{"id":4891,"date":"2020-11-03T00:10:26","date_gmt":"2020-11-03T00:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/?p=4891"},"modified":"2020-11-03T00:10:26","modified_gmt":"2020-11-03T00:10:26","slug":"welcoming-the-stranger-rethinking-our-language-of-hospitality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/welcoming-the-stranger-rethinking-our-language-of-hospitality\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcoming the Stranger? Rethinking Our Language of Hospitality"},"content":{"rendered":"

[1] We face a country increasingly riven by racial, ethnic, and religious conflict, conflict that often revolves around the figure of the immigrant. The incarceration of children on the border and President Trump\u2019s call for four U.S. congresswomen of color to \u201cgo back\u201d to their countries (even though all are U.S. citizens and three of the four were born in the United States) are only two of a seemingly unending list of examples. In the midst of these crises, Christian churches have again and again raised their voices. In response to President Trump\u2019s 2017 executive order banning Muslim migrants, for example, ELCA presiding bishop Elizabeth A. Eaton noted, \u201cThe Bible calls us to welcome the stranger and treat the sojourner as we would our own citizens.\u201d This language echoes language from the ELCA\u2019s social message on immigration, which draws on a passage from Leviticus 19: \u201cYou shall love the stranger as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

[2] The idea of \u201cwelcoming the stranger\u201d is not unique to the ELCA; the phrase appears frequently in Christian theological responses to immigration. A recent book by Matthew Soerens and Jenny Yang,\u00a0Welcoming the Stranger<\/em>, has the phrase in its title; the US Catholic bishops\u2019 website includes the phrase in its teaching on immigration; and the Church World Service, an ecumenical organization that responds to issues of global poverty, discusses the importance of \u201cChristian hospitality and welcoming the stranger.\u201d[2]<\/a>\u00a0Though the language is widespread, it sends a mixed message that undermines its presumptive goal. On the one hand, it offers kindness and generosity. But, on the other, it identifies newcomers as \u201cstrangers,\u201d as \u201cone of them,\u201d not \u201cone of us.\u201d In this article I draw on research with Christians in twenty congregations across rural Nebraska and Iowa, most of whom are white and whose churches are responding in some way to recent immigration, to illustrate how this language plays out \u201con the ground.\u201d I then suggest how we might reframe our language to cultivate a just and reciprocal community in which all welcome and learn from each other.<\/p>\n

Language Matters<\/strong><\/b><\/p>\n

[3] Our language matters. Let me begin with one classic example. In 1974 Elizabeth F. Loftus and John C. Palmer asked research participants to think about a video of a car accident they had been shown. When the participants were asked \u201cAbout how fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?\u201d the participants provided much higher estimates of the cars\u2019 speed than when alternatives such as \u201cbumped\u201d or \u201ccontacted\u201d were used. They were also more likely a week later to say they had seen broken glass in the video, even though no such glass was present. All this with a single word. Theologians, too, clearly recognize the power of theological language to shape our lives. Sallie McFague, for instance, devoted an entire book to the role of metaphor in our theological language, arguing that \u201cit is only as the basic metaphors in which we imagine the relationship between God and the world change that our way of being in the world will change.\u201d[3]<\/a>\u00a0While she is speaking specifically about how we conceptualize God, our religious language about other people has similar power to affect our lives.<\/p>\n

[4] A body of research has demonstrated that the way reality is framed shapes our understanding and behavior across a range of contexts. Media frames about immigration, for instance, shape attitudes toward migrants and possible policy responses. George Lakoff and Sam Ferguson note, \u201cEach framing defines the problem in its own way, and hence constrains the solutions needed to address that problem.\u201d[4]<\/a>\u00a0They note that the dominant narrative about immigrants as \u201cillegal aliens\u201d frames the situation as a problem of law and dehumanizes the people involved. In contrast, they note that using the language of \u201ceconomic refugee\u201d cultivates a sense of compassion and an understanding of the forces leading people to migrate. The words we choose shape how we think and respond.[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

