The Strangers in Our Midst

American Evangelicals and Immigration from the Cold War to the Twenty-First Century

Ulrike Elisabeth Stockhausen

Tells the story of evangelical refugee resettlement and of evangelical immigration activism
The first study of evangelicals and politics that systematically includes both politically progressive evangelicals and conservative evangelicals
Presents the profound connection between American evangelicals' theology and politics

The Strangers in Our Midst

American Evangelicals and Immigration from the Cold War to the Twenty-First Century

Ulrike Elisabeth Stockhausen

Description

Evangelical Christians in the United States today are known for their hard-line, restrictive approach to immigration and refugees. This book shows that this has not always been the case and is, in fact, a relatively new position. The history of evangelical involvement with refugees and immigrants has been overlooked in the current debate. Since the early 1960s, evangelical Christians have been integral players in US immigration and refugee policy. Motivated by biblical teachings to “welcome the stranger,” they have helped tens of thousands of newcomers by acting as refugee sponsors or providing legalization assistance to undocumented immigrants. Until the 1990s, many evangelicals did not distinguish between documented and undocumented newcomers – all were to be loved and welcomed. In the last decade of the twentieth century, however, a growing anti-immigrant consensus in American society grew alongside evangelicals' political alignment with the Republican Party, leading to a rethinking of their theology.

Following the GOP's lead, evangelicals increasingly emphasized the need to obey American law, which many argued undocumented immigrants failed to do. Today, the evangelical movement is more divided than ever about immigration policy. While conservative evangelicals are often immigration hard-liners, many progressive and Latinx evangelicals hope to convince their fellow evangelicals to take a more welcoming approach. The Strangers in Our Midst argues that the key to understanding evangelicals' divided approaches to immigration is to look at both their theology and their politics. Both of which have shaped how—and especially to whom—they extend their biblical values of hospitality.

The Strangers in Our Midst

American Evangelicals and Immigration from the Cold War to the Twenty-First Century

Ulrike Elisabeth Stockhausen

List of Abbreviations
List of Archives
Acknowledgements

Introduction

1. Sponsoring Castro's Refugees

2. Finding "Angels" for the Boat People

3. Addressing Illegal Immigration

4. An Evangelical Theology of Hospitality

5. "Icy Walls Appear:" The Evangelical Backlash against Undocumented Immigration

6. Breaking Down the Walls: Reframing the Evangelical Immigration Debate

Epilogue

Bibliography
Index

The Strangers in Our Midst

American Evangelicals and Immigration from the Cold War to the Twenty-First Century

Ulrike Elisabeth Stockhausen

Author Information

Ulrike Elisabeth Stockhausen received her PhD from the University of Münster, Germany. She works as the Digital Science Communication Officer at the Max Weber Stiftung - Foundation German Institutes in the Humanities Abroad in Bonn, Germany.

The Strangers in Our Midst

American Evangelicals and Immigration from the Cold War to the Twenty-First Century

Ulrike Elisabeth Stockhausen

Reviews and Awards

"The Strangers in Our Midst asks us to imagine a time when evangelicals saw immigrants not as foreigners to be deported, but as sojourners to be welcomed. This book is a probing account of evolving legal codes, migration patterns, and theological commitments, and Stockhausen is the expert guide who takes us from refugee camps in Southeast Asia to Southern Baptist pulpits in Alabama to the corridors of power in Washington. Exhaustively researched and lucidly narrated, this is an important book." -- David R. Swartz, author of Facing West: American Evangelicals in an Age of World Christianity

"Based on robust research on American evangelical denominations, Stockhausen offers a much-needed look at the extensive Cold War era leadership of evangelicals in refugee resettlement and immigration work. She contends these efforts were driven by a common theology of hospitality held by evangelicals on the political right and the left. Post-Cold War, evangelical positions on immigration diverged for partisan and demographic reasons. Yet today, in spite of well-known divisions amongst evangelical laity regarding immigration, Stockhausen shows that significant sectors of white evangelical leadership, challenged by Latinx leadership, are beginning to re-converge on evangelicalism's historic emphasis on hospitality." -- Ruth Melkonian-Hoover, co-author, Evangelicals and Immigration: Fault Lines Among the Faithful

"At a time when white evangelical Christians in the United States have become polarized over the issue of immigration, Ulrike Elisabeth Stockhausen's The Strangers in Our Midst provides a nuanced, balanced historical account of how we reached this point. Filled with perceptive insights and surprises, Stockhausen's analysis is essential for understanding why conservative white American evangelicals changed their views on immigration — and, in turn, changed American politics." -- Daniel K. Williams, author of God's Own Party: The Making of the Christian Right