Are Evangelicals Divided on Immigration? Surprising Lifeway Research Findings

This episode delves into the complicated views evangelicals have regarding immigration, drawing insights from a recent Lifeway Research study. It highlights the divisions, shared concerns, and substantial support among evangelicals for immigration reform, while also addressing the church's role in guiding conversation and action on the issue.

• Evangelicals acknowledge forced displacement as a top global concern 
• 46% believe churches should lead in helping displaced individuals 
• Opinions on immigration are divided, reflecting diverse perspectives 
• 80% support significant immigration reform by Congress 
• 92% endorse policies that respect the rule of law 
• Majority support secure borders and protection of immigrant families 
• 64% are familiar with biblical teachings on immigration, but many churches are silent 
• There's a strong interest in biblical sermons about immigration 
• Church leaders face challenges but also opportunities to address immigration 
• Importance of aligning church missions with biblical compassion and outreach strategies

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Chapters

• 0:08 Immigration Perspectives Among Evangelicals
• 11:44 Healthy Church Staff Podcast Introduction

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:08

I'm probably going to get in trouble for this one, but immigration, boy, it's one of the most hotly debated topics in our country. But here's the real question I want to talk about today what do evangelicals actually think about it, and are we more divided than we realize, or is there actually some common ground that we're missing? And we're going to talk today about a brand new study that just dropped from Lifeway Research, and some of the results might surprise you and we're going to talk about them here today on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. My name's Todd Rhodes, one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom, and today we're going to talk about this brand new study from Lifeway Research. I'll try and put a link down in the comments as well. It just came out and the numbers might surprise you a little bit, so let's break it down.

Speaker 1: 0:55

Some of the findings that came out of the study. Here's the first big one. I think is and I don't think that this is not going to be controversial Okay, and I don't want this, and I don't want this to be political. This is not a and I know, I just told my wife the other day. I just read somebody's post and they said this is not a political. If you have to start with saying it's not political, it's probably political. But this time I'm being honest with you when I say this. I don't want this to be political. Okay, but this is what some of the LifeWay study findings were, and the first one shouldn't surprise us is that evangelicals care about immigration. That's true, but our priorities as evangelicals is all over the place. So here's how they ask the question what's the most urgent global issue for the church? 35% of evangelicals listed forced displacement and migration as a top concern. So that's interesting. The question was what's the most urgent global issue for the church? And 35% said migration and forced displacement as a top concern. That's alongside issues like religious persecution, human trafficking. Here's what's interesting, though. When they asked how the church should respond, 46 percent not quite half of evangelicals said the church should be on the forefront of helping displaced people. So that means that nearly half of evangelicals see this as a core mission of the church, not just of the job of governments or non-profits. So, again, I'm just saying that's what the LifeWay study came out with, and this is what they say. The pulse is from evangelicals in the country.

Speaker 1: 2:40

So here's the second finding, though Evangelicals are divided on the impact of immigration. So the study found that evangelicals see immigration in a whole bunch of a variety of different ways. Okay, so here's the breakdown that Lifeway found 42% see this whole immigration area as an opportunity to introduce immigrants to Jesus. So 42%. 37% see it as an opportunity to show love Okay. 29% see it as a threat to traditional American culture. So you see the differing there. And then 42% see it as a threat to law and order. So you see the positive. And what I find interesting here is let's just take that I'm shooting some numbers at you here but 42% and 42%. So 42% see it as an opportunity to introduce new people to Jesus, new people to Jesus, and 42% probably not the same 42%, but 42%, the same number see it as a threat to law and order. So you see the positives and you see the negatives and you see clearly how we are divided.

Speaker 1: 3:50

There's no clear one size fits all evangelical perspective on immigration, but it does show us something that's pretty important. I think that while many evangelicals see challenge and I realize evangelicals are a big tent but while many evangelicals see challenges, there's also a significant group who view immigration as a ministry opportunity. Okay, so that's really interesting. The third thing I thought was really interesting was most evangelicals support immigration reform with some conditions, and this is one of the most striking results. I think Eighty percent eight out of ten people who consider themselves evangelical say that it's important that Congress pass significant new immigration legislation this year, in 2025. 80%. So what kind of policies do they want Congress to enact? What kind of policies do evangelicals actually support? And again, I just find this is really interesting. You don't have to agree, you don't have to disagree. I don't know where you come down, where you or your church comes down on immigration, and I don't want to get into the political aspects of it.

