Lux Lucet

A little over 20 years ago I read Chuck Colson’s Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT). Doing so proved to be quite a turning point in my life, just not in the way that was intended by the author.

You see, when I sat down to read ECT, I didn’t know very much in the way of doctrine, but I was eager to learn. As I went through the book, it became more and more evident with each passing page that this was not a partnership between Evangelicals and Catholics. Rather, it appeared to be something of a hostile takeover by Rome, albeit one in disguise.

I was so appalled by ECT that I immediately began to look for answers as why, exactly, it was wrong for Evangelicals to unite in ministry with Romanists. It was through this process that God led me to Reformed theology and later to the work of Gordon Clark and John Robbins. Were it not for Chuck Colson, I might never have become a Scripturalist! That’s a rather odd thought when you consider it. If nothing else, it just underscores that fact that God can use the most unexpected things to save and to teach his people.

I mention all this by way of introducing the topic of today’s post, The Evangelical Immigration Table (EIT) and the extraordinary error it makes on the topic of immigration, a subject on which it claims to speak with Scriptural authority.

When one reads statements by the group’s leaders, one finds little difference between their words and those of the prelates of the Roman Church-State, or, for that matter, your average Social Justice Warrior fresh out of college, degree in gender studies firmly in hand.

Apparently, Chuck Colson did his work well. So well, in fact, that on the subjects of immigration, migration and refugee resettlement, there is little difference between the statements made by prominent, supposedly conservative, Evangelical leaders and the press releases of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

To put it bluntly, many of today’s best known Evangelical leaders really are Antichrist’s useful idiots.

The Evangelical Immigration Table, Who Are These Guys?

According to the “About” page of EIT’s website, “The Evangelical Immigration Table is a broad coalition of evangelical organizations and leaders advocating for immigration reform consistent with biblical values.”

The page lists the following organizations as part of this broad coalition:

• The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities
• Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention
• Korean Churches for Community Development
• National Association of Evangelicals
• National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference
• The Wesleyan Church
• World Relief
• World Vision

Of particular interest is the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention (ERLC). It is of interest in part because it is a very high profile group within America’s largest Protestant denomination, a group whose statements often are reported in the mainstream press outside the walls of Evangelicalism.

Second, the current president of the ERLC is Dr. Russell Moore. Himself a very high profile Evangelical leader, Moore, perhaps more than any other well known American Evangelical, embodies the profound disconnect on the subject of immigration that exists between Evangelical leaders and the ordinary Christians they claim to represent.

For example, in September of this year when the Trump Administration announced a proposed cap of 30,000 refugees for fiscal year 2019, the EIT immediately objected in a press release, denouncing the cutback and demanding more taxpayers subsidized refugees be admitted to the US.

Speaking about this press release, Moore said, “Seeing yet another drop in refugee numbers should be a shock to the conscience of all Americans. One day we will be ashamed that we as a nation turned inward, and away from our great tradition of serving as a beacon of liberty to those fleeing for their lives.”

Speaking for himself, this Christian’s conscience was not shocked, neither does he anticipate looking back with shame at the Trump Administration’s announcement. Actually, he found it mildly encouraging, but had hoped for a much lower number. In fact, given the rank corruption in the refugee resettlement process, a ceiling of zero would have pleased him well.

You see, refugee resettlement is one of the biggest, least understood rackets in the entire field of immigration related subjects, and Russell Moore demands more of it.

In addition to costing US taxpayers around $80,000 per year for each of the first five years a refugee lives in the country, some of that money goes to pay organization such as Catholic Charities, whose refugee resettlement arm, Migration and Refugee Services, received over $79 MM in US taxpayer funding in 2014.

Further, some of the refugees that Dr. Moore and Catholic Charities want so badly to bring in are less than savory characters. For example, Catholic Charities helped resettle Abdul Razak Ali Artan from Somalia.

A couple of years back, he decided to go full-jihad at Ohio State, plowing his car into a crowd on campus then jumping out and stabbing people with a butcher knife. Artan was shot dead by campus police.

