The Southern Baptist Immigration Reckoning

The hidden network of NGOs, government funding, and immigration advocacy inside SBC churches

The country’s largest Protestant denomination may be shifting back toward a more conservative position on immigration, but they have a lot of baggage to overcome. Last year, I chronicled how Southern Baptists steadily moved left on the topic of immigration over the past two decades, from receiving money from World Relief for refugee resettlement to resolutions and statements cosigned by denominational leaders embracing things like DACA and rejecting Trump era refugee policies.

Most of the energy spent exposing this shift toward the Left on immigration focuses on prominent figures and policies embraced at the denominational level. But the real damage is downstream from these dynamics, at the local church level. Perhaps, after seeing what anti-ICE protestors did to disrupt a Southern Baptist church service in the Minneapolis area over a week ago, we can now focus on where the real battle lines are.

Seven Miles from Cities Church

The disruption that took place at Cities Church was widely condemned by Southern Baptist leaders, including President Clint Pressley, who was “enraged” and “infuriated” by the display. This is important to point out because Pressley had previously advocated for legislation that would legalize a migrant who worked at his church, that is, the kind of person ICE could theoretically detain. Cities Church was targeted specifically because one of the pastors who serves there works for ICE. For most members of the media who view the Southern Baptist Convention as a politically conservative denomination, mainly because of the way its members vote, the significance of this moment went undetected.

Less than seven miles from Cities Church is another Southern Baptist church called Redemption Church. One of their ministries is “welcoming the nations” through Arrive Ministries. Arrive used to be called World Relief Minnesota and took in more than three million dollars in government grants during Biden’s last year. According to the Minnesota government, Arrive “offers cash” to people in crisis. According to their own website, Arrive provides services to migrants and helps churches assist them in this work. Arrive can connect Christians with refugees to rent to or immigrants to hire, for example. They even offer classes for churches and prayer prompts to help Christians “love their refugee and immigrant neighbors.” Arrive also offers legal services for “refugees, asylees, and other immigrants.” What “other immigrants” refers to may be clarified by Arrive’s encouragement to “advocate,” including contacting representatives “regarding current immigration and refugee policies.” It is no surprise that a recent social media post directly challenges “Operation PARRIS” as desecrating the dignity of immigrants and denying them due process.

Southern Baptist Church Partnerships

Southern Baptists who think this kind of partnership is an anomaly need to think again. All over the country, members of this right-leaning denomination are part of churches and local associations that actively partner with organizations advocating against what most of them voted for. Some examples are more blatant than others. Pastor Carlos Lolett of Reality Church in Miami recently recommended the Miami Gospel Justice Center, which one of his members spearheaded. The Center provides migrants with “legal help,” including resources on how to handle ICE when they knock on someone’s door or attempt to interrogate them. As part of their “local missions,” Pleasant View Baptist Church in Port Deposit, Maryland, partners with the Salaam Center, which also provides help with immigration status, legal assistance, and connections to government welfare programs for migrants. First Baptist Church of El Paso supports Estella del Paso, which receives Federal dollars for migrant assistance, which apparently includes “removal defense” described as “full representation for detained and non-detained individuals who are currently in removal proceedings in the El Paso area Immigration Courts.”

Many Southern Baptists are unaware of these attachments because their churches and associations are connected to government and NGO funded entities indirectly. Last year, the Southern Baptists’ Send Relief still advocated for refugee care through its website. But how many members knew they were also working with World Relief, which received federal money under Biden for refugee resettlement? The Florida Baptist Convention has also partnered with World Relief and complained about ICE raids affecting their churches. Do churches in the Florida Baptist Convention understand these connections? Ten Southern Baptist churches in the Raleigh-Durham area partner with Refuge Hope Partners, which in turn also partners with World Relief for refugee resettlement. Refuge Hope Partners sees it as their goal to amplify refugee voices, promote inclusivity, and express concern about recent ICE raids. How many of the churches that financially support Refuge Hope Partners know about this?

Naive and Well Meaning

Having spent a fair amount of time around Southern Baptists, and having graduated from one of their seminaries, I can safely say there are many well-meaning members who exercise charity by helping those in need but do not realize how this charity is used. One example may be Iglesia Bautista in West Brownsville, Texas. Pastor Carlos Navarro has been featured in Baptist publications for his work assisting tens of thousands of migrants through his ministry, Golán. Yet Golán is funded in part by Faith Works, which churns out a steady stream of anti-Trump, anti-ICE, and pro illegal migrant rhetoric. Do members of Aletheia Church in Harrisonburg, Virginia know that partnering with Village to Village connects them to Church World Services, which received millions from the federal government under Biden and sees “individuals who are not in legal immigration status, Lesbian, gay, bisexual & transgender” as primary populations served? This story repeats itself over and over.

Organizations like Dwell Mobile, City of Refuge, Refuge Bowling Green, Firebaugh Migrant Center, Bridge Refugee Services, Lutheran Services Carolinas, Fresno Interdenominational Refugee Ministries, and more receive money from Southern Baptist Churches in addition to their government funds. You can watch or listen to my latest podcast if you want the granular detail.

A Window of Opportunity

The point I wish to make is that a window of opportunity is presenting itself right now, one that gives me hope that perhaps Southern Baptists will see the need to offer charity to those in proximity to them while ditching relationships that seek to compromise our country’s security, undermine its laws, or incentivize mass immigration. Normally, Southern Baptist leaders would be condemning ICE right now, but this is not what I am seeing en masse. Instead, there seems to be some self-reflection. May this sober-mindedness continue into the June convention, where Southern Baptists will likely have the opportunity to pass a resolution on immigration that undoes the damage from previous resolutions and condemns the way organizations their churches are partnering with dishonestly frame the issue.