With news breaking that President Donald Trump wants to restart his policy of separating migrant families, conservative columnist Matt Lewis has written a scathing column taking the president’s evangelical supporters to task for supporting what he says is a very anti-Christian policy.
Writing in The Daily Beast, Lewis argues that “it’s hard for me to see how conservative Christians in the Trump era can square their theology with their politics” if they back him reinstating baby jails for migrant children.
Lewis then goes directly to the Bible to show that Christians are commanded by God to be welcoming to strangers and to value the importance of families.
“Exodus 23:9 says, ‘Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt,’” Lewis writes. “Hebrews 13:2 says, ‘Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers for by doing that some have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.’”
Lewis then shows that separating families in particular is a direct affront to Christian teachings.
“When it comes to separating children, I’m reminded of the book of Matthew, where Jesus says, ‘[W]hoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me’ and ‘See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven,’” he writes.
What’s more, Lewis writes that evangelicals as a whole used to be far more welcoming to immigrants — and that their turn against refugees coincides with their embrace of Trump.
“By failing to condemn Trump’s border policies, evangelicals on the right are turning a blind eye to the lessons of the Bible and Ronald Reagan,” he concludes. “Is nothing sacred?”