[5] Anthropologist Mary Douglas notes, \u201cThough we laud charity as a Christian virtue, we know that it wounds.\u201d[6]<\/a>\u00a0In great part this is because the benefactors\u2014those providing the charity\u2014retain control. They decide who to help, how much to help, which ways to help, and under what conditions. Welcoming the stranger is a parallel experience. We welcome people into our homes, our businesses, our churches. Note the pronoun \u201cour.\u201d The person doing the welcoming has the power to define the terms of the interaction; the visitor is subject to those terms. You are in my home now. You are welcome to visit, but it is still\u00a0my<\/em>\u00a0home. Adding \u201cstranger\u201d to the phrase reinforces the dynamic. The visitor is not \u201cone of us\u201d but instead \u201cone of them.\u201d While the idea of welcoming the stranger is grounded in notions of hospitality and care, too often today that hospitality and care comes with strings attached to an unequal power dynamic.<\/p>\n

Experiences with Immigration in the Rural Midwest<\/strong><\/b><\/p>\n

[6] While there may be no direct line tying the framing of immigrants as \u201cstranger\u201d to the actions of Christians responding to newcomers in their communities, people in mainline Protestant congregations in the rural Midwest communities I studied, in a context of increasing Latinx immigration, see\u00a0the immigrants\u00a0as \u201cstranger\u201d in a way that often hinders compassionate, welcoming, and reciprocal responses.[7]<\/a><\/p>\n

[7] Immigrants from all over the world, but especially Latin America, have moved to the rural Midwest over the past three decades.[8]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0Iowa and Nebraska, for instance, have seen the population of Latinx people increase by nearly 500 percent between 1990 and 2016, the most recent year for which Census estimates are available.[9]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0Those shifts are likely to continue; a recent report estimated the Latinx population in Nebraska would more than double, to 24 percent, by 2050.[10]<\/a>\u00a0Many longtime residents of rural communities notice that their communities have been upended, with demographic change one\u00a0marker of broader shifts, including a \u201cbrain drain\u201d as youth move from small towns to cities and an\u00a0economic transformations\u00a0caused by\u00a0the greater use of technology in farming.[11]<\/a><\/p>\n

[8] Between 2008 and 2010, I interviewed Christians in Nebraska and Iowa whose churches were responding in some way to recent immigration. In total, I interviewed thirty-two people representing twenty mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic congregations and religious organizations.[12]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0Those I spoke with were clear about what was happening to their communities. Nancy, the pastor of a mainline Protestant congregation, explained it to me this way: \u201c\u200aThe community had a certain sense of itself at one point. That whole sense has shifted. [It] is not the community it once was, nor will it ever be that way again. And so there\u2019s grief. There\u2019s anger.\u201d[13]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0The same forces at work in rural communities are also at work in predominantly white rural churches. Ruth, a Protestant layperson, told me, \u201c\u200aSunday services, we used to have the children\u2019s sermon. They don\u2019t even have it any more because there\u2019s so few kids. Hardly none. It\u2019s really sad.\u200a\u201d Father Luke explained that, in his parish, \u201cIt\u2019s kind of like a funeral watch or geriatric ministry.\u200a\u201d Although there are clearly multiple causes for rural community change, some find it difficult to avoid turning correlation into causation: communities have changed\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>newcomers have moved in, so the newcomers must be causing the uncomfortable change. Some of my interviewees struggled with the question of causation throughout our interviews. Esther went back and forth between positive portrayals: \u201cI live around them [Hispanics]. . . . They\u2019re nice people. . . .\u201d and negative attributions: \u201cBut it\u2019s just those few [Hispanics who cause trouble]; they ruin it for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

