White Evangelical Christians on Missions and Immigration

I was struck by this tweet by activist David Swanson:

Text of tweet: “There are white Christians who are OK with forcibly separating migrant children from their families … who are also enthusiastically preparing for summer missions trips to those same children’s countries. The levels of cognitive dissonance & hypocrisy are just astounding. 

He’s right.

I’m reminded of pictures on my childhood fridge featuring the smiling black and brown children we featured through World Vision. I still remember their names.

I’m reminded of the pictures of smiling white teens and young adults holding small black and brown children in foreign countries that graced my friends’ parents fridges—and the letters were received from high school and college students requesting money for short-term missions trips over summer or spring break.

I’m reminded of the missions trip I took to a country in South America when I was a teen, where I taught a group of small children how to play Duck Duck Goose across a language barrier, and also hit a number of tourist locations.

God forbid those same children come here.

Today, my children go to a school with a large Hispanic population, including children from countries across Central and South America. Their classrooms can look much like the groups of children I played hacky-sack with all those years ago.

And then I think of my grandfather, and all of those in my parents’ church and community, who voted for Trump and want a wall. And then I open yet another letter from yet another relative, raising money for another missions trip.

Those children are worth spending time and effort on—so long as they stay over there.

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