Who is My Neighbor?
Dipping the Toes into Immigration
This past week the General Superintendent of the Wesleyan Church released a position statement on immigration. That statement can be found at the following link: The Wesleyan Church
Go ahead and read the statement in its entirety because it is a detailed explanation of how the Wesleyan Church views immigrants. The explanation leans heavily into a Wesleyan doctrinal understanding of humanity. The statement begins with a list of what it is not lest anyone be confused.
This is not a policy paper. It is not a theological dissertation. This is not an evangelism strategy. It is not a list of positions on political talking points or national immigration strategies.
So what is the statement? It is an explanation of what the Wesleyan Church believes scripture tells us about how to see human beings who are immigrating to a country. While this is a policy statement of the Wesleyan Church, it is sound as a general Wesleyan statement and even a Wesleyan_Holiness statement.
The topic of immigration often brings up debates; people disagree on how many immigrants should be allowed in the United States, pit the “rule of law” against compassion, or argue endlessly over what the right border policy should be. While these issues are complex, filled with nuance, and shaped by countless different stories and situations, the people of The Wesleyan Church remain fixed on the Word of God to guide and shape our understanding of immigrants and immigration. As with all other aspects of our faith and discipleship, we are committed to learning, practicing, and obeying so that it is indisputable that our beliefs, values, and attitudes about immigrants and immigration are formed by Scripture.
We believe that Scripture is clear: God’s people are called to love immigrants with tangible action. The primary question for Wesleyans is not “Why are immigrants in our communities?” or “What is their status?” but “How do we love immigrants well?” and “How do we create spaces of welcome, belonging, and justice for our immigrant neighbors?”
The Board of General Superintendents of the Church of the Nazarene released the following in February of 2025:
The Board of General Superintendents (BGS) has consistently called the Church of the Nazarene (COTN) to show compassion for immigrants and refugees. At its February 2025 meeting, the Board of General Superintendents reaffirmed the 2015 BGS statement on immigration that reads:
The significant global immigration and the divisive political debate in many nations compel the Board of General Superintendents to speak clearly and biblically to this challenging topic, inviting all Nazarenes to express Christian love to immigrants who live among us:
The Hebrew word gēr and the Greek word xenos can be defined as “immigrant.”
“If an immigrant dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him. The immigrant who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself.” (Leviticus 19:33–34, NKJV). Our Lord quoted, “Love him as yourself,” as part of the Greatest Commandment!
Jesus said: “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was an immigrant and you invited me in” (Matthew 25:35, NIV).
“Do not forget to show hospitality to immigrants, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels” (Hebrews 13:2, NIV).
While we recognize the complexity of immigration laws in various nations, the Board of General Superintendents calls on Nazarenes around the world:
To treat immigrants with love, respect, and mercy. To participate sacrificially in local, national, and global compassionate ministry responses to assist refugees and immigrants. To encourage their respective governments to approve equitable laws that will allow for family reunification, legal work permits for productive immigrants in the workforce, and pathways for undocumented immigrants to be able to obtain authorized immigrant status. To follow the clear biblical mandate to love, welcome, assist, evangelize, and disciple the immigrants near us.
— Board of General Superintendents
This is a concise statement from the BGS of the COTN. But is it enough in our current cultural climate? Maybe not. The COTN is a global church and as such the BGS often balance statements from that wider view. But the USA/Canada Region of the COTN could provide a string statement similar to that of the Wesleyan Church. Why are statements like this important? After all the 2015 statement echoes language within the Manual of the COTN and contains scriptural backing. Because we have clergy and laity whose language often echoes that of political leaders when it comes to immigrants. When immigrants are referred to as garbage and “illegals,” that is contrary to the ethics of holiness folk.
I agree that there is a complexity to any statement. The Weseleyan Church’s statement reflects the wisdom and knowledge of a group and presents it as a position statement for the entire denomination. I don’t expect anything like this coming from the COTN. Most of our general statements in recent years sound like they were composed by lawyers rather than theologians or scholars. But I also don’t expect anything because of the responses to the sharing of the 2015 statement in February of 2025.
Here are just a few of the examples of comments from members and clergy within the COTN.
“This position is seriously making me question my being a member of the Nazarene church. To not just accept lawbreakers but welcome them should not be the churches position.”
“The problem with the BGS is that they evaluate this issue through the lens of current worldly standards of compassion and cannot see beyond that. Current worldly standards of compassion are infused with Wokeness, which sees EVERYTHING through the lens of “oppressor vs oppressed” based on race and class. Because this is the ONLY way the BGS know how to think, the think the deportation of illegal immigrants are an injustice and that those of us that support Trump’s policies lack compassion. This kind of thinking is remarkably lazy, unproductive, and unbiblical.”
