with Christian missionaries and swap the United States with an African or Middle Eastern nation, and you’ve just described the basic operating procedure for a large number of Christian organizations—missionaries, evangelists and service teams. This includes me, as well.

When it comes to Christian missions and service, we grant ourselves benefits we would deny others, and flout rules abroad that we fervently demand adherence to at home. We are immigration hypocrites.

When I lived for two years in a closed country in North Africa, many people in my ex-pat community had immigration woes. The government didn’t smile so much at Westerners and didn’t let a whole lot of us in, and didn’t let us stay without good reason. It wasn’t always easy for people to get a visa, and it became increasingly difficult the longer people were there to prove their legitimacy in the country. People had to get really creative about how they acquired visas, resorting to student visas, business visas and NGO work visas. As a last-ditch attempt, some even went home and got new passports, and started the process all over again.

The two years I was in this North African country, I received my visa through a language school. While I was technically there to learn Arabic, I had an ulterior motive—a noble one, arguably, but ulterior nevertheless—to work at a street boys’ center helping vulnerable children grow in their education and skills and opportunities.

While my visa was legitimate, it didn’t reflect my true motivation or vocation in that country. “Working” was not allowed on my visa, so we said I was “volunteering.” But I was being paid, by churches and friends outside the country who were supporting me to work with these boys. If anyone ever asked, we said my time at the boys’ center was for language practice.

Many missionaries are legitimately in other countries. There are a few countries that even have special missionary visas. But these are a minority; most of these countries are “reached,” as they say. In the rest of the world, workers need a “platform”—also known as a legitimate reason—to be in the country.  This is why many missionaries are also students, teachers, nurses, businesspeople or entrepreneurs, because they need to wear another hat to be in many countries that are not predominantly Christian. And, if a missionary is a student, teacher, nurse or entrepreneur, while on that visa, great! But I have lived in several different countries for various lengths of time and attended enough missions conferences and retreats to know that this is more an exception than the rule.

I know Americans (missionaries, among others) who jumped through dubious hoops as matter of course, paid bribes, overstayed their visas and lied to customs officials. I know people who have been on renewed tourist visas for years. There are some entire families, technically not allowed to work in the countries they are in, running schools or organizations on paper as volunteers that are on their sixth year of tourist visas.

In America, some would call these people “illegals.”

People I know, love and respect immensely have been in other countries illegally for weeks, months and even years. People feel entitled, or at least justified, because they are there for God. Or perhaps they believe it is unfair or unjust to be denied a visa and so choose to game the system, because the system is keeping the Good News out. They figure—like our hypothetical Muslim missionaries—that they are working for God, so the laws of man are, perhaps, secondary.

Ultimately, though, it comes down to privilege—the privilege of coming from wealthy and powerful countries.

While I don’t pretend to know the mind of government officials renewing visas abroad, having a powerful government on our side helps, as does the U.S. dollars lining our pockets—oftentimes a more reliable currency than local ones. Paying for expensive visas and contributing to the local economy can be a boon for countries that may not even want us there. Putting up with a bit of proselytizing is worth the value we bring into the country.

But political power counts, too. Even when I was interrogated in said closed country before my expulsion, I was treated very differently from my friends from Uganda, Egypt and other African countries. They were threatened and beaten, and I was not, although I was still terrified. I was treated less harshly because of my U.S. citizenship—and the threat that stands behind it.

These are the overt ways privilege plays out. But ultimately, we use our privilege to justify our behavior in moral terms: because of our nationality, other countries’ rules shouldn’t apply to us.

Sometimes, this moral argument is explicitly made. In South Sudan, with a few exceptions, my friends and I who were working for nonprofits had to pay $100 every month to renew our visas. It was a half day, each month, of waiting in several lines outside in the muggy heat, dealing with grumpy, distracted men in uniforms with large guns. We all hated the process, and most of us treated it with a lot of disdain—and shared stories over drinks on the Nile about how unfair it all was. We were coming here to help this country. Why should they make us jump through these hoops? Our virtue, we implicitly said, meant we should be exempt from obeying rules we saw as inconvenient.

But $100 and 3 hours every month or so—there was no Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to track down violators, so lapses weren’t uncommon—is practically nothing compared to the process for a South Sudanese to even try and come visit America, much less be allowed to live here indefinitely on false pretenses.

Our privilege blinds us to just how hypocritical all of this is. We say we want to take the gospel to all nations and people groups (many of these in closed countries), support people to do so and expect open borders for the sake of the Great Commission—but simultaneously close our borders to people fleeing these same countries we’re pursuing.

Our privilege makes us see the world upside down. Wealthy Western Christians have no inherent right to set up shop in any country of their choosing. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights says everyone has the right to seek and enjoy asylum in another country—and yet we deny refugees and asylum-seekers admittance to this country in the same moment that we attempt to get around other countries’ legitimate immigration laws.

If we’re going to eschew the laws of man in favor of the laws of God, then we should at least be consistent. If we take seriously Jesus’ directive to go make disciples of all nations, necessitating breaking the law in certain countries, then we should also take seriously his directive to welcome the stranger, the sick, the sojourner and the refugee.

If we are loud about going where the unreached and the hurting are, then we should be equally loud about allowing the unreached and hurting into our own borders—whether we are stayers supporting goers, or goers sent out by stayers.

