Will U.S. Bishops Take the Lead Over Evangelicals on Immigration?

At their first-ever joint conference, American bishops and evangelicals sought to foster Christian unity and address common concerns among their followers amid ongoing immigration enforcement.

• The Evangelical-Catholic Dialogue on Immigration on March 24 in Washington, D.C., brought an unlikely gathering of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the National Association of Evangelicals.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has repeatedly opposed what it calls “indiscriminate mass deportation” of illegal immigrants. The National Association of Evangelicals has taken a more measured approach, stressing both the rule of law and biblical calls to care for the vulnerable.

• The Catholic conference represents as much as 10 times the membership as that of the evangelical association. Some say this dialogue group will effectively strengthen the U.S. Catholic bishops’ positions on immigration.

In 2016, Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego characterized mass deportations as an injustice that would stain the nation’s honor.

• More specifically, and perhaps most importantly, he estimated that enforcing the law could remove more than 10 percent of U.S. Catholic parishioners.

Immigration plays a significant role in Catholic demographics. Pew Research finds that immigrants make up 29 percent of U.S. Catholic adults. Hispanic Catholics constitute 36 percent of all Catholic adults and are disproportionately immigrants or children of immigrants.

• Without continued high levels of immigration, the Catholic share of the U.S. population and overall Catholic influence would likely decline more sharply.

The larger context: The fact that the National Association of Evangelicals is engaging in formal dialogue with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops reflects broader changes in American Christianity, including declining Protestant opposition to Catholicism and increasing ecumenical cooperation across traditional lines.

The Bible describes a great false church called “Mystery, Babylon the Great” in Revelation 17 and the “daughter of Babylon” and the “lady of kingdoms” in Isaiah 47. These and other prophecies describe it as exercising religious and political power across the centuries and specify that its power will surge once again in our generation and influence a European superpower of 10 nations.

“All organized religion, except Roman Catholic, will be eliminated from Western Europe, Britain and America …,” wrote Herbert W. Armstrong in the October 1961 Plain Truth. “Opposition of Protestant bodies in America and Europe and Britain to Roman Catholicism is melting away.”

If churches in particular and conservatives in general start weakening their calls for mass deportations, it could trace back to “dialogues” like these. Continue to watch the role of religion in America and Europe, and how the Protestants weaken and Catholics strengthen.