Last week, a luncheon with the theme “Facts, Action and Faith: Responding to Immigration” was held at the Midwest regional meeting of the New Baptist Covenant in Norman, Oklahoma.
Prior to the event, Robert Parham of EthicsDaily.com stated that the luncheon’s goal was “to inform and equip congregational leaders for constructive engagement of immigration as a public policy issue and a local church ministry.”
Ken Camp covered the immigration luncheon. See Theological foundation needed to discuss immigration, panelists say
NORMAN, Okla.—Before Baptists can deal with immigration biblically and ethically, they need to understand a basic stewardship principle—everything is a gift from God, including the privilege of living in a particular country, said Javier Elizondo, executive vice president and provost at Baptist University of the Americas.
“It all belongs to the Lord,” Elizondo told a luncheon held in conjunction with the New Baptist Covenant regional meeting in Norman, Okla. “Democratic capitalism can flourish only when there is a consciousness of whom everything belongs to.”
Elizondo’s assertion that Democratic capitalism can flourish only when we recognize or there is a “consciousness” that everything “belongs to the Lord” is a somewhat depressing proposition.
If former President Jimmy Carter was in attendance, I do wonder what he thought? With that statement, Elizondo took the possibility for peace and democracy (or Democratic capitalism) off the table in non-Christian areas such as Palestine and Muslim-majority nations. Must a nation recognize that “all belongs to the Lord” in order for democracy and capitalism to flourish? Surely not.
We should be careful not to wed our Christian theology to political democracy and free-market capitalism. As Ellis Orozco noted in his sermon, “The church cannot serve a socio-political ideology and Christ at the same time.” While good Christian theology, good Baptist theology rightly recognizes that “all belongs to the Lord,” it is not good theology to suggest that certain political ideologies/philosophies will only flourish when a nation collectively recognizes that “all belongs to the Lord.”
With apologies to Michael Novak & Company, the future of Democratic capitalism does not rest on the shoulders of Christianity. Likewise, the future of Christianity does not depend on Democratic capitalism.
Just to point out: I write from a pluralistic separationist perspective and I’m certainly not promoting a radical separation of religion from politics. To quote Stephen Carter (who I don’t always agree with…),we should let our “genuine religious convictions shape honest political judgments” instead of finding religious justifications for pre-existing political conclusions. Thus, we should allow our faith to inform our politics in the debate over immigration reform.
Though I did not get to attend, I am thankful for this particular luncheon. We need more online and offline debate about faith and immigration reform. This is a serious issue that deserves serious consideration from our elected officials in the upcoming months.
We as Baptists need to work and talk together, explore and articulate public policy solutions which will both “welcome the stranger” and bring meaningful reform to a screwed up system. We Baptists in America have generally been great at critically analyzing and articulating what’s wrong with Christianity and culture. But more often than not, we do a lousy job of putting forth and advancing real solutions to these problems.
Fortunately, we do have Baptist leaders such as Richard Muñoz of the ISAAC project and Suzii Paynter of the Christian Life Commission who are leading the way by making our Baptist critiques meaningful through concrete action.
Learn more about the ISAAC (Immigration Service And Aid Center) project here. The CLC has ISAAC updates.
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