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EVANGELICALS AND IMMIGRATION Fault Lines Among the Faithful RUTH M. MELKONIAN-HOOVER AND LYMAN A. KELLSTEDT Palgrave Studies in Religion, Politics, and Policy Series Editor Mark J. Rozell Schar School of Policy and Government George Mason University Arlington, VA, USA This series originated under the co-editorship of the late Ted Jelen and Mark J. Rozell. A generation ago, many social scientists regarded religion as an anachronism, whose social, economic, and political importance would inevitably wane and disappear in the face of the inexorable forces of modernity. Of course, nothing of the sort has occurred; indeed, the public role of religion is resurgent in US domestic politics, in other nations, and in the international arena. Today, religion is widely acknowledged to be a key variable in candidate nominations, platforms, and elections; it is recog- nized as a major influence on domestic and foreign policies. National religious move- ments as diverse as the Christian Right in the United States and the Taliban in Afghanistan are important factors in the internal politics of particular nations. Moreover, such transnational religious actors as Al-Qaida, Falun Gong, and the Vatican have had important effects on the politics and policies of nations around the world. Palgrave Studies in Religion, Politics, and Policy serves a growing niche in the discipline of political science. This subfield has proliferated rapidly during the past two decades, and has generated an enormous amount of scholarly studies and journalistic coverage. Five years ago, the journal Politics and Religion was created; in addition, works relating to religion and politics have been the subject of many articles in more general academic journals. The number of books and monographs on religion and politics has increased tremendously. In the past, many social scientists dis- missed religion as a key variable in politics and government. This series casts a broad net over the subfield, providing opportunities for scholars at all levels to publish their works with Palgrave. The series publishes monographs in all subfields of political science, including American Politics, Public Policy, Public Law, Comparative Politics, International Relations, and Political Theory. The principal focus of the series is the public role of religion. “Religion” is construed broadly to include public opinion, religious institutions, and the legal frameworks under which religious politics are practiced. The “dependent variable” in which we are interested is politics, defined broadly to include analyses of the public sources and consequences of religious belief and behavior. These would include matters of public policy, as well as variations in the practice of political life. We welcome a diverse range of methodological perspectives, provided that the approaches taken are intellectually rigorous. The series does not deal with works of theology, in that arguments about the validity or utility of religious beliefs are not a part of the series focus. Similarly, the authors of works about the private or personal consequences of religious belief and behavior, such as personal happiness, mental health, or family dysfunction, should seek other outlets for their writings. Although historical perspectives can often illuminate our understanding of modern political phenomena, our focus in the Religion, Politics, and Policy series is on the relationship between the sacred and the political in contemporary societies. More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14594 Ruth M. Melkonian-Hoover Lyman A. Kellstedt Evangelicals and Immigration Fault Lines Among the Faithful Ruth M. Melkonian-Hoover Lyman A. Kellstedt Gordon College Wheaton College Wenham, MA, USA Wheaton, IL, USA Palgrave Studies in Religion, Politics, and Policy ISBN 978-3-319-98085-0 ISBN 978-3-319-98086-7 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98086-7 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018952639 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2019 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover credit: caracterdesign / getty images Cover design by Akhiro Nakayama This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland This book is dedicated to Ruth’s parents, Ellen Bartholdy and Levon Diran Melkonian And to Bud’s grandchildren, Abigail and Elizabeth Kellstedt and Grace and Nathan Ramirez who have inspired us to ask anew each day what it looks like to follow the command to … “to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind, and our neighbors as ourselves” (Luke 10:27). Acknowledgments We have so many wonderful people to thank for helping us bring this book to publication. We have been both interested in and concerned about this subject all our lives as Christians, scholars, Americans, and the children and grandchildren of immigrants. Bud comes from a very political family. His grandfather built the home of William Jennings Bryan in Lincoln, Nebraska; the site is now a state park. His father was a supporter of lost causes—Harold Stassen for president among others. His mother had an insatiable curiosity—“Buddy, who is going to win the Iowa Caucus?” is a specific cherished memory that is oft repeated. His brother, Jim, became an elected official at the age of 34. His sister, Piney, a college professor, was known campus-wide for her political stances. His son, Paul, is also a political scientist and not shy about expounding his views. And, finally, his daughter, Anne, is a psy- chotherapist who tries to keep our crazy family operating while regularly informing her neighbors of her political views via yard signs. Ruth appreciates growing up in a home where her family watched the news together, read the daily newspaper, and discussed and debated world politics. It was a gift to see her parents, people of faith who immigrated to the United States from different countries, and who identified with different political parties, agreeably disagree. vii viii Acknowledgments Bud thanks John Green, Jim Guth, and Corwin Smidt (three colleagues in “The Gang of Four”) for inspiration and assistance in our joint efforts to understand religion and politics. He is also