My husband is an immigrant, so we know first-hand how complicated the immigration process to come to America is. On the day my husband was to have his green card interview at the U.S. embassy in the third country where we were living, I posted on social media asking for prayers because we had a lot riding on it: we’d sunk over $1,000 and countless hours over 11 months on paperwork alone, and I urgently needed to go back to the U.S. for my health. The outpouring of love and support we received was tremendous.

A former missions professor of mine, from a leading Christian university, replied to the post, too, having sensed an opportunity to talk politics. He posted flippant comments and false statements about emigrating to America, essentially defending a ban on certain migrants based on their religion. In his view, it was a good, Christian thing to defend the border from Muslims—even those with legitimate rights to visas through family, work or asylum.

I was extremely disappointed that a professor—of missions, no less—took a post from a former student, on the field and asking for prayer, and used it as an opportunity for political point-scoring. I knew we disagreed on many things, but I did not expect such behavior.

A few months later, the same professor posted on Facebook asking for prayers for he and his wife: they were missionaries in another country and needed help with their immigration status. They needed support—and seemed annoyed about it, too—because the paperwork was expensive and time-consuming.

The irony was not lost on me.

A person who had been extremely outspoken about his desire to keep America safe, block emigrants and ban people on the basis of bringing a foreign religion into the country, was himself seeking extended residence in another country so he could keep importing his faith. He expects open borders, as long as they are not his own.

He is an immigration hypocrite, and he is not alone.


Beth Watkins spent six years working with street children, refugees and other vulnerable populations in North and Sub-Saharan Africa. Beth holds a B.A. in Religion in Cross Cultural Studies and speaks regularly at churches about her experiences overseas. She is currently settling back in the U.S. with her immigrant husband. You can find her on her website, Facebook and Twitter.


Share This Post

Share via

Share This Post

  • Digg
  • Tumblr
  • Flipboard
  • SMS
More
  • Report
Advertisement
Ancestry US
389
SHARES
ShareTweetPin It
Beth Watkins

Beth Watkins

Beth Watkins spent six years working with street children, refugees and other vulnerable populations in North and Sub-Saharan Africa. Beth holds a B.A. in Religion in Cross Cultural Studies and speaks regularly at churches about her experiences overseas. She is currently settling back in the U.S. with her immigrant husband. She writes at www.iambethwatkins.com.

More Features

doctors
Wellness

Just 2 Percent of US Doctors Are Latina. These Women Want That to Change.

September 20, 2023
Tulsa massacre survivor Viola Fletcher shares her story in the memoir Don't Let Them Bury My Story
Features

Tulsa Massacre Survivor, 109, Is Oldest Woman in the World to Release a Memoir

August 19, 2023
install solar panels
New Jersey

What New Jersey’s Community Solar Program Means for Renters and Low-Income Residents

July 31, 2023

Discussion about this post

Most Shared Articles

  • Can Money-Making Microgrids Empower Black Churches to Close the Clean Energy Gap?...
  • Kirk Franklin Finally Finds His Birth Father After 53 Years...
  • Dr. Tony Evans Engaged to Former Pastor’s Wife and Widow Four Years After Lois Evans’ Death...
  • Coco Gauff Talks Faith After US Open Win: I Don’t Pray for Results; I Pray for Strength....
  • Newark Pastor Timothy Huff Left in Critical Condition After Being Shot in Home...
  • Churches Asked to Ring Bells in Remembrance of Little Girls Killed in Birmingham Church Bombing...

From The Archive

sacred writes
Faithfully Magazine

Faithfully Magazine’s Sacred Writes Partner Scholars Announced

by FM Editors
May 5, 2019
missing women of color
Crime

How Can States Help When Women of Color Go Missing?

by FM Editors
October 2, 2021
slavery
Books

The Weeping Time: When More Than 400 Men, Women, and Babies Were Auctioned Off

by FM Editors
April 30, 2018
Omarosa Manigault
Clippings

Omarosa Marries Pastor John Allen Newman at Trump’s DC hotel

by FM Editors
April 10, 2017
Sister Thea Bowman Faithfully Magazine
Features

Trailblazing Black Nun Sister Thea Bowman on Path to Possible Sainthood

by FM Editors
June 18, 2019
Facebook Twitter Youtube Instagram
Faithfully Magazine

Faithfully Magazine is a news and culture publication centered on Christian communities of color.

Recent News

  • Why Is There Christianity If Jesus Was Jewish?

Category

© 2023 Faithfully Media, LLC (Owner and Operator)

  • News
  • Opinion & Analysis
  • Inspiration
  • Web Exclusives
  • Specials
  • Shop
  • Events
    • FM Live Events
    • Community Events
  • Black Christian Content Links
  • About Us
    • Advertise With Us
    • Submit Content
    • Give Via PayPal
  • Log In to Your Faithfully Magazine Partner Account
No Result
View All Result

© 2023 Faithfully Media, LLC (Owner and Operator)

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms bellow to register

*By registering on our website, you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
Share via

Share This Post

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • Email
  • WhatsApp
  • Copy Link
  • Tumblr
  • Digg
  • Flipboard
  • SMS

Add New Playlist

Log In

Sign In

Login with Facebook
Login with Twitter
Forgot password?

Don't have an account? Register

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Back to Login

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Accept

Add to Collection

  • Public collection title

  • Private collection title

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.
Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?
Send this to a friend