Christians at the Border: Immigration, the Church, and the Bible. 2nd ed.

Kim, Rebecca Y.

Christians at the Border: Immigration, the Church, and the Bible. 2nd ed.

ByM. Daniel Carroll R. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2013. Pp. vii, 208. Paperback $17.99.

Christians at the Border helps the majority culture and Hispanics think about and respond to the subject of immigration, particularly that of undocumented Hispanics, as biblically informed Christians. This edition updates readers on sociolegal data on immigration and expands on the biblical foundations for how Christians should relate to immigrants, refugees, sojourners, and strangers--those in exile. As the son of a Guatemalan mother and an American father who grew up in a bicultural and bilingual household, Carroll stands between the Hispanic culture and the U.S. majority culture. Since Carroll is also a biblical scholar and the immigration spokesperson for the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, he is certainly qualified to speak on this issue.

The book argues that Christians must take a biblical stand in the national debate about undocumented immigration. Everyone, including undocumented Hispanic migrants, is made in God's image and is therefore valuable. Hospitality and openness to foreigners is a Christian virtue. The Christian church of the majority culture should treat the "least of these" as Jesus did, with hospitality and kindness. Although undocumented immigration is "illegal," Christians should be guided by a higher set of laws as citizens of God's kingdom.

Some readers may criticize the book for focusing just on Hispanic immigration and addressing only the majority culture and Hispanics, ignoring all those who fall outside of those two categories. In response, Carroll would likely say that his argument applies for all believers, no matter their nationality, legal status, or eth nicity. All Christians should be biblically informed on the issue of immigration and emulate Jesus, who embraced and showed compassion to "the other."

Rebecca Y. Kim is associate professor of sociology at Pepperdine University, Malibu, California. She is the author of God's New Whiz Kids: Second-Generation Korean American Evangelicals on Campus (NYU Press, 2006) and The Spirit Moves West: Korean Missionaries in America (Oxford Univ. Press, forthcoming).