[9] In the midst of concern about changing communities and the role of recent immigrants in that change, some churches, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, have been reaching out to newcomers in their communities. For example, churches in the region are providing social services, including free meals and immigration support, offering services in Spanish, and inviting small immigrant congregations to rent space from them. Yet ambiguity about immigrants and sometimes outright hostility is also present in these responses.\u00a0This is particularly true in mainline Protestant churches.\u00a0Congregation members often perceived new Latinx community members to be either Catholic or Pentecostal and thus not immediately a part of the mainline Protestant congregation\u2019s community.[14]<\/a>\u00a0Renting congregations are rarely part of mainline traditions\u2014nearly all of those in the churches I studied were Pentecostal\u2014and thus full welcome and inclusion seemed untenable to the mainline congregants. Many respondents talked about the very different worship style of the \u201cnesting\u201d congregations, with loud music and simultaneously verbalized individual prayer and speaking in tongues. In other words, there is no clear mandate to include this new group, nor is there a sense that the Anglo community should change to learn from newcomers.<\/p>\n

[10] Again and again, without my inquiring, Protestant laypeople brought up the idea that the newcomers to the community were fundamentally different from them. Pastor Lucy relayed what her parishioners said about Latinos\/as, identifying a sense that the newcomers were not and could not be part of their mainline Protestant community: \u201cAren\u2019t they all Catholic? Shouldn\u2019t we just let the Catholic Church deal with these kind of people? If they really want church, they\u2019d be coming anyway.\u201d Jonathan was even more direct: \u201cMy gut is that\u2014and this is going to sound terrible\u2014sheep herd with sheep, cows herd with cows.\u201d<\/p>\n

[11] Many Protestant pastors experienced the effort to welcome newcomers as dangerous, taken at some risk to their well-being and their jobs. In a couple of cases, this opposition became more pointed after joint events at which Anglos and Latinos were brought together for conversation, a meal, and festivities. In one instance, loud music was the catalyst, as Pastor Gabe explained to me: \u201cI had cautioned [the renting congregation] many times that the music needed to be quiet [during the event].\u201d He continued, \u201cIt was like Black Sabbath loud . . . and I immediately knew there was going to be a backlash.\u201d Afterward, Pastor Gabe noted: \u201cI just cooled everything down with everybody because it was either that or . . . I was the person whose head was going to roll.\u201d Others, such as Pastor Madison, noted that because of congregational backlash they were unlikely to schedule additional events bringing the two communities together. At best, the invitation among Protestants was a call to \u201cCome, be like us,\u201d as one pastor characterized it. At worst, the invitation was no invitation at all.<\/p>\n

[12] Pastor Jim explained, \u201cMost of these communities are ill-prepared for the change that faces them. And, in most cases, are reluctant to engage that change in any positive way.\u201d He continued: \u201cWe simply want people to become like us. . . . We are not, as a dominant white culture . . . interested in shifting any of the rules, regulations, procedures, processes. . . . If you can do it the way we do it, great. If you can\u2019t, fine, it\u2019s nice to have you around, but don\u2019t mess with anything.\u201d The desire to maintain social arrangements also filtered down to the congregational level. Jonathan, a Protestant layperson, said something similar about resistance to change, describing what he perceived to be the dominant perspective in his congregation: \u201cWe\u2019re not going to change, they should learn to like us like we are, the way we worship.\u201d In other words, efforts to welcome presumed a nonreciprocal relationship in which the newcomers change and the receiving community remains the same. As one might imagine, such an invitation is much more attractive to the group in power than to the group being invited to change.[15]<\/a>\u00a0We see here echoes of the problem identified earlier: \u201cStrangers\u201d are coming; we ought to welcome them. The \u201cstrangers\u201d are here, and they are not like us.<\/p>\n

Reframing Our Theological Language<\/strong><\/b><\/p>\n

[13] In light of these challenges, how might we rethink our theological language? If one of the problems of identifying immigrants as \u201cstrangers\u201d is the implication that they are \u201cother,\u201d then reframing the conversation may open space for new ways of thinking and acting.<\/p>\n

