Lessons From a Church’s Sidewalk: Migrant Experiences and White Evangelical Neighbors

Last updated on: February 11, 2022 at 12:39 am by Philip Jenkins

Lessons From a Church’s Sidewalk: Migrant Experiences and White Evangelical Neighbors 2022-02-02T13:18:11-04:00 Philip Jenkins

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A guest post today from a rising scholar whom I admire, namely João Chaves. Here is a short sketch of his background:

João B. Chaves, Ph.D., is Assistant Director for Programming at the Hispanic Theological Initiative, housed at Princeton Theological Seminary. João is the author of several peer-reviewed articles and three books, including Migrational Religion: Context and Creativity in the Latinx Diaspora (Baylor University Press, 2021). His forthcoming books include, The Global Mission of the Jim Crow South (Mercer University Press, May 2022), Baptists and the Kingdom of God (co-edited with Laine Scales, under contract with Baylor University Press), and Remembering Antônia Teixeira: Missions, Memory, and Violence Across Borders (co-authored with Mikeal Parsons, under review). You can follow João on Twitter at @JoaoB_Chaves

Lessons From a Church’s Sidewalk:

Migrant Experiences and White Evangelical Neighbors

A few years ago, while I was conducting research on immigrant faith communities, a pastor of a large immigrant church in the Southern USA told me a story that encapsulates some of the central shifts happening beneath our feet. Walking around the church’s multimillion dollar campus, the pastor pointed to one of the many sidewalks that connect the buildings, parking lots, patios, and a soccer court and told me that when the group he pastors was still small, the pastor of the predominantly white church hosting them at the time demanded that immigrants step off those sidewalks whenever they saw white Americans (Christians!) coming their way. Fast forward a few years, and you get a very different picture: the immigrant group has grown exponentially and bought the campus from the white Americans who had diminished in both numbers and financial power. In a demonstration of grace, the immigrant pastor hired the pastor who had once claimed that immigrants are not good enough to share sidewalks with members of the predominantly white church. He did not need to hire the US-born minister but, he told me, he wanted “his brother” to retire comfortably.

Stories like this continue to proliferate as Global South Christianities grow in a number of different directions. Religious entrepreneurs, migrants, and missionaries work to disseminate their religious products as they travel from the Global South to the Global North, from one part of the Global South to another, and within and across several national and transnational borders. Many faith communities that own buildings once filled with white US and European Christians continue to be faced with basically two options: Either be reinvigorated by welcoming an authentically diverse constituency with a heavy Global South presence, or be repurposed in light of diminishing numbers. I have seen the second option happen far too often in places like New Jersey, Texas, Florida, California, Maryland, etc. The first option—welcoming an authentically diverse constituency—is more difficult than one may initially think. Despite what leaders of predominantly white groups say or feel about authentic diversity, the costs of transcending power dynamics informed by longstanding socio-cultural commitments are truly significant. Enthusiastic proclaimers of Galatians 3:26–29 (For in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith… There is no longer Jew or Greek…) may suggest otherwise. Eschatological hopes, however, are not social facts!

Why do predominantly white evangelical groups in particular often find it difficult to embrace authentic diversity—despite their alleged intentions, theological discourse, and/or rhetoric? Because they have become deeply habituated to racism and xenophobia. To be sure, not all (or even most) pastors of predominantly white churches would request non-whites to step off sidewalks—at least not today. Yet, the racialized and nationalistic entanglements that inform the practical dispositions of many US white evangelicals remain a significant aspect of the movement, and they affect how evangelical immigrants from Latin America relate to their US counterparts.

My work focuses on US/Latin America connections with a particular emphasis on the formation, maintenance, and development of US-Brazil religious networks. My previous book*,* Migrational Religion, explored how immigrant Christians from Latin America became religious entrepreneurs in migrant and local communities in the US. My forthcoming book, The Global Mission of the Jim Crow South, functions as a prequel to Migrational Religion and reveals how the racialized imagination of white evangelical missionaries from the Southern USA helped shape Latin American evangelicalism broadly conceived—and thus the theological imagination of many immigrant Christians.

