I think very few institutions right now expose our political and moral confusion quite like “Immigration and Customs Enforcement”.
Most Americans look at overwhelmed systems, human trafficking, drug smuggling, and security threats and conclude that some form of border enforcement is necessary. And many Americans are troubled by what they fear is the political interest of one party encouraging illegal immigrants to saturate States in their favor. But the on going events happening in Minnesota have exposed that there is undeniable human tragedy bound up with the way enforcement is currently being carried out. Federal immigration agents have been using administrative rather than judicial warrants to force entry into private homes, raising serious Fourth Amendment questions about unreasonable searches and seizures. U.S. citizens have been wrongfully detained by ICE agents who ignored valid identification and held them without probable cause, prompting federal lawsuits alleging violations of citizens’ constitutional rights. So, what we’re seeing happen in our country isn’t simple, and anyone who tries to make it sound so is probably trying to push their agenda.
A Fractured Christian Witness
When I came home from work today I got on social media and saw competing posts telling me on the one hand that “Christians must support ICE”, and, on the other hand, that “Christians must stop ICE”. Some Christian influences seem to speak of ICE as being almost sacred, while others treat “opposition” to ICE as the defining mark of Christian faithfulness and “silence” as moral failure. Both camps invoke Scripture. Both pray. Both claim to be defending righteousness. Unfortunately, as is the case in the West right now, the Christian voice is so confused and divided.
This confusion reveals something deeper than mere disagreement over immigration policy, it reveals that many Christians have never been given a distinctively Christian framework for relating to state power, especially when that power becomes harsh, corrupt, or afraid. Most (not all) of Western thinking in the modern Church about the State is wrapped up more in our worldly interests than it is in fidelity to Christ.
So, what does Scripture actually teach about how Christians are to live under government authority – especially unjust authority?
Five Biblical Anchors for the Christian Response
The Bible doesn’t give us political policies to implement, but rather, it gives us principles we’re meant to faithfully live out in our context.
So, here’s the Biblical framework we need to understand:
- Submit to ruling authorities (See Romans 13; 1 Peter 2:13–17): God uses human government to restrain evil and disorder. Christians recognize this as good and submit to their rulers in the confidence that God is working even when the human agencies themselves are corrupt.
- Obey God rather than people when the two come into conflict (See Acts 5:29; Daniel 3; Daniel 6): Submission to the State is real, but never absolute. Christians do not see state authority as unconditional or absolute, but as existing under God for defined purposes. Our allegiance is wholly and exclusively to God.
- Pray for rulers (See 1 Timothy 2:1–4; Jeremiah 29:7): Scripture consistently calls God’s people to intercession rather than to outrage. Christians were not meant to be social media warriors, political activists, or outrage outlets. We should be driven first to prayer before protest.
- Love our neighbors and our foreigners regardless of state policy (See Leviticus 19:34; Luke 10:33–37; Matthew 25:35–40): Christian submission to the State never excuses cruelty or looks the other way from human suffering. The Church does not have to condone illegal immigration to meaningfully love the vulnerable and hurting.
- Remember that rulers are accountable to God and may be rebuked (See Psalm 2; Isaiah 10:1–3; Amos 5:11–12): the Church was meant to be God’s prophetic voice in uncertain times. Christians have always recognized “prophetic critique” as being biblical, but we have also required that such critique also be moral, non-partisan, and just.
My study of God’s word and historic Christian teaching presents these five commands as the framework within which the Church is meant to deal with the diverse political challenges that she has to navigate in this world.
Wisdom Applied
The Church has lived for nearly two millennia under empires, caliphates, monarchies, and totalitarian regimes. So, Christians wisdom has been tested in the fires of time. So here are five principles of Christian wisdom applied:
First, the Church should not identify herself with the state. While many Christians have recognized the State as being necessary, it should not be considered holy. The Kingdom of God does not consist of worldly power. When Christians confuse the state’s task with God’s reign, the gospel becomes a tool of political power rather than a witness to truth. So the Church must retain her distinctively Christian identity.
Second, obedience is provisional, not ultimate. Christianity has long taught that even while submission to state authority is necessary, the state may not command the conscience. When law enforcement violates the image of God in the human person, faithfulness may require refusal, though our refusal embraces suffering rather than revolt.
Third, the Church responds to injustice pastorally before politically. The Christian instinct should not first be to organize, but to heal. We should shelter the vulnerable, feed the hungry, comfort the fearful, and refuse dehumanization even when it is legal or popular. The Church does not compete with the state for power, but rather, tends the wounds the state leaves behind.
Fourth, prophetic critique must remain free from ideological capture. When Christians rise to rebuke their rulers, our rebukes must be moral, direct, and just. They must never be partisan or performative. This kind of critique speaks to power, not for a faction. And this is where the American Church has failed and is at risk of losing her prophetic voice if she does not repent.
Finally, martyrdom — not winning — is the Church’s final category. Christian history often assumes both that the state will be unjust and that Christians may lose, but we also learn that faithfulness is measured not by policy success, but by fidelity to Christ when coercion presses hardest.
Finding Solid Ground in Chaotic Times
Something that Christians need to hold in mind is that ICE, like every institution of state power, sits under God’s judgment. ICE may simultaneously restrain evil in some ways and participate in it in others. But Christians do not honor God by pretending either side of that tension does not exist.
So, Scripture calls us to submission without worship, resistance without hatred, mercy without naïveté, and hope without illusion. If the Church can recover this posture, she may not resolve our political disagreements, but she might restore her witness to this world. And that, in the end, is the Church’s true responsibility.
A Dedicated Faith 