[14] Samuel Gaertner and John Dovidio, in their work on aversive racism, discuss the role of a \u201ccommon in-group identity\u201d for bringing people together.[16]<\/a>\u00a0Gaertner and Dovidio cite a number of studies indicating that recategorizing someone as an in-group member increases the sense of shared beliefs and may encourage empathy, greater self-disclosure, trust, and cooperation.[17]<\/a>\u00a0For example, in an experiment conducted outside a football stadium prior to a game, white and black \u201cinterviewers\u201d approached fans entering the stadium. The interviewers wore caps with either the home team\u2019s logo or that of the opposing team. Sharing a team identity with black interviewers substantially increased the likelihood that white people who were approached would consent to an interview.[18]<\/a>\u00a0Moreover, Gordon Allport highlights working together on a common goal as another feature of effective intergroup contact.[19]<\/a>\u00a0In other words, finding ways of working together and understanding oneself as \u201con the same team\u201d enhance the possibility of true mutuality.<\/p>\n

[15] There is some evidence of these strategies at work in rural communities. For instance, a natural disaster in one small town brought together the Anglo and Latinx communities out of necessity. Father Luke explained to me that though there had originally been \u201ca lot of resentment, a lot of fear\u201d in the community, some of that has changed because of the unified community response. Immediately following the disaster, \u201cLatinos helped in the rescue efforts.\u201d And, in response, Anglos began to think, Father Luke explained: \u201cWow, these Spanish aren\u2019t so bad after all! They care!\u201d The responses of the Catholic parishes I studied illustrate the common in-group identity that Gaertner and Dovidio describe. Both the people previously in the community and the newcomers are perceived as part of the same group.\u00a0Although there was also resistance to welcome among Catholic laypeople, they recognized a fundamental \u201cfamily resemblance\u201d between themselves and the newcomers to their community and thus the need for some response. At the same time, the path to full mutuality remained a long one.<\/p>\n

[16] These two examples have something important in common: they create the conditions for the possibility of equality, even if equality remains a distant ideal. The same can be true of the metaphors we use to think about immigrants. The familiar parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25\u201337) might provide one clue about how to do this. While the parable is sometimes reduced to a simple lesson about caring for one\u2019s neighbor, its claims, like those of so many of Jesus\u2019s parables, are much deeper. In the parable, Jesus describes the caring response of the Samaritan, the \u201coutsider,\u201d to the wounded man on the side of the road after others in the community had passed him by. The Samaritan is not welcomed, helped, or cared for; rather, he is the exemplar, the one who offers welcome and care. We are called by Jesus to learn from the \u201cstranger.\u201d<\/p>\n