Speaker 1: 5:03

I'm just trying to report what Lifeway found from their study. Okay, so what kind of policies as a whole to evangelicals right now? What are they saying they support? Again, I'm going to throw some numbers at you, because that's what Lifeway does, right. 92% believe immigration policies should respect the rule of law 92%. That's something that most of us agree on. Okay, 90% support secure national borders Again, 9 out of 10. That's a pretty high percentage. 90% support policies that protect the unity of immigrant families okay, 74% support a path. Protect the unity of immigrant families Okay, 74% support a path to citizenship for those who meet qualifications. Okay, that's going to be popular with some and very unpopular with others, but, as of right now, almost three out of four evangelicals say, hey, we need to support some kind of path of citizenship for people that meet some kind of qualification. It doesn't say what kind of qualifications, but I think what this tells us is that evangelicals overwhelmingly. We might be divided on a lot of things, but I think evangelicals as a group want an approach that balances compassion and order with upholding the law, while also caring for those that are vulnerable.

Speaker 1: 6:24

Okay, here's another thing that I thought was really interesting, and this is a little bit more tedious of an episode than normal and maybe a little deeper or a little bit more serious, but I think it's important. The Bible matters, but many churches stay silent on this area. Okay, could be one of the most convicting parts of the study. 64% of evangelicals say they're familiar with what the Bible teaches about immigration. 28% said they've ever heard any kind of talk in the local church level about immigration in a way that encouraged them to engage with immigrants in their community, and that's a pretty big gap.

Speaker 1: 7:00

Okay, as a whole, evangelicals believe that the Bible speaks to this issue, but most of us aren't hearing much about it from the pulpit. Hearing much about it from the pulpit, and yet 80% of evangelicals say they would value a sermon on how biblical principles apply to immigration. So the hunger's there, the opportunity's there. The question is will we step into it? And why aren't we stepping into it? I think the one thing, that the biggest reason why we don't is because we don't want to get political, and I totally get that. The other reason is, I think, we don't want to cause division, and again, I totally get that. But are there examples in the Bible? Is there biblical teaching that we can share on this topic? It doesn't have to be a whole 12-week sermon series. It doesn't even have to be a whole message, whole 12-week sermon series. It doesn't even have to be a whole message. But are there ways that we can take some of this and implement this into what the narrative is in our church?

Speaker 1: 8:00

Regardless of how you feel about immigration and the immigrants that are in your community, those people, it comes down to your core mission. If those people are valuable to Jesus, then they need to be valuable to you. How can you minister and serve them just like anyone else. Okay, and lastly, here's the last thing the challenge and opportunity for church leaders, for pastors and church leaders this LifeWay research study. It presents both a challenge and an opportunity. Okay, the challenge is immigration is absolutely a complex issue. The people that attend your church this Sunday are not going to agree on this issue. They're going to be all over the place. You're going to have people on the left politically, you're going to have people on the right politically, and if you address the topic, you have to do so very gingerly and with great care and with great biblical. You just have to use your Bible very wisely here. So that's one of the ways that the challenge is it's easy to avoid the topic altogether.

Speaker 1: 9:08

The opportunity is Scripture has a lot to say about this issue, about justice, about how we should love people, how we should balance compassion and wisdom together, and this is a big issue in our country and we do miss the chance to disciple our people on how to think biblically about topics like this. Here's my encouragement for you today. I'm not really asking you to do anything. You know your church, you know your people, but you do personally. You need to know what the Bible says If you haven't studied this issue through the lens of Scripture, now is the time, and it could be time to have some conversations, maybe not on stage, but maybe to start having some conversations with those around you, those on your leadership team, because how you address this issue is going to because it's such an issue in many of our communities.

Speaker 1: 10:11

It's going to address the way that you do outreach. It's going to address the way that you talk with people and the way that you minister to people. So I know this conversation it's controversial, it makes us uncomfortable because we don't. It makes us uncomfortable and we don't want to make other people uncomfortable, but it's not going to go away. The question is how should we as a church, respond?

Speaker 1: 10:40

And, man, I wish I had answers. I wish I knew how could you make a difference without ticking everybody off? That's always the big question, whether it's immigration or anything else. Right? I wish I had more answers for you, but I tell you what I would love to hear your thoughts. And maybe you're just like Todd don't ever make a podcast or a video about this again. That's fine, leave that in the comments.

Speaker 1: 11:03

But hopefully this was balanced and what I like to do is talk about things and give you things that will spur you on to think okay. So if you do nothing else with this today, I think it's really important just for you to know the results from this LifeWay research study, to know what the pulse of our evangelical community in America is Now. This might be changing, matter of fact. I'm guessing that the shift is changing. It probably changed last year, it's gonna change more this year, but it's importantly vital for us as leaders to know what we feel about this, what the Bible says about this, and then what our larger culture is saying about this issue. So I hope it's been helpful.

Speaker 1: 11:44

You can reach out to me anytime. You can give me some. That was great, todd, or that was horrible. Todd comments podcast atchemistrystaffingcom. Why am I talking about this? What we do here on the podcast, it's the Healthy Church Staff Podcast, and one of the things that we want to do is make sure that you and your church and your staff are healthy, and so we talk about all different kinds of things, from immigration to staffing to leadership, all different kinds of things right here. So I hope you'll join us again on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast and I hope it was helpful to you today. Have a great day you.