Three conversations over a recent weekend have me ruminating about immigration, the Church, and American confidence.
On Saturday while grilling on his back porch, a friend of mine noted with disapproval how those of British nationality are now a minority in London (in actuality 41 percent of Londoners were born outside of the UK according to the UK Office for National Statistics, but close enough). He believes that native-born British aren’t permitted to object and that their capital is demographically no longer theirs.
This friend shares many of my core Christian convictions and was educated at a military service academy and an Ivy League graduate school. He is intellectually curious and attends a suburban megachurch. He also regularly engages with the podcast offerings of the New Right that have displaced legacy media. While he isn’t an Anglican, I’ve encountered similar talking points in the online fringes of my own church tradition, including discussion of “Heritage Americans.”
I don’t share my friend’s distress (possibly because I’m from Colorado which has a low percentage of native-born residents, and live outside Washington, D.C. where seemingly nearly everyone is from elsewhere). It’s preferable, in my view, to live in a place where many want to move to rather than a place many are relocating from. The capital of any large empire inevitably attracts diaspora populations from its far-flung territories, and the British Empire was no exception.
This is also seen in churches, where Roman Catholic clergy from Cameroon serve French parishes or Nigerians and ethnic Karen from Myanmar populate Anglican ones. An Anglican mission board that I serve with historically focuses on reaching “Unreached People Groups” – those without an indigenous church or access to the gospel. While we send workers to places including Central Asia and North Africa, we also now have such people working domestically among unreached populations that have come here. Their work has been fruitful.
Those who had no hand in governing an empire long since dismantled by the time of their birth shouldn’t be required to indefinitely prop open a door, my friend argues. I hear his concern, but I think it reveals a lack of confidence in both the resilience of Western institutions and culture. America, especially, has an extraordinary track record of successfully assimilating vast populations, although moments of mass migration had significant friction (Colorado had its own early challenges with miners who came to work in dangerous, low-paying conditions and, unaccompanied by families, created some trouble).
My friend is probably less concerned about people immigrating from elsewhere, and more concerned with those who might resist assimilating into the society of their new home. That’s a legitimate concern, but is not what I have experienced.
After church on Sunday, I joined friends and their families at a nearby restaurant. Some at the table were of Chinese background, some ethnic Korean. As we chatted over bowls of spicy noodles, fried skewers and steamed rolls, church-attending families with two parents shared family stories. It could have been 1950s America, except that most at the table were not of European ancestry.
One new friend came from Malaysia to study for his PhD at a university in Oklahoma. He and his family are members at our historic Anglican church. They’re far from unusual in the melting pot of suburban northern Virginia, which welcomed populations of Vietnamese in the 1970s, Salvadorans in the 1980s, Koreans in the 1990s and Mongolians and Indians in the 2000s. All have churches that reach their communities, now joined by Ethiopians and Filipinos. Several friends in my church community originate from these cultures.
On Saturday morning I enjoyed conversing with a local small business owner who is about my age. As a teenage immigrant from Brazil, he dreamed of owning his own bicycle repair shop and loves operating that business today, which facilitates community by organizing group rides. It’s a welcome outlet amidst a present culture less inclined to join institutions and foster male friendship (see Bowling Alone). I’ve known him long enough to learn that we share a faith in Jesus Christ. He and his wife, son and in-laws are part of the fabric of Falls Church, Virginia.
As I see people from other backgrounds come to the United States and strengthen my church and neighborhood, I’m not nervous – I’m encouraged. In recent months I’ve met newcomers in my own parish with ancestry from India, Cameroon, Afghanistan and an assortment of other nationalities. Some are Christians, some are considering the gospel message for the first time. One is now preparing for baptism. A longtime friend from Sri Lanka at another nearby parish became a U.S. citizen, as did a friend from Argentina. Other church friends shared with delight that they had befriended neighbors from Cambodia.
A final note: this isn’t intended as a “don’t fear change” message – nearly anyone could identify that as a tiresome trope. New populations do present new challenges and governments have borders for good reason. But for those of us shaped by Christian faith, we can see how God is opening doors for our church ministries in this season. In a generation my congregation will probably look different than it does today, but by God’s providence this parish founded in 1732 will still be sharing the gospel, and the need for it will be just as strong as today.
More from IRD:
Inaugural Tennent Annual Lecture on World Christianity
Churches and Rightward Movement in Germany
Comment by Not white, nor right wing, and completely fed up on September 1, 2025 at 9:45 am
1. Minimize problem
2. Misrepresent the many who object to it as few
3. State problem is not real because you personally have not experienced it and disagree with friend
4. Present immigrants as unilaterally harmless
5. Rebrand their criminality as “refusal to assimilate” and thus remove its fangs and intent
6. But the food, though; immigrant food is sooo goooooood
7. Lie God approves and ignore John 10:1
Yep, textbook communist.