[17]\u00a0Stephanie Spellers argues that congregations should engage in \u201cradical welcome,\u201d which she explains is \u201cthe spiritual practice of embracing and being changed by the gifts, presence, voices, and power of The Other: the people systemically cast out of or marginalized within a church, a denomination and\/or society.\u201d[20]<\/a>\u00a0By reenvisioning our relationship with newcomers to our communities as an opportunity to learn, to engage in mutual recognition and care, perhaps we can begin to shift the frame from \u201cstrangers\u201d entering our communities to a family reunion, where long-lost relatives, children of God all, meet each other for the first time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jeremy\u00a0<\/strong><\/b><\/em>Rehwaldt<\/strong><\/b><\/em>\u00a0is a professor of religion at Midland University in Fremont, Nebraska.<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong><\/b>He is<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0grateful for a grant from the Louisville Institute that supported his\u00a0research with rural congregations in Nebraska and Iowa.<\/em><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a>\u00a0Theological Discernment, Office of the Presiding Bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, \u201cA Social Message on . . . Immigration,\u201d November 1998, https:\/\/www.elca.org\/Faith\/Faith-and-Society\/Social-Messages\/Immigration (accessed September 10, 2019). A footnote in the document indicates they\u2019ve rendered the passage using the RSV\u2019s \u201cstranger\u201d rather than the NRSV\u2019s \u201calien.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[2]<\/a>\u00a0United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, \u201cCatholic Social Teaching on Immigration and the Movement of Peoples,\u201d http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/issues-and-action\/human-life-and-dignity\/immigration\/catholic-teaching-on-immigration-and-the-movement-of-peoples.cfm (accessed September 10, 2019); Matthew Soerens and Jenny Yang,\u00a0Welcoming the Stranger: Justice, Compassion, and Truth in the Immigration Debate<\/em>\u00a0(Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2018); Church World Service, \u201cChristian Hospitality and Welcoming the Stranger,\u201d https:\/\/www.greatplainsumc.org\/files\/ministries\/mj_christian_hospitality_welcoming_strangers.pdf (accessed September 10, 2019).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[3]<\/a>\u00a0Sallie McFague,\u00a0Metaphorical Theology: Models of God in Religious Language<\/em>\u00a0(Minneapolis: Fortress, 1982), xi.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[4]<\/a>\u00a0George Lakoff and Sam Ferguson, \u201cThe Framing of Immigration,\u201d Rockridge Institute, May 25, 2006, https:\/\/escholarship.org\/uc\/item\/0j89f85g (accessed September 10, 2019).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[5]<\/a>\u00a0See Juan-Jos\u00e9\u00a0Igartua\u00a0and\u00a0Lifen\u00a0Cheng, \u201cModerating Effect of Group Cue While Processing News on Immigration: Is the Framing Effect a Heuristic Process?,\u201d\u00a0Journal of Communication<\/em>\u00a059 (2009): 726\u201349. Lindsay P\u00e9rez Huber provides strategies for drawing on the rich resources of Latinas to \u201creframe the immigration debate\u201d in her \u201cChallenging Racist Nativist Framing: Acknowledging the Community Cultural Wealth of Undocumented Chicana College Students to Reframe the Immigration Debate,\u201d\u00a0Harvard Educational Review<\/em>\u00a079, no. 4 (Winter 2009): 704\u201329.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[6]<\/a>\u00a0Quoted in Janet Poppendieck,\u00a0Sweet Charity: Emergency Food and the End of Entitlement<\/em>\u00a0(New York: Penguin, 1999), 232.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[7]<\/a>\u00a0I have chosen to use Latinx when possible in this article to include as fully as possible all people of Latin American descent living in the United States, though most in the rural U.S. Midwest refer to their identity in terms of national origin. \u201cLatinx\u201d has emerged as an alternative to Latino\/a to address the exclusion of transgender and gender-nonbinary persons, though others have critiqued the term for confusing linguistic gender with the gender of persons and for creating neologisms that cannot be easily spoken or read. See Mark Hugo Lopez, \u201cHispanic or Latino? Many Don\u2019t Care, Except in Texas.\u201d Pew Research Center, October 28, 2013, http:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/fact-tank\/2013\/10\/28\/in-texas-its-hispanic-por-favor\u00a0(accessed September 10, 2019); and\u00a0Racquel\u00a0Reichard, \u201cLatino\/a vs. Latinx vs.\u00a0Latine: Which Word Best Solves Spanish\u2019s Gender Problem?,\u201d\u00a0Latina<\/em>, March 30, 2017, http:\/\/www.latina.com\/lifestyle\/our-issues\/latinoa-latinx-latine-solving-spanish-gender-problem?page=0%2C1\u00a0(accessed September 10, 2019).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[8]<\/a>\u00a0As of 2014, about two-thirds of the Latina\/os living in the Midwest were born in the United States. Lissette Aliaga Linares and Jasney Cogua-Lopez,\u00a0Latinos and the Economic Downturn in Nebraska: Demographic and Socioeconomic Trends 2005\u20132013\/2014<\/em>\u00a0(Omaha: University of Nebraska Omaha, Office of Latino\/Latin American Studies, 2016), https:\/\/www.unomaha.edu\/college-of-arts-and-sciences\/ollas\/_files\/pdfs\/publications-presentations\/report-latinos-and-the-economic-downturn-2016.pdf\u00a0(accessed September 10, 2019).