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Since 1900, the Christian Century has published reporting, commentary, poetry, and essays on the role of faith in a pluralistic society.
© 2023 The Christian Century.
Visiting a tent city in Mexico created by Trump’s Migrant Protection Protocol
The children here are gaunt and listless. They are running out of time.
by Matt Gaventa
Immigration and the biblical law of the stranger
In Torah, the stranger appears as a guest to be welcomed, not a problem to be solved.
If the U.S. sends this man back to the DRC today, he will probably be killed
I would have thought we would welcome a pro-democracy activist.
A visit to the border with the New Sanctuary Coalition
In Tijuana, we witnessed the resilience and humanity of the migrant movement.
Christians are hospitable because Jesus is Lord
An evangelical case for pluralism
A separated family's long road to reunification
A Guatemalan asylum seeker has an attorney and a team of supporters. It was still hard to get her children back.
No tolerance for zero tolerance
The Trump administration's treatment of vulnerable migrants—particularly children—is neither fair nor humane.
How Jeff Sessions reads Romans 13 and how my Mennonite Sunday school class does
In the hands of coercive power, the Bible is a weapon.
What's behind our arguments about immigration?
When we talk about the immigration rate, we're really talking about our most fundamental fears and beliefs.
Billy is undocumented. Should I marry him?
We thought we had a good plan, but the lawyer said it might not work.
The autumn of our discontent
As leaves fall from the trees, Ali Smith helps us fall into the dreams and fears of her characters.
God is. . . Black?
Love is always vulnerable and yet will never be trumped.
Susan Faludi’s memoir reveals the deep complexity of her father’s many identities.
by LaVonne Neff
American Christianity has faced theological-political crises before. Repeatedly, visions of what is possible for the nation have fallen short of reality. In the past, periods of change pushed faithful people to reconsider what they believed, not only about the nation but also about the meaning of God’s call to justice. In each critical moment, for good or ill, Americans altered their religious views, and the horizon of what was possible expanded or contracted.
In revolutionary America, disunity resulted from debates over whether faith required obedience to the king or a revolt.
In Concussion, Dr. Bennet Omalu is a Nigerian immigrant and an outsider. This status is complicated by competing ideas of what America is.
U.S. immigration policy has long used the imposition of trauma and the dynamics of fear as weapons.
by Amy Frykholm
Shortly after the terrorist attacks in Paris in mid-November, Texas senator and Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz set off a flurry of controversy when he announced that he believed the federal government should bar Muslim refugees fleeing violence and civil war in Syria from resettling in the United States. He stated on Fox News, “on the other hand, Christians who are being targeted for genocide, for persecution, Christians who are being beheaded or crucified, we should be providing safe haven to them.”
After President Obama described these sentiments as “shameful” and “un-American,” Cruz doubled down.
The subject of immigration engenders contentious debate, complex discussion, and conniving diatribe among Americans. Four years ago, the mother of a recently elected Republican senator implored her son to be compassionate in his legislative work on the issue. She reminded him of their own family’s journey from central Cuba to south Florida and noted that undocumented immigrants—she called them los pobrecitos, “poor things”—are human beings seeking dignity, work, and a better future just like they were.
One wonders if Marco Rubio remembers his mother’s message.
The strangers of Richard Alba and Nancy Foner's title are mainly low-status immigrants and their children. The timeliness of their book is indisputable.
reviewed by Paul D. D. Numrich