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Quick to Listen

Why Undocumented Immigrants Are Flocking to This Evangelical Church

Quick to Listen

Christianity Today

Religion, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.3622 Ratings

🗓️ 23 March 2017

⏱️ 36 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Since the beginning of the year, more than 800 congregations in 30 American cities have joined the New Sanctuary Movement (NSM). An interfaith effort organized by Christian activist Alexia Salvatierra, NSM religious institutions have pledged to open their doors to undocumented immigrants worried that authorities may arrest them or separate their families. (Read CT’s interview with Salvatierra.) At this point, most of the churches that have joined the New Sanctuary Movement are progressive congregations. New Season Christian Worship Center in Sacramento is one of the few evangelical congregations that’s announced something similar, what Time Magazine recently called a “safe haven” program. The program is specifically focused on meeting the urgent needs of undocumented immigrants, those fleeing domestic violence, or those affected by gang fights. So far, New Season has set up more than two dozen beds for congregants looking to escape immigration raids and hosted more than half a dozen families. “A safe haven is a place where we can offer a place of rest from turmoil from those things which are troubling people,” said Charlie Rivera, who pastors New Season’s Spanish language ministry and leads the safe haven program. “We offer a sense of hope and spiritual help.” The church’s program is not meant to oppose or thwart the government, said Rivera. “We’re not here to break any law or do anything illegal,” he said. “Our main goal is to assist people who are in need.” Rivera joined Morgan and Mark to discuss why he doesn’t believe his church is harboring criminals, why New Season has seen a surge of Hispanic attendees, and how Christians can encourage undocumented immigrants to do the right thing. (Note: New Season’s pastor, Sam Rodriguez, serves on CT’s board, and recently appeared on Quick to Listen to discuss his rationale for praying at Trump’s inauguration.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

This episode is brought to you in part by The Apologetics Guy Show, the podcast that helps you find clear answers to tough questions about Christianity.

0:11.0

Learn to explain your faith with courage and compassion.

0:14.5

Join Moody Bible Institute professor Dr. Mikhail del Rosario at Apologeticsky.com.

0:29.3

Music Michael Del Rosario at Apologeticsguy.com. You're listening to Quick to Listen.

0:31.5

Each week we go beyond hashtags and hot tags and set aside time to explore the reality

0:36.0

behind a major cultural event. Today we're

0:38.5

talking about how churches respond to undocumented immigrants. I'm Morgan Lee. I'm an assistant

0:44.8

editor at Christianity today and I am joined by Mark Kelly, CT's editor-in-chief. Hey, Mark. Hey, good

0:51.0

to see you. Likewise. Glad that you're in the studio. I am.

0:55.0

Just back from a trip to Houston, which is the most, some say the most diverse city in America

0:59.0

today.

1:00.0

It is a city with no majority race or ethnicity.

1:03.0

Wow.

1:04.0

49% are white, but that includes Hispanics.

1:08.0

So it's an amazingly diverse city, and I was meeting with First Presbyterian

1:11.5

Houston, which is trying to figure out how to navigate ministry in that setting. It's a traditionally

1:15.2

white church that would like to be much more diverse, trying to think about how to do that.

1:18.9

Did you have some good advice for them? I had some advice to say that we're trying to do the same

1:22.7

thing and it's really hard. Fair enough. Yeah. I think those are good, important words of, I don't know of caution,

1:28.0

but words of just reality, right? Reality, yeah. It's not something, you don't flip a switch and say

1:31.7

we're going to be diverse tomorrow. If only. Yeah, exactly. Hey, who's our guest today? Our guest

1:37.5

today is Charlie Rivera. He's the Spanish pastor at New Season Worship Center in Sacramento. Before that, he was a pastor in Fresno, California. So I'm very

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