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[9]<\/a>\u00a0U.S. Census Bureau, \u201cQuick Facts,\u201d https:\/\/www.census.gov\/quickfacts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[10]<\/a>\u00a0Mike Tobias, \u201cNebraska\u2019s Hispanic\/Latino Population Could Triple by 2050.\u201d NET News, August 20, 2013, http:\/\/netnebraska.org\/article\/news\/nebraskas-hispaniclatino-population-could-triple-2050 (accessed September 10, 2019).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[11]<\/a>\u00a0See, for example, Patrick J. Carr and Maria J. Kefalas,\u00a0Hollowing Out the Middle: The Rural Brain Drain and What It Means for America<\/em>\u00a0(Boston: Beacon, 2010); and J. L. Anderson, ed.,\u00a0The Rural Midwest since World War II<\/em>\u00a0(DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2014).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[12]<\/a>\u00a0Among the interviewees\u2014all part of congregations in Iowa or Nebraska communities of fewer than 30,000 people where a substantial number of immigrants had moved\u2014were ten Anglo Protestant pastors, two Latino Protestant pastors, three Catholic priests and three Catholic women religious (four Anglo and two Latino), six Catholic Anglo laypeople, and eight Anglo mainline Protestant laypeople. Each interview, typically between one and two hours long, was recorded, transcribed, and coded for key themes. I found respondents by talking with denominational leaders to find out which congregations were in engaging in outreach. I then contacted pastors at many of those congregations, interviewed them where possible, and asked for others I might speak with. I did more extensive research, including a congregational survey and participant observation, in one mainline Protestant congregation and one Catholic parish.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[13]<\/a>\u00a0Pseudonyms have been used and identifying details have been changed to maintain the anonymity of the respondents.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[14]<\/a>\u00a0See Jeremy Rehwaldt, \u201cResponses by White Christians to Recent Latino Immigration in the Rural U.S. Midwest,\u201d\u00a0Religions<\/em>\u00a06 (2015): 686\u2013711.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[15]<\/a>\u00a0Tamar Saguy, John Dovidio, and Felicia Pratto, \u201cBeyond Contact: Intergroup Contact in the Context of Power Relations.\u201d\u00a0Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin<\/em>\u00a034, no. 3 (2008): 432.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[16]<\/a>\u00a0Aversive racists consciously and sincerely believe in equality, but they are anxious around people of color in ways they often do not recognize. Because of this discomfort, they seek to avoid interactions and ironically end up acting in ways that have discriminatory effects, generally by rationalizing discriminatory behavior on the basis of some nonracial factor.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[17]<\/a>\u00a0Samuel L.\u00a0Gaertner and John F. Dovidio,\u00a0Reducing Intergroup Bias: The Common Ingroup Identity Model<\/em>\u00a0(New York: Routledge, 2014).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[18]<\/a>\u00a0Ibid., 5, 63; see also Samuel L. Gaertner, John F. Dovidio, Jason A. Nier, Christine M. Ward, and Brenda S. Banker, \u201cAcross Cultural Divides: The Value of a Superordinate Identity,\u201d in\u00a0Cultural Divides: Understanding and Overcoming Group Conflict<\/em>, ed. Deborah A. Prentice and Dale T. Miller (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1999).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[19]<\/a>\u00a0Thomas F. Pettigrew, \u201cIntergroup Contact Theory,\u201d\u00a0Annual Review of Psychology\u00a0<\/em>49 (1998):\u00a067.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[20]<\/a>\u00a0Stephanie Spellers,\u00a0Radical Welcome: Embracing God, the Other, and the Spirit of Transformation<\/em>\u00a0(New York: Church Publishing, 2006), 6.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[1] We face a country increasingly riven by racial, ethnic, and religious conflict, conflict that often revolves around the figure of the immigrant. The incarceration of children on the border and President Trump\u2019s call for four U.S. congresswomen of color to \u201cgo back\u201d to their countries (even though all are U.S. citizens and three of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-immigration-refugee-issues"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWelcoming the Stranger? Rethinking Our Language of Hospitality - Journal of Lutheran Ethics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/welcoming-the-stranger-rethinking-our-language-of-hospitality\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Welcoming the Stranger? Rethinking Our Language of Hospitality - Journal of Lutheran Ethics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[1] We face a country increasingly riven by racial, ethnic, and religious conflict, conflict that often revolves around the figure of the immigrant. 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