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• The Stranger Within: An Adventist's Response to Refugees and Immigrants

The United States is a party of the 1967 Protocol which demonstrated, along with 146 other countries, the importance of protecting those who have fled their countries due to war, violence, or a well-founded fear of persecution because of his/her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion”. Those who are counted as forcibly displaced in the world today include refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons and stateless persons.

As of the end of 2024, there were 123.2 million forcibly displaced persons around the world. That is the equivalent of one person fleeing every 20 seconds. But this is only one sub-section of the overall umbrella of immigration for immigration embodies the movement of all peoples: international tourism or study, missionary work, diplomatic envoys, economic or environmental movement, human trafficking, and much more. Although the numbers of refugees are increasing conflicts and natural disasters, as Jesus predicted in Matt 24:6-7, the growth in forced migration will only continue until the second coming of Jesus. People, all of humanity, created as image bearers of the Creator God are caught between the conflict of nations, greed, and in the great controversy where people, created to bear the image of God, are dehumanized by the societies and nations they live in when the causes of their migration are not of their doing.

It is in this very space that Seventh-day Adventists are called to care for the vulnerable, namely, the poor, orphan, foreigner/immigrant, and widow/er (Lev 19:33-34; Matt 25:33-40; James 1:27). Built into the Sabbath commandment is a reminder to God’s people to have empathy and care for the stranger/immigrant who abides within their gates (Ex 20:8-11). In the agrarian society when this was written, this would include their home, property, and communities in which the foreigner resided with the worshippers of Yahweh. The reason they are to treat the foreigners that dwell among them in this way is because they too were once foreigners in Egypt. The experience of Israel was to provide the basis for empathic treatment of others. In fact, God declares that it is his covenant love that binds the foreigner close to his heart (Deut 10:17-20) and provides the ethical basis for just and responsible treatment of others regardless of their status.

The SDA Biblical Research Institute Ethics Committee published in 2021 a statement titled “The Love of God Compels Us” in which they encourage, “As Seventh-day Adventists we see our responsibility to engage in constructive ways with the people who are affected by this humanitarian crisis. With God’s help we want to see opportunities to become God’s healing and helping hands in reaching out to those affected by war, persecution, violence, famine, and other catastrophic events. We want to be agents of hope and healing—for the love of Christ compels us (2 Cor 5:14).”

Seventh-day Adventists have a rich history and legacy with immigrants in our 181 years of existence as a movement. It was the presence of immigrants in America that helped the fledgling Adventist movement to become aware of its missional responsibility. French, German and Norwegian immigrants were the first to be reached with the Advent message in the 1850’s. Uriah Smith declared as late as 1872 that the Advent movement had no missional responsibility to the globe but was to only focus on the immigrants who came to America. This changed at Ellen White’s behest and urging because her visions repeatedly saw the Advent message going to all the world. Notably, the immigrant converts, many who were displaced because of famine, war, and persecution (what we would call refugees today) received the Advent message and began sending Adventist papers to their friends and family in their countries of origin. It was these overseas converts in Europe that brought about the call to send JN Andrews as the first official Adventist missionary. It was this same pattern that continued for decades. Adventist publications sent by converts in America to their kin, that resulted in opening many mission fields. Adventist Mission is rooted in the immigrant experiences of our church in North America.

Today, this is still the case where just about a decade ago the Seventh-day Adventist church was named as one of the fastest growing denominations in North America because of growth among immigrant populations. As conflicts abound around the globe and missionary access becomes limited in parts of the world, God is at work at bringing the nations into North America and our Lake Union whereby they can hear the gospel and become missionaries to their kin and countries. What lies before the Seventh-day Adventist church is an opportunity to do mission in North America and the Lake Union in ways that can’t be done in many parts of the world. Ellen White wrote and spoke about doing this for forty years.

According to World Relief, a 2022 poll indicates that only 20% of Evangelical Christians state that the Bible informs their views on immigration. Although this is a broad category, it demonstrates that for a majority of Christians, the Bible is not the primary source for informing their views on immigration. Any rhetoric which dehumanizes our immigrant and refugee communities and seeks their earnest removal undermines God’s providential purposes as summarized in Ellen White’s vision of God bringing them to our communities so they may be reached, equipped, and mobilized to preach the Three Angels Messages.

With the lack of knowledge in God’s word on the treatment and care of immigrants, in the Church more generally, what becomes more problematic is when 80% of undocumented immigrants and those on humanitarian parole or Temporary Protected Status’ are Christian. About 8% of the Christian church in the United States will be directly impacted by the current deportation orders. This affects 1 in 12 Christians in total with 1 in 18 evangelicals and 1 in 5 Catholics being affected directly. It is of no surprise when so many Christians who are at risk of deportation to places of conflict or persecution can be so readily rejected by the faith communities that they belong too. And if money is a motivation for church growth and support, then the reduction of tithe income from these members ought to be a warning for our Adventist faith communities.

Therefore, the immigrants and refugees who live in our communities are people whom God has brought that we may share and invite them to partner in God’s mission to the world! As the body of Christ, we have an ethical responsibility because the Love of God compels us to care for, serve, protect, and partner with our immigrant communities for the accomplishing of God’s desire to reach the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

June 20, marks World Refugee Day. The third Sabbath of June is World Refugee Sabbath as voted by the Seventh-day Adventist church. This is an opportunity for Adventist congregations to become aware, listen to stories, and celebrate the victories and miracles done in God’s care and protection of our immigrant neighbors and communities. May we each take the time to reflect, listen, study, and take positive steps towards serving and reaching our refugee and immigrant communities for this is in God’s providence and a work that is done by his own hand even now in the 21^st century.