grateful for the work of other scholars in this subfield (in particular, the Religion and Politics section of the discipline) who are too many to mention. Bud is also thankful for the assistance of many talented students during his tenure at Wheaton College. We worked together and laughed together. They are missed but not forgotten. Unfortunately, they are too many to list. Ruth thanks Jim Skillen for being the one to ask her to write about immigration in 2006 and Jo Kadeleck, who years ago challenged her to share her work in book form. And she thanks her co-author Bud Kellstedt, whose request and willingness to move forward as a team over these past five years she’s found humbling and encouraging, particularly in a project area that is complicated, heartrending, and polarizing. At Palgrave Macmillan, we are grateful to Michelle Chen, Ted Jelen, and Mark Rozell, who saw the need for this book and helped us formu- late a good way forward. And we are grateful to John Stegner for his care- ful editorial advice and patience. We mourn the loss of Ted Jelen, who was a bright light and a notable scholar in the world of religion and politics for many decades. Ted and Bud were friends for decades; he is missed. We owe a special thanks to a number of scholars willing to consult with us at various stages of the research and to comment on various chap- ters of this text even when shared in the roughest of drafts: Dennis Hoover, Jim Guth, Corwin Smidt, Timothy Sherratt, and Steve Alter. We are extremely grateful: all errors that remain are decidedly ours not theirs. Ruth also thanks Gordon College and the Center for Faith and Inquiry for funding sabbatical time and summer research efforts to facilitate this project. And she thanks her supportive colleagues in the political science department: Timothy Sherratt, Paul Brink, and Michael Jacobs. She is likewise grateful to her indomitable TAs, whose research, transcriptions, and encouragement over the last years have been indispensable. They include Karin Christianson, Jessica Allen, Emily Gerard, Liz MacDavitt, Rachel Ashley, Jacqueline Broberg, Jenny Hyde, Hannah VanderLaan, Jaya Rastogi, India Boland, Abby Millard, Daniel Gray, Rebekah Rodrigues, Marina Bueno, Annika Hellweg, Taylor Valci, and William Peña. Acknowledgments ix We are grateful to the various organizations that have undertaken for- midable research in this area and have made their datasets freely available to us to use and analyze: American National Election Studies (ANES), The Henry Institute Cooperative Clergy Survey, Comprehensive Congressional Election Study (CCES), General Social Surveys (GSS), Pew Research Center, and the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). They bear no responsibility for the interpretations presented or conclusions reached based on analysis of their data. Lastly, we cannot thank our spouses and families enough. They have been utterly patient and supportive in this project. Char Kellstedt— whose support, humor, strong religious faith, and passion for justice— inspire Bud to no end. And Dennis Hoover—in addition to his mad editing skills—his vision, faith, parenting skills, and partnership in mar- riage have made this possible. And we are grateful for our children, Bud’s grandchildren, and our parents, who have inspired us as we think on what it means to do justice and love mercy when it comes to immigration. Praise for Evangelicals and Immigration “One of the many misunderstood aspects of contemporary immigration politics is the role of religion – particularly evangelical Christianity. In this superb vol- ume, Melkonian-Hoover and Kellstedt remedy that through rich historical accounts, a nuanced understanding of American religion, and sophisticated analyses of the “fault lines” that define evangelicalism’s variegated response to the immigration debate. This is a must-read for anyone interested in religion, politics, and the enduring American debate about immigration.” —Geoffrey Layman, Professor of Political Science, University of Notre Dame “Too often in our political and spiritual discourse, highly complicated issues are distilled into talking point form which can never fully capture the nuances, history, and complexities required for a populace to reach genuinely informed conclusions. In Evangelicals and Immigration: Fault Lines Among the Faithful, authors Melkonian- Hoover and Kellstedt expertly synthesize scholarly research, expert interviews, and personal stories that color in the gaps of what is perhaps the most consequential issue of our time, namely the confluence of immigration and faith.” —Samuel Rodriguez, President, National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference “As carefully demonstrated by Melkonian-Hoover and Kellstedt’s Evangelicals and Immigration: Fault Lines among the Faithful, American evangelical Christians are often divided by questions of immigration policy, with marked divides between ‘elites’ and those ‘in the pews,’ among evangelicals of different ethnici- ties, and even within the minds of many individual evangelicals, who struggle to reconcile their conflicted feelings on the topic. As a longtime advocate for immigration policy changes, I found some of their findings encouraging and others troubling—but all incredibly valuable. If ‘all truth is God’s truth,’ the church needs not only normative arguments for how we should treat immigrants, grounded in biblical theology and missiology, but also this dispassionate analysis of how we have treated them throughout history and the diverse ways that evangelicals say they want their elected officials to respond today. I highly recommend this fascinating, thoroughly readable book not just to academics, but also to church leaders who want to better understand how their congrega- tions are approaching this polarizing issue.” —Matthew Soerens, US Director of Church Mobilization, World Relief xi

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The topic of immigration is at the center of contemporary politics and, from a scholarly perspective, existing studies have documented that attitudes towards immigration have brought about changes in both partisanship and voting behavior. However, many scholars have missed or misconstrued the role o