We see you all, and your time is running out.
Comment by Qohelet on September 1, 2025 at 10:42 am
Thank you for your comments Jeffery. This is orthodox Christianity and frankly orthodox US Citizenship. Despite my views being on the liberal side, I once had the honor of helping a fundamentalist Free Will Baptist church with their Hispanic ministry. They were one of the last white churches in an inner city district and they took “love your neighbor” very seriously. It was a reminder to me that despite our differences Christ calls all of us, and those answering the call can be different from one another.
Comment by Not white, nor right wing, and completely fed up on September 1, 2025 at 11:07 am
Qohelet and Jeffrey are disobedient to Christ. Perhaps they should reacquaint themselves with the actual word of the Son of God:
10 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.
– Jesus Christ, John 10:1 KJV
This is the final word on immigration. It is SATANIC.
Comment by Qohelet on September 1, 2025 at 11:50 am
That’s quite the out of context quote. If the immigrants are theives (what John 10 is actually about.) then why is ICE raiding workplaces and rounding up simple laborers?
There are very vew things the Bible is as clear on as our duty to treat foreigners well. Among my favorite verses is Deuteronomy 10:17-19 (KJV)
For the Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward:
He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.
Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Mistreating the foreigner is not part of our Judeo Christian heritage. Be careful who you’re calling Satan.
Comment by David on September 1, 2025 at 12:05 pm
The US needs immigrants given our falling birthrate. Already, it was reported that there are 100,000 manufacturing jobs going begging. Americans refuse these for better paying jobs in the service sector. Expelling farm workers has led to food rotting in the fields for lack of pickers. There are also other labor shortages. Japan is the poster child of population decline with a lack of truck drivers, etc.
Immigration should be legal and orderly.
Comment by Dan W on September 1, 2025 at 12:18 pm
Fun Fact: New Testament authors Saint Mark, Saint Luke and Saint Paul were all immigrants!
I haven’t been to the U.K., but I wonder how many of the areas occupied by “newcomers” were first abandoned by the Brits? If you abandon the old neighborhood, you can’t expect the folks moving in to keep it the way it was when you lived there.
Comment by Gary Bebop on September 1, 2025 at 12:21 pm
Jeffrey Walton scores some good points with this writeup, but he skips too lightly over matters that concern the discerning Christian (who seek to be “wise as serpents, harmless as doves”). Maybe he will take up some of these matters in a future article.
Comment by Gary Bebop on September 1, 2025 at 12:41 pm
One commenter has it right: “Immigration should be legal and orderly.” The Apostle Paul accents this in 1 Corinthians. God is not the author of disorder, and the church should model God’s will in this. If we are not able to articulate this clearly, then we still immature in our thinking and need to grow up in our assimilation of scripture.
Comment by Glenn Wheeler on September 1, 2025 at 3:00 pm
The author, and many others, apparently do not appreciate that in order for a society to survive long-term, it has to have a culture. A culture is a set of shared attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, customs, and outlooks.
But then, maybe they do know that…
Comment by John on September 1, 2025 at 3:10 pm
Did someone on here really just call Jeffrey Walton a communist? LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Comment by John on September 2, 2025 at 12:27 am
Glenn Walker,
And exactly what parts of your culture do you feel are being threatened by immigrants? It can’t be religion. The majority of new immigrants to arrive in the U.S. (both legally and illegally) are Christian and most of them more observant than native-born Americans. Korean, Latino, and Filipino churches are all a lot more full on Sundays than those attended by native-born Americans. It can’t be language. Despite fears to the contrary over 90% of immigrant families will speak English as the first language by the second-generation (which is consistent with other periods in American history in case you’re wondering). It’s not sports. The baseball diamond and the basketball court are deep in the melting pot already. Some of the top professional athletes in this country come from somewhere else. It’s not music. Even some of the most popular names in country today have come from somewhere else. It’s not food. That’s the center melting pot for sure. Even the most die-hard Anglophile Americans probably eat pizza and tacos more times a week than shepherd’s pie or bangers and mash. It’s not politics. Naturalized immigrants today as well as times past tend to fully embrace and participate in our political processes. By-and-large they support democracy, individual liberty, and freedom of religion. In fact (and as you of all people know all too well Glenn) the loudest voices speaking out against American democracy and classical liberalism are native-born, home-grown, and white Americans.
Comment by Glenn Wheeler on September 2, 2025 at 7:53 am
So, John, I was right…they do in fact know that no society survives long-term without a culture. Now that we’ve established that and know the true intent behind immigration, people can stop trying to hide the true intent brhind the screen of “Jesus said to be nice to them.”
