Justice, Compassion & Truth in the Immigration Debate
Matthew Soerens, Jenny Yang, and Leith Anderson
Immigration is one of the most complicated issues of our time. Voices on all sides argue strongly for action and change. Christians find themselves torn between the desire to uphold laws and the call to minister to the vulnerable.
In this book World Relief immigration experts Matthew Soerens and Jenny Yang move beyond the rhetoric to offer a Christian response to immigration. They put a human face on the issue and tell stories of immigrants’ experiences in and out of the system. With careful historical understanding and thoughtful policy analysis, they debunk myths and misconceptions about immigration and show the limitations of the current immigration system. Ultimately they point toward immigration reform that is compassionate, sensible, and just as they offer concrete ways for you and your church to welcome and minister to your immigrant neighbors.
This revised edition includes new material on refugees and updates in light of changes in political realities.
Faith-Rooted Organizing:
Mobilizing the Church in Service to the World
Alexia Salvatierra & Peter Heltzel
With so many injustices, small and great, across the world and right at our doorstep, what are people of faith to do? Since the 1930s, organizing movements for social justice in the U.S. have largely been built on assumptions that are secular origin – such as reliance on self-interest and having a common enemy as a motivator for change. But what if Christians were to shape their organizing around the implications of the truth that God is real and Jesus is risen? Alexia Salvatierra has developed a model of social action that is rooted in the values and convictions born of faith. Together with theologian Peter Heltzel, this model of “faith-rooted organizing” offers a path to meaningful social change that takes seriously the command to love God and to love our neighbor as ourself.
Ched Meyers and Matthew Cowell
“The stranger has not lodged in the street; I have opened my doors to the sojourner.” (Job 31:32)
In recent years immigration has become a target of heated political controversy that reaches into nearly every community. How does our biblical faith address this issue? And how should people of faith respond to the immigrant crisis? The principle of hospitality and the commandment to welcome the stranger are among the most consistent themes of the Bible. How does that apply to the question of undocumented immigrants in our own country?
In alternating chapters writer Ched Myers and pastor Matthew Colwell explore these questions. Myers examines the biblical dimensions of hospitality, sanctuary, the crossing of borders, and God’s predilection for those on the margins. Colwell relates the stories of immigrants and immigrant rights activists–their hopes, dreams, and sufferings–men and women who, by acting upon their common humanity with the “other,” have learned to cross a different kind of boundary.
Ched Myers, a writer, educator, and “theological animator,” works with Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries, where he focuses on building biblical literacy, church renewal, and faith-based witness for justice (www.chedmyers.org). His many books include Binding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Marks Story of Jesus and (with Elaine Ennis) the two-volume Ambassadors of Reconciliation (all from Orbis).
Matthew Colwell is pastor of Knox Presbyterian Church in Pasadena, California and is the author of Sabbath Economics: Household Practices (Tell the World Press, 2007).
Christians at the Border: Immigration, the Church, and the Bible – 2nd ed.
Author: M. Daniel Carroll R.
Immigration is one of the most pressing issues on the national agenda. In this accessible book, an internationally recognized immigration expert helps readers think biblically about this divisive issue, offering accessible, nuanced, and sympathetic guidance for the church. As both a Guatemalan and an American, the author is able to empathize with both sides of the struggle and argues that each side has much to learn.
This updated and revised edition reflects changes from the past five years, responds to criticisms of the first edition, and expands sections that have raised questions for readers. It includes a foreword by Samuel Rodríguez and an afterword by Ronald Sider. This timely, clear, and compassionate resource will benefit all Christians who are thinking through the immigration issue.
Free PDFs
Unrecognized Refugees: Children, Youth, and Mothers Fleeing Violence in Central America, Rev. Alexia Salvatierra
International Journal of Urban Transformation October 2016 – Volume 1
Migration as Grace, Dr. Robert Chao Romero. International Journal of Urban Transformation October 2016 – Volume 1
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