Evangelicals and Immigration

Fault Lines Among the Faithful

Ruth M. Melkonian-Hoover, Lyman A. Kellstedt

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9783319980850
• eBook ISBN:
  9783319980867
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: American Government

Provides one of the first balanced efforts written by social scientists for both a scholarly and Christian lay audience.

Delivers content that is rigorously grounded, offering original interviews, church data, and public opinion data analysis

Offers an historical overview of Christian activism and lay opinion on immigration in the US

© The Author(s) 2019

Ruth M. Melkonian-Hoover and Lyman A. KellstedtEvangelicals and ImmigrationPalgrave Studies in Religion, Politics, and Policyhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98086-7_1

Begin Abstract

1. Introduction: Religion and the Politics of Immigration Reform

Ruth M. Melkonian-Hoover¹ and Lyman A. Kellstedt²

(1)

Gordon College, Wenham, MA, USA

(2)

Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL, USA

Ruth M. Melkonian-Hoover (Corresponding author)

Lyman A. Kellstedt

End Abstract

An immigration system that forces people into the shadows of our society, or leaves them prey to criminals, is a system that needs to be changed. I’m confident that we can change—change our immigration system in a way that secures our border, respects the rule of law, and, as importantly, upholds the decency of our country. (President George W. Bush speaking at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast [White House April 7, 2006])

It is over a decade after President Bush delivered this speech, and the country may be even further apart on the issue of immigration than it was in 2006. Elected officials, party elites, a variety of interest groups, and the mass public appear to be more divided than ever. A careful reading of the Bush quotation indicates the difficulty of arriving at comprehensive immigration reform (CIR). Securing the border and respecting the rule of law conflict with “decency,” removing immigrants from “the shadows” and from the “prey to criminals.” Achieving immigration reform demands reaching an accommodation between the merciful treatment of immigrants and the legitimate demands of security, national sovereignty, and just and efficient governance. At this point, such an accommodation has not been reached.

The focus of our volume is on religion and its ties to the issue of immigration. This focus is a departure from the admonitions of many parents to their children—avoid talking and arguing about religion and politics, for the discussions and debates will lead to the loss of friends and end in a failure to convince people of your point of view. Despite the parental advice, as political scientists we are committed to examining politics in its various aspects and permutations. And in a country with such widespread religious involvement, even with the reported decline in religious affiliation (Cf. Pew 2014), the examination of the variety of associations between religion and immigration seems appropriate and even vital.

The specific focus of our volume is on a particular type or species of American religion, evangelicalism. Evangelicalism has been much in the news in recent years, with most of the attention given to its white constituents. Part of the reason for this is the size of white evangelicalism. Whites compose about half of the American population, and white evangelicals are the largest religious component of the white population. More important, however, than size is the realization that this group of Americans is by far the biggest contributor to Republican partisan identification and vote choice for GOP presidential candidates and has been for some time (Kellstedt and Guth 2018). Apart from scholarly research, the media have been filled with the 81% figure—that is, the 81% of the white evangelical vote for Donald Trump reported in the exit polls from the 2016 election. This figure has been discussed and debated at such length that many Americans have come to associate the term “evangelical” with right-wing conservative politics and not with religious criteria at all.¹ As we shall see, the association has some validity as white evangelicals have tended to support the Trump immigration initia...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Introduction: Religion and the Politics of Immigration Reform
• 2. US Immigration History, Laws, and Protestant Christian Responses
• 3. Immigration in the 2000s: Immigration Reform, Executive Orders, and Evangelical Leadership
• 4. Immigration Attitudes Among American Religious Groups
• 5. The Evangelical Kaleidoscope: Racial/Ethnic Similarity and Difference
• 6. Religion Does Matter: Alternative Measures and Contextual Effects
• 7. Conclusion: Evangelical Christianity and Immigration Reform: What Comes Next?
• Back Matter