In the Fall of 2025, I taught a Midweek class here at First United Methodist Church called Engaging Immigration. As we looked at biblical and theological sources and then heard from community partners engaging in work with immigrants, a truth that kept resounding is that immigration is a human story. People migrate (move) for all sorts of reasons: some are moving by choice with hopes of a better future, others are moving because they feel that it is the only way they can find safety and eventually be able to hope for a better future. While they eventually make the decision to move, that decision may have been prompted, if not expedited or forced, by natural disasters and/or by systems of inequality and oppression. Another humbling encouragement that came from this class experience was the reminder that we need to be willing to ask the immigrant and to listen if we truly want to learn about the cause and experience of their migration.
In their book Building Beloved Community: The Courage to Love in the Face of Tyranny, The United Methodist Council of Bishops includes a chapter entitled "Migration and the Politics of Fear." Our bishops wrote this book from a global perspective reflecting the cultures, languages, histories, and contexts of United Methodists all around the world. They address patterns that are bigger than any one time, place, or people. Migration– both the fact of and responses to– is considered in this regard. For as long as people have been migrating, there have been hopes, anxieties, and fears surrounding this experience. And the peoples of God have not always gotten this right: communities of faith have at times welcomed the migrant, and at other times embraced fear instead. The Council of Bishops reminds us of the stoking of fear regarding immigrant communities:
This cruel irony reveals one of the most troubling dynamics of our time: authoritarian movements both create the conditions that force people to migrate and then exploit fear of those same migrants to gain political power (100).
The language used to describe migration often mirrors the dehumanizing rhetoric that precedes violence. People become "floods," "invasions," or "infestations." Individual human beings with names, families, and stories become statistics or threats. The metaphors of warfare– "defending our borders," "fighting back," "invasion"– transform what should be seen as humanitarian concerns into military problems requiring aggressive responses (102).
These patterns, which can be seen all throughout the story of humankind, reflect a deeper fear often rooted in tribalism and a scarcity mindset: "Will there be enough?" "How will our culture(s) be shaped by one another?" "What might I lose?" Yet God's grace and abundance invite us to something deeper and richer, a shared experience of the life of God among us all (John 10.10, Acts 2.42-47, Hebrews 13.1-2, et al.). As God welcomes us, we are invited through God's reconciliation to offer and extend transformative hospitality to those we have the privilege of encountering on our journey. As The Council of Bishops goes on to write:
This episcopal leadership reflects our understanding that welcoming the stranger is not a political position but a theological conviction rooted in our understanding of who God is and who God calls us to be. Living as disciples in this way means pressing against cultural currents of extremism, nationalism and authoritarianism while modeling beloved community as salt and light in this world (104).
I would encourage you to check out this full chapter and book from The United Methodist Council of Bishops, as well as to dig deeper yourself starting with the sources listed below. In closing, allow me to offer you two quotes for further reflection. The first comes from Torah:
Do not mistreat the foreigners who reside in your land. The foreigner who lives among you must be treated like one of your own. Love them as you love yourself, for you too were a foreigner in the land of Egypt. I am YHWH" (Leviticus 19.33-34, The Inclusive Bible).
The second comes from Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu in his message entitled "God's Dream":
"God has made us so that we need each other. We are made for a delicate network of interdependence."
Supplemental Resources
After the Last Border: Two Families and the Story of Refuge in America by Jessica Goudeau
The Book of Resolutions of The United Methodist Church 2020/2024
- §2103. Globalization and Its Impact on Human Dignity and Human Rights
- §4271. Welcoming the Migrant to the US
- §4272. Faithfulness in Response to Critical Needs
- §4273. Global Migration and the Quest for Justice
- §4275. Concerning Immigration
- §4276. The United Methodist Church Is a Sanctuary Church
Building Beloved Community: The Courage to Love in the Face of Tyranny by The United Methodist Council of Bishops
Faith & Facts: Global Migration from The General Board of Church and Society
Reconciliation: The Ubuntu Theology of Desmond Tutu by Michael Battle
