Immigration/Refugee issues

1] As I write, two very different bills addressing comprehensive immigration reform move into a congressional conference committee. Since this public immigration debate began, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) has asked Lutheran churches, leaders and individuals to communicate concern to their representatives. [2] As a cooperative agency of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America […]

[1] All Americans are immigrants. Some of us got here sooner than others some of us remember our immigrant roots more clearly than others but at one point in our personal past, a number of our ancestors decided to strike out for a new land and a new life. Their decisions continue to affect us […]

[1] The current debate over immigration in the U.S. is plagued by myths, inadequate theoretical frameworks, and ideological and political motives that seek to scapegoat unauthorized or undocumented[1] immigrants[2] for many of this country’s economic, political and social problems. In this essay, I attempt to clarify some of the issues involved in this debate by […]

The works reviewed in this issue approach migration through three different lenses — academic, artistic and activist. Professor Laura Alexander reviews Tisha Rajendra’s Migrants and Citizens: Justice and Responsibility in the Ethics of Immigration (2019). Rajendra addresses questions of political philosophy, arguing that Christian ethical thought can enhance global dialogue on migration and prompt Christians to understand […]

Introduction [2] Galatians teaches us about justification by faith, but also—and this is my thesis—more about God’s calling Paul on mission to ethnic others than we have perceived. Precisely in Galatians, Paul also teaches us about God’s ethnic inclusion of emigrants,[1] about valuing all ethnicities.[2] [3] First, I give a contemporary context to this reading […]