“While not disclosed to readers, the Church of the Nazarene is part of the Evangelical Immigration Table - a religious front organization funded by activists for the purpose of promoting the political agenda of the radical left. This denominational statement deliberately obscures the true nature of our primary national security threat and is an insult to the intelligence of church membership.”
These are examples of discipleship in something other than Jesus or scripture. They reflect a syncretic embrace of political ideology over that of faithful interpretation. Within that framework, compassion, empathy, mercy, and love become “woke” or even sinful. Taken to the extreme, all sort of claims can be made about human beings. Ultimately, this is a large part of what ails the American church in our current time. The decades long discipleship of soaking religion in politics has created a disconnect between the example of scripture and the attitudes and behaviors of Christians in predominately white Evangelical spaces. I hesitate to make this distinction, but multi-ethnic and non white Evangelical churches tend to look much different. That does not mean there may not be problems in those spaces, but there is a difference. In my holiness context, this is an example of Wynkoop’s credibility gaps. We have allowed ourselves to be convinced that when people who do not look or believe like us flourish, that we lose something.
This can be even more problematic when we start scapegoating human beings as the root cause of our discontent or fears. This is when we allow ourselves ot see other human beings as less than human, worthy of destruction, or exclusion from society. A friend who is not a believer and I were speaking recently and he made a profound observation. He said that the core problem with our nation is that we are a selfish people. Our personal rights, comfort, and desires have become the primary driver of our beliefs. This selfishness drives our fears that we are losing something if someone else gains. I believe that this selfishness drives our theological assumptions and creates situations in which we make poor choices and arguments that go against our ethical claims. In the words of a friend of mine these assumptions lead us to live as “old creation people.” Old creation calls us to fear, hatred, violence, and selfishness.
I do not expect any more statements from the COTN on the political climate in the United States. It is a no win for the denomination to comment. Especially if you consider the attitudes mentioned above. But I still hope for some moderation of the love many have for politics of fear as practiced in our country. The political syncretism infuses many theological arguments. I recently saw an interaction between Dr. Robert Gagnon (a conservative theologian who is often sourced for LGBTQ+ discussions) and others about the value of human life.
The discussion got heated when Dr. Gagnon claimed that human beings cannot be infinitely valuable because only God can be infinite. That is a legitimate argument, but in the context of a Wesleyan anthropology, falls flat. I don’t expect Dr. Gagnon to take Wesleyan positions because he is not Wesleyan. But many Wesleyans rely on him for interpretation. Here we should diverge from Gagnon as our whole understanding of grace is wrapped in the fact that the image of God makes human beings infinitely valuable to God. But there is a reason Gagnon chooses this anthropology.
Dr. Gagnon uses the minority view of Matthew 25 being about the reception Christian missionaries rather than about caring for the marginalized in society as the basis for his allowance of violence. He jumps from that to assuming that the United States is always just in bringing violence. Ironically, Gagnon uses many arguments of the secular culture he claims to fight against. I would argue that the majority view of Matthew 25 being about caring for the marginalized is fully within the content of the Gospel of Matthew. This very Jewish of Gospels is simply reiterating the call of the prophets to care for the least of these, even when they are not of your nation. Matthew 25 is a judgment of nations, but a judgment of whether they lived out new creation or old creation. I hope we are living in new creation and not allowing our nation to determine our ethics and morals. God help us if we choose old creation.
As I was writing this post, reports began to come in that immigrants who have gone through the long and arduous process of becoming American citizens were pulled from lines in which they waited to give their oaths to become citizens. They were pulled and told they would not become citizens base upon the country of their origin. In others words, people who have spent the money, time, and “done it the right way” have been denied the chance to become citizens. This is cruelty and exactly what the Wesleyan Church statement is addressing.
The grand fear that culture might change is strange to me. Christians believe in a story of transformation. The turning over of the powers which promote sin and death with new creation. The ones who were afraid of change were characters like Herod the Great and the Sadducees. Immigrants do bring change to society by infusing diversity. Our cuisine is better, for example, because immigrants brings flavors and textures which are different. The world is always changing and that can be a good thing.
I think the best way to conclude is with the concluding paragraph of the Wesleyan Church statement on immigration.
We Wesleyans believe the heart of God is clear. He calls his people—again and again—to love and welcome immigrants with tangible action. Not all issues are clear. This one is.
Let us not be distracted or swayed by partisan fear or cultural suspicion. But let us also not be lulled into neutrality or silence. Indifference is not a faithful option. Let us instead be found faithful, walking in mishpat (restorative justice), philoxenos (hospitality), and kollaō (deep connection), so that we, as the community who call ourselves Wesleyans, are known as the people who welcome immigrants (Matthew 25:35).