Immigrant Neighbors among Us: Immigration across Theological Traditions

by M. Daniel Carroll Rodas (Editor), Leopoldo A. Sánchez M. (Editor), Juan F. Martínez (Foreword)

How do different Christian denominations in the United States approach immigration issues? In Immigrant Neighbors among Us, U.S. Hispanic scholars creatively mine the resources of their theological traditions to reflect on one of the most controversial issues of our day. Representative theologians from Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, Methodist/Wesleyan, Pentecostal, and Independent Evangelical church families show how biblical narratives, historical events, systematic frameworks, ethical principles, and models of ministry shape their traditions' perspectives on immigrant neighbors, law, and reform. Each chapter provides questions for dialogue.

162 pages, Paperback

First published September 11, 2015

About the author

Daniel Carroll Rodas (PhD, University of Sheffield) is distinguished professor of Old Testament at Denver Seminary in Littleton, Colorado, where he founded IDEAL, a Spanish language training program. He is also an adjunct professor at El Seminario Teológico Centroamericano in Guatemala City, Guatemala. He is the author or editor of several books, including Amos--The Prophet and His Oracles: Research on the Book of Amos and Theory and Practice in Old Testament Ethics, and is a contributing editor to Prism.

Reviews

[Karl Mueller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good book on immigration edited by Daniel Carroll. This book focuses on Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, Methodist, Pentecostal and Independent Evangelical perspectives on immigration in the USA. While the authors focus on Hispanic immigration issues, there is more than enough here that applies to all immigrants. If you have read other more foundational books on Biblical perspectives on immigration, then this is a good book to read. Each chapter provided some insight into the issue.

[Ricky Beckett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book accomplished what it set out to do. The collection of essays are by Hispanic Christians from various church traditions that seek to offer the perspective and approach to immigration issues largely through the systematic and historical theology of their respective church traditions. Not too long ago, as a person who typically identifies as a conservative and votes Republican, I used to be vehemently against harbouring undocumented immigrants in our land. That is, until I married an immigrant (documented) from Finland and met her immigrant friends, one of whom became an undocumented immigrant (though previously documented) due to forces outside her control. She no longer resides in this country because the system failed her. Ever since meeting my wife and dealing with the terrible complexities of U.S. immigration laws—especially as we are currently trying to get her her Green Card (which can take anywhere between 6 months and 2 years)—my perspective on undocumented immigrants has changed entirely. In addition to developing actual relationships with real-life undocumented AND documented immigrants and their stories that opened my eyes to their struggles and vulnerabilities, learning about my own church tradition's biblical stance on immigration helped me change my mind as well (Lutheranism, LCMS). Instead of being unapologetically cruel, we ought to be hospitable, like Christians are supposed to be.

I don't think this book aims to change peoples' minds. In fact, one of the authors in the book says he doesn't want to do that. Rather, its aim is to provide information on the various church traditions' perspective and history in support of the immigrant neighbour among us. It also has discussion questions for a Bible study group or some other group of some sort. But that doesn't mean this book won't change your mind if you despise undocumented immigrants in their desperate plights (and I hope it would change your mind). It would be a challenging read for such people. But how can we learn and grow if we don't read and/or listen to opposing points of view? Otherwise, you're just engaging in confirmation bias, which is a logical fallacy.

As an LCMS Lutheran, while there are certainly some theological things I don't agree with in each of the church traditions, there are things from each tradition we Lutherans can glean and learn from to incorporate into our own tradition. This doesn't mean I'm Democrat or liberal now. I'm definitely neither of those things. Sure, I think of myself as conservative, but not necessarily Republican. But rather than any of these labels, I instead aim to follow Christ faithfully, which one way of doing that is to be hospitable to our immigrant neighbour among us. I don't follow an elephant or a jackass; I follow Christ, the Lion of Judah.