Ed Stetzer, who leads the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College, is warning evangelicals not to be fooled by President Donald Trump’s tough talk about caravan of Central Americans marching to the U.S.-Mexico border.
“President Donald Trump is trying to fool evangelicals like me,” he said in a column posted by Vox. “This time, it’s using a false threat of an invasion from a ‘caravan’ of poor people marching through Mexico to seek asylum legally.
“It should be obvious to everyone. But it isn’t — research shows that evangelicals tend to have strong political opinions when it comes to immigration, so they are distinctly open to this fear-driven message.
“Political and media narratives tell you that distrusting, fearing, or even hating immigrants and refugees is a justified feeling. But scripture calls us to see ourselves in the immigrant and to love others as Christ first loved us.”
He said Christians are being conditioned to see threats where they would normally see suffering and an opportunity preach the gospel.
But Stetzer said he suspects most of the talk will have subsided by the time the midterm elections are over.
“Oh, the asylum seekers will still be there,” said. “But the ads, the campaign speeches, and the tweets trying to stoke fears will magically disappear when polls close.”
And he warned that politicians will eventually use “another caravan, another group of marginalized or suffering people to create fear.
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