Comment by Qohelet on September 2, 2025 at 9:06 am
Glenn
I’m perfectly willing to admit that I prefer hardworking immigrants in the tradition of my Irish ancestors to the paranoid and cruel people in power right now. We’re not supposed to care that Jesus called us to care for the vulnerable? I hope your culture gets replaced with traditional American and Christian values as fast as humanly possible.
Comment by John on September 2, 2025 at 10:55 am
Glenn,
I’ll ask again, what aspect of your culture is being threatened by immigrants? It’s not religion, not language, not music, not sports, not food, and certainly not political ideals which don’t even seem to hold anyway. So what is it?
Comment by Corvus Corax on September 2, 2025 at 1:01 pm
The percentage of foreign-born persons in the United States is currently higher than it has ever been. Assimilation is good, but for assimilation to occur there must be something coherent for newcomers to assimilate to. America’s “track record” of successful assimilation (dubious, but granted for the sake of argument) occurred during periods of intense racial and ethnic immigration quotas, specifically written to prevent the demographic transformations we currently observe.
Personally, I do not see our increasingly polarized and stratified society with its increasingly international and transient population as positive developments. Apparently it is not now uncommon for immigrants who cannot read highway signage to gain commercial driving licenses and operate semi-trucks on our interstates. Sometimes they make illegal u-turns and wipe out whole families. Whatever demographic problems the Japanese have, that isn’t one of them.
We also hear that immigrants do jobs that “Americans are unwilling to do.” This is perhaps true, only insofar as Americans demand an American wage and American occupational health & safety standards (things their ancestors rightly fought, and in many cases died, to achieve). Employers unable to fill vacancies with Americans must do what employers have always done throughout history: raise wages and improve working conditions.
Comment by John on September 2, 2025 at 2:07 pm
Corvus Corax,
Ok. Let me just point out that you’re holding it against immigrants that native-born Americans today are so polarized and divided even though this has nothing to do with immigration. Nor is there any reason to believe limiting immigration will solve the polarization problem. Quite the opposite possibly. Americans were also deeply polarized in the 1850s, which was also a period of high immigration. The U.S. did not start instituting immigration quotas until 1921, so that argument is mute.
Your claim about the commercial licenses is not true. The FMCSA clearly states an individual must demonstrate enough proficiency in English to obtain a commercial driver’s license. The vast majority of traffic accidents and cases of vehicular homicide are caused by native-born American drivers just as the majority of violent crimes are committed by native-born Americans. Once again, don’t blame the immigrant for your problems.
I’m all for higher wages and more jobs for Americans. Now explain how you’re going to make the companies do it? In the past we had unions to petition for workers, but we’ve gradually eroded the hard-won power and influence of organized labor since the 1950s so that now there’s no one who can advocate for the American worker with with employers except for the politicians who’ve been offering them tax breaks for the last 50 years and saying, “Pretty please.” Are we get behind organized labor again or are we just going to keep scapegoating the immigrant?
Comment by Corvus Corax on September 2, 2025 at 4:42 pm
John, you’re just shooting from the hip here. You should probably take a look at some of the scholarship surrounding ethnic diversity and polarization. Here’s a freebee to get you started. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpos.2022.920615
As to your second paragraph, google “Harjinder Singh.”
It’s also possible to get behind organized labor and oppose uncontrolled immigration at the same time. In fact, it’s the only logically coherent position, because the bargaining power of unions presupposes a limited pool of potential laborers. If an employer can simply hire from across the Rio Grande or use the H1B system to circumvent domestic hiring, native workers will never be able to improve their conditions.
I’m not “blaming the immigrant,” by the way. I don’t blame anyone who wants a better life. But wanting a better life is not sufficient justification for entry into this country.
Comment by John on September 2, 2025 at 7:33 pm
Harjinder Singh was a case of a state board breaking the law by issuing him a license. Like I said we do have laws already in place to protect us from drivers who can’t read signs. We just need to enforce them better.
In the absence of a large cheap labor force, which sadly is pretty much a precondition of modern capitalism, most companies will likely just continue to move overseas. If the immigrants can’t come to the mountain, the mountain will go to them. You’re also assuming that pay is the only issue and that anyone will do a job if paid enough. If that’s true let ask you this. How much would someone have to pay you to go down into the coal mine every morning? How about to pick fruit from dawn to dusk in 105 degree temperatures?
Find a more reputable source for your claims on immigration and polarization. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frontiers_Media.
Comment by Qohelet on September 2, 2025 at 9:04 pm
John and Corvus
The problem with your argument is that you’re both right about different things. Corvus is correct that employers use illegal hires to skirt workplace and environmental safety protections. John is right that our economy actually currently needs foreign born workers to stay afloat. In fact an easy way to stabilize Social Security would be blanket amnesty for everyone here that’s gainfully employed and not a dangerous criminal.