Now that’s what I call your tax dollars at work.

Just to show you how similar EIT and Antichrist’s henchmen at the USCCB are in the thinking on refugees, consider the press releases of the two organizations in response to the Trump Administration’s refugee limit of 30,000 in fiscal year 2019.

• The announcement of the Presidential Determination is deeply disturbing and leaves many human lives in danger. To cut off protection for many who are fleeing persecution, at a time of unprecedented global humanitarian need, contradicts who we are as a nation. Offering refuge to those fleeing violence, torture, or religious persecution is a cornerstone of our history. We as a country are blessed with vast resources making us capable of securely welcoming those fleeing harm. Closing our doors on those seeking such safety is not who we are as a people. In the coming days, we pray that Congress will have the opportunity to engage in the formal consultation process with the Administration that is required by law. During this mandatory consultation process, Congress should strongly urge the Administration to return to a refugee admission level that reflects local community response and support of refugees, global refugee protection needs, and our long history of compassionately welcoming refugees (USCCB, September 18, 2018).

   

• WASHINGTON, D.C. — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Monday a ceiling of just 30,000 refugee admissions for fiscal year (FY) 2019, far lower than what leading evangelical voices have been urging. Before President Trump consults Congress and formally signs a declaration, some evangelical Christian leaders are asking that they raise the cap significantly so that it reflects both the historical norm and the current record-high number of refugees worldwide. They say that further cuts to the refugee resettlement program would harm religious freedom internationally and continue to shut out refugees of all backgrounds, including persecuted Christians and other religious minorities. National leaders from the Evangelical Immigration Table sent a letter asking the Trump administration to admit more refugees for these reasons, also signed by more than 400 local pastors and leaders. The announced new cap is even lower than this year’s historic low of 45,000 for this FY 2018, and the U.S. is on track to take in fewer than 22,000 refugees this fiscal year, also a record low (EIT, September 19, 2018).

From these press releases we can begin to see the similarities in the thinking of the two groups.

• They are both upset at the Trump Administration for lowering the number refugees admitted in 2019.
• They both demand more refugees be admitted to the US.
• They both evidence nearly infinite compassion for refugees, while at the same time neither group shows even the slightest concern for the American people who will have to foot the bill for their demands.
• Both present refugee resettlement as a sort of moral imperative which can never be questioned.
• Neither group is honest about the cost of their demands on the citizens who will have to bear it.
• Both seem to think they are doing the Lord’s work, when, in fact, they’re advocating for theft.

The old saying was that there isn’t a dime’s worth of difference between the Democrats and the Republicans.

In 2018, it seems that that saying could very well be applied to the American Protestant leaders and their Roman Catholic counterparts.

The convergence of thought between EIT and the USCCB on the refugee issue is proof positive that American Evangelicalism is deeply compromised and involved in extraordinary error.

Closing Thoughts

Over the past few months of writing this series, this author has been sharply critical of the immigration philosophy and practice of the Roman Church-State, and, in particular, of that of the USCCB. The criticism is well deserved.

Hopefully the reader can now begin to see that a significant segment of the Evangelical Protestant world, the leadership of the putatively Bible believing conservatives, have been co-opted by the Antichrist Roman Church-State to the point where their position on immigration is hardly distinguishable from the socialists at the USCCB.

When Jesus notices the rich in the temple putting in large amounts of money to attract the admiration of onlookers, he rebuked them by noting that the widow, who put in a copper mite, had given more than they.

But compared to the folks at EIT and the USCCB, the boastful rich come off well. After all, even though they boasted about how much they gave, at least they were giving their own money.

One off-putting facet of the supposed “charity” pushed by EIT and the USCCB is that, while they constantly are pushing for more, ever more, money for migrants and refugees, they expect others to do the giving, all the while they pose for the cameras and boast about what great humanitarians they are.

This the rich in Jerusalem did not do.

Lord willing, next week we shall look at EIT’s stance on the caravan. Yes, it’s just as bad as their position on refugees.

(To be continued…)