In some circles, it has become commonplace to frame evangelicalism in Latin America as a disposition historically characterized by an “evangelical left.” This “evangelical left” is often known as adopters of a form of socially-progressive (but mostly theologically conservative) evangelical Christianity called missión integral. The majority of evangelicals in the region, however, actually drifted in different directions. Agreement with (or socialization into) the most conservative expressions of US white evangelicalism (such as support for political and social conservatisms) has consistently informed the theopolitical imagination of millions of Latin American evangelicals. To be sure, there are notable exceptions to this general trajectory; here, I am more concerned with general trends than nuanced qualifications.

The paradoxical lesson that my study of white evangelicalism and immigrant Christianities in the USA has taught me is that often the racialized theopolitics of US white evangelicalism loosens its grip on Latin American evangelical immigrants when these immigrants actually experience white US evangelicals in their natural habitat. It is in the USA that white evangelicals generally vote to deport undocumented siblings, act to advance the marginalization of Black and Brown sisters and brothers, reveal their bi-partisan tendencies toward nationalist myths, and sometimes even ask Christian immigrants to step off “their” churches’ sidewalks. In Latin America, the theological rhetoric of US evangelicalism has historically been one of the most strongly emphasized aspects of the US expressions of the movement; when Protestants from Latin America migrate to the USA, they experience the daily practical commitments and palpable habits of US evangelicals as an undeniable, lived reality. The crisis of the Latin American evangelical mind is typically not created by the invitation to adopt a set of abstract theological concepts articulated in US evangelical keys; rather, the crisis occurs when immigrants from Latin America live as physical neighbors to the white evangelicals that, it transpires, immigrant Christians find easier to admire from the distance of their home countries.

