The Christian Reformed Church’s Office of Social Justice led a group of 20 pastors and others to the Arizona- Mexico border from March 9-12 to expose them to issues of immigration that people on both sides of the border are facing.
Kelsey Herbert, a Congregational Mobilizer Fellow for the Office of Social Justice, says a goal of the trip was to encourage a greater dialogue in churches about looking at immigration from a faith-based perspective.
“Only about 10% of evangelicals say their faith influences their position on immigration. This makes sense when only about 20% of Christians have heard immigration talked about from the pulpit,” she says.
The experience was a stark reminder of how just how human, even to the point of death, immigration is and how the love that Jesus has towards immigrants is beyond human understanding.
Daniel Mouw, pastor of South Grandville Christian Reformed Church in Grandville, Mich. said he knew before he went on the trip that immigration policy is complicated. But the journey to the border underscored that it is far more complicated than he realized.
"The current immigration policy needs revamping; it is too complicated, too uneven, and too disruptive for far too many families,” he says.
“The Christian community needs to be talking together about this and communicating with our leaders. And we need to get those conversations started now because of the lives of millions of marginalized people are hanging in the balance.”
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