The problem doesn’t lie with people like you two who genuinely care about human dignity. The problem lies with the cynical who have stopped any meaningful immigration reform since 1987. This has become too easy a cudgel to win elections with for anyone to actually fix the problem. And this is why America is falling apart.
Comment by David Gingrich on September 3, 2025 at 8:39 am
Your friend is right.
Calling him “fringe” is a lie.
Comment by Jeffrey Walton on September 3, 2025 at 11:05 am
David, indeed, he’s not fringe. I’ve established here that he’s a mainstream evangelical, and that is among the reasons that his concerns are well worth engaging with. I noted that I’ve heard talk of “heritage Americans” at the online fringes of my own tradition, I never said that he used the term (he did not).
Comment by Wilson R. on September 3, 2025 at 9:53 am
Paul and the early church proclaimed as truth the message of Colossians 3:11: “Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scyth′ian, slave, free man, but Christ is all, and in all.”
It looks like some commenters have utterly rejected that teaching in favor of national and ethnic identities.
Comment by Skipper on September 3, 2025 at 12:02 pm
London has a Muslim mayor. How is that working out for them?
Comment by Gary Bebop on September 4, 2025 at 11:17 am
The mainlines do themselves no credit by arguing for unvetted immigration. The public is sick of reckless policies. Immigrants who enter legally and assimilate culturally will be welcomed.
Comment by Wilson R. on September 4, 2025 at 12:16 pm
I don’t know of any mainline denominations that advocate for unregulated immigration (assuming, charitably, that’s what you mean by “unvetted” rather than vetting them by race or ability to speak English).
There does seem to be a strong consensus for an immigration policy that (1) maintains strong control over our borders; (2) doesn’t allow asylum seekers to move freely around the country while their claims are being adjudicated; (3) creates more pathways for guest workers; and (4) creates more legal pathways to citizenship (think Ronald Reagan) for those who have been here, put down roots, and abided by the law.
Comment by Gary Bebop on September 4, 2025 at 4:34 pm
Because I am a mainliner in a blue state, I am very familiar with how the conversation works with respect to borders, immigration, sanctuary, and more. My experience has been that these conversations follow a pattern of ingenious doublespeak and euphemism. Ambiguity provides cover.
Comment by Mark on September 4, 2025 at 9:16 pm
Gary Bebop,
As opposed to the red states where they just hate all immigrants whether they’re here legally or not.
Comment by Gary Bebop on September 5, 2025 at 11:43 am
Mark, you have just made a false witness.
Comment by Mark on September 5, 2025 at 12:14 pm
Gary Bebop,
I’m from a blood red state in the Buckle of the so-called Bible Belt. I think I’m as qualified to make bold statements about my neighbors and their intentions as you are about yours.
Comment by Gary Bebop on September 5, 2025 at 11:13 pm
You are making a false statement that fails on prima facie terms. Review your statement. You testify falsely about something you are not able to verify. It’s a fatuous statement and does advance the conversation.
Comment by Mark on September 6, 2025 at 1:56 pm
I have frequent conversations with people here who believe white genocide is real. A town less than 20 minutes from my house almost elected a white supremacist mayor last year. My state legislature tried to make it a crime for members of its body to even propose immigration reform. Several of the our state’s leading Republican politicians made a name for themselves by trying to illegally prevent the building a mosque in a major suburb a decade ago to serve a growing community of Kurdish immigrants who are here completely legally. When a non-partisan report came out showing that our state’s immigrant population (must of whom are legal) were an actual net economic asset rather than burden on the state, the legislature (which had commissioned the study in the first place) tried to repress it. I just learned this year a state park where I used to go camping has been the site of an annual white supremacist gathering for years and that same group is now building its own private community in another part of my state. You made a blanket statement about liberals and mainliners being dishonest about their positions on immigration. I gave you a taste it’s like as a liberal living in a red state way down in Dixie. In my “personal” experience many red state conservatives in private settings do not distinguish between legal and illegal immigrants in their line of attacks. They tend to see both as a threat and do not get upset when someone gets deported who broke no laws and was here legally. If you think this just about securing the border you’re being naive.
Comment by Diane on September 7, 2025 at 12:21 am
Metro DCis where I’m from. Suburban churches in the 1960s – when suburbs were white – intentionally partnered with downtown churches, bringing youth groups together. I was a teenager back then and I credit the adults in my church with teaching us kids that a welcoming, inclusive church is the future. Today, fifty years later, that church is ethnically and racially diverse. I’m a Zoom member of another DC metro area church that’s open and affirming. It, too, is diverse. Several new-start immigrant congregations rent its space for their worship and while they’re not open and affirming, all of the congregations have a joint worship and potluck following several times during the year. Immigrants bring with them a contagious vibrancy of spirit and vision.
Comment by Wilson R. on September 8, 2025 at 12:33 pm
Mark:
From your post, I realize that we live in the same southern state. What you describe is absolutely accurate.