Christians Under Trump Show Hypocrisy toward Refugees

Christians Under Trump Show Hypocrisy toward Refugees

Islam, Judaism and Christianity all revere a scripture enjoining us to love immigrants as ourselves.  ("The stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself.” (Leviticus 19:33-34))

Muslims and Jews seem to be taking the scripture seriously.  Three-quarters of America's Muslims say they voted Democratic in the 2016 election, and ditto for 71% of America's Jews.  As depicted in the bar graph below 85% of left-wing Democrats approve of accepting refugees (bottom blue bar), and 65% of moderate Democrats also approve (bottom red bar).

But Christians are nothing if not hypocritical on this issue. Sixty-five percent of (white) Catholics, Protestants and Mormons say they voted Republican in 2016, as did 80% of (white) born-again evangelical Christians.  And yet, accepting refugees into America was only favored by 40% of moderate Republicans (top blue bar) and a measly 19% among conservatives (top red bar).  The largest group of conservative Republicans are evangelical Christians.

According to the Pew Research Institute, there is also a correlation between the low degree of support for accepting refugees and the drop in numbers of refugees allowed into the U.S., at the instance of President Donald Trump.  What is not certain is whether or not Trump is the cause or the effect of the drop in Christian support.

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SOURCES:

1. Sharon L. Eubank, “You Are the Gift”, BYU Magazine, Spring 2018 edition, p. 44 at 48.

2. Hannah Hartig, “Republicans turn more negative toward refugees as number admitted to U.S. plummets”, Pew Research Center, May 24, 2018
3.  "U.S. Muslims concerned about their place in society, but continue to believe in the American dream", Pew Research Center, July 26, 2017
4. Molly Worthen, "A Match Made in Heaven: Why conservative evangelicals have lined up behind Trump", The Atlantic, May 2017
5. Gregory A. Smith, Jessica Martinez, "How the faithful voted: A preliminary 2016 analysis", Pew Research Center, November 9, 2016