Guest Post

immigration

João Chaves

Previous Post

February 10, 2022

Imperial Cities

Next Post

February 14, 2022 Empires, Migration, Faith, and Biscuits

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abolitionism Abortion Abraham Joshua Heschel Abraham Kuyper Abraham Lincoln Academia Activism Adam Renberg Advent Adventist africa African American Religion Agnes Howard Albert Camus American History American Religious History American Revolution American West Anabaptists Ancient History Andrea Turpin Andrei Tarkovsky Anglicanism Annales Ansley Lillian Quiros anti-Catholicism Antisemitism Anxious Bench apologetics Apparitions Arash Azizi Archaeology archives art Artificial Intelligence Asia Asian Americans Augustine Authors Bad Bunny Baptism Baptists Barack Obama Battle of Hastings Benjamin Franklin Bernard-Henri Levy Beth Allison Barr Beth Moore Bethany Mannon Bible Bill Cunningham Billy Graham Black Music Bob Dylan Body Boenhoffer Books Breastfeeding Bruce Springsteen C.S. Lewis Calvinism Cancel Culture Capitalism Carmelites Catholicism Cedric Robinson Cesar Chavez Charismaticism charity Charles Dickens Charles Lindbergh Che Guevara Chicago Children Chinese Christianity Chris Gehrz Christ Christian death Christian Higher Education Christian life Christian Nation Christian Nationalism Christianity Today Christmas Church life Church Practice cinema Civil Religion Civil Rights Movement Civil War civility Classics Climate Change Cold War Colonial Mexico colonialism Comer Communism community complementarianism Conference on Faith and History Congregationalism Conspiracies Conspiracy Conversion Narratives Coronavirus Costa Rica Council of Nicaea Covid-19 Creation Critical Race Theory Crusades Culture culture wars Daniel K. Williams David Barton David Swartz Death Ways death with dignity DEI democracy Democratic Party Devotion Digital Age Diplomacy discipleship diversity Donald Trump Drama Dua Lipa Early Church early modern Early modern Catholicism Easter Eastern Christianity economic exploitation Education elections Elie Wiesel Elizabeth II Elizabeth Taylor emotions Empire Engineering England enslavement Entertainment Episcopal Church Erica Ramirez eschatology Eurocentrism Evangelicalism Evangelicals Exegesis Family Feminism Film Flannery O'Connor folk music Food Foreign Policy founding fathers Franciscans Franciscus Junius fundamentalism Funerals G.K. Chesterton Gender Genocide genre geography George W. Bush George Washington George Whitefield Global Christianity Global church Grief Guadalupe guest post Guest Post gun control gun violence Gustavo Gutierrez Hamid Dabashi Harold John Ockenga Harvest Hate Hawaiian Christianity Healing health care Heather Cox Richardson Hell Heresy Hermeneutics Higher Education Hinduism Hippocratic oath Historical Fiction Historical Methodology Historical Profession Historical Profession Historical Theology Historical Thinking historiography Holidays Holocaust horror movies Human rights Humanitarian Work humanities Hummingbirds Hungary hymns Imago Dei Immigration Injustice Interviews Iran Islam Islamophobia Israel Ivan's Childhood Jacob Randolph James Bratt Janine Giordano Drake Japanese history Japanese Literature Jean Paul Sartre Jesse Miranda Jesus Jesus Christ Jimmy Carter Joan Baez Joan Didion Joanne Freeman João B. Chaves Joao Chaves Joey Cochran John Calvin John Fea John Tillotson John Turner Johnny Cash Jonathan Edwards Jonathan Tran Joseph Smith Josh Howerton Journalism Jr. Judaism Jürgen Moltmann Just War Justice Justin Brierley Karl Barth Katelyn Beaty koi ponds Kris Kristofferson Kristin Kobes Du Mez Latin American Religious History Latino Americans Lectio Divina Leisure Lent Leonard Cohen liberal arts liberalism Liberation Theology Linda Ronstadt Lisa Clark Diller Literature Lou Reed Lynchings Lynneth Miller Renberg Mainline Protestantism Malcolm Foley Marilyn Monroe Maritime history Mark Noll Marriage Martin Luther Martin Luther King Martyrdom Marxism Mary Masih Alinejad mass shootings material culture medieval Christianity Medieval Ethiopia Melissa Borja memory Mennonites Mental Health Mental Illness Methodism Mexican Americans Mexicans Mike Madrid Miles Mullin Min Jin Lee Miscarriage Missionaries Mister Rogers Mitt Romney modernity Monasticism Mormonism Motherhood Mothers of the Church Moving Music Musicals Nadya Williams Nahua Christianity Native Americans Natsume Sōseki New Contributor New England New Year New York Nico Non-Violent Protest Orthodoxy pacifism Paleo Evangelicals Palestinians Parenting Patti Smith Paul Kingsnorth Pedro Calderón de la Barca Pentecostalism Philip Jenkins Phillis Wheatley physician-assisted suicide pilgrimage Pilgrims pluralism Plutocracy Poetry Politics Pope Francis Pope Leo XIV post-modernism prayer preaching Presbyterians prosperity gospel Protest Public history Publishing Puritans purity culture Quakers race Race Massacres Racial Capitalism racial reconciliation racialization Racism Raha Bahloulipour Re-Enchantment reading Reformation Refugees religion and the university religion and war Religious Freedom Religious Nones Religious Pluralism Religious Symbols religious violence Republican Party Revival Rita Coolidge Ritual Roger Williams Roman Catholic church Royalty Russell Moore same-sex marriage Sarah Irving-Stonebraker Scandinavia Science Science and Technology Scopes trial Scriptural Interpretation secularism Selena Quintanilla seminary Seventh-Day Adventists sexual morality Sexuality Sikhs Silence slaveholders theology Slavery Slavoj Zizek social justice Social Media Southern Baptist Convention Southern Religion Spain Spiritual Autobiography Spiritual but not religious Spiritual Discipline Sports Stanley Hauerwas Suffering Summer Camps Sunday Night Odds and Ends Supernatural Supreme Court Syriac Christianity Tal Howard Taylor Swift Teaching Technology Television Thanksgiving The Beatles The Mission theater TheoBros Theology Thomas Dixon Thomas Jefferson Thomas Kidd Thomas Merton Tim Gloege Tim Walz Tom Holland Tourism tradition Tragedy Translation Transnationalism Travel Trump Ukraine Uncategorized Unitarians United Methodist Church US History Vanessa Chan Velvet Underground Verónica A. Gutiérrez Veronica Gutierrez Vikings Violence Virgin Mary Virtue Virtue ethics Visions Voting War WCTU Wendell Berry Westminster Assembly White Evangelicalism Wildfires Winnie the Pooh Witches women Women in Ministry Women's and Gender Studies Work Worship writing Yasunari Kawabata Zena Hitz

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was the last king of Judah before the Babylonian exile?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Jehoiakim Zedekiah Josiah Hezekiah