Matt Nelson is the lead pastor at City Church in midtown Tulsa. He’s watched the Trump administration employ what he describes as a powerful weapon: rhetoric that makes people turn immigrants into enemies instead of neighbors.
“Jesus was not indifferent about loving your neighbor and the immigrant and we turn them into enemies because we’re now fearful of things,” Nelson said.
It’s one of the reasons Nelson decided to join a group of more than 30 Oklahoma pastors and church representatives in signing a February letter calling for compassion toward the immigrant community. Several called on state lawmakers to take action.
Roughly 500 individuals from across the state have signed the letter since it was released, including Edurne Pineda, head consul over the Mexican consulate’s Oklahoma City office, and Rep. Arturo Alonso-Sandoval, D-Oklahoma City.
The letter comes on the heels of growing Immigration and Customs Enforcement presence in Tulsa and as Oklahoma agencies sign agreements to collaborate with ICE.
“It’s calling for humane and compassionate reform that sees the image of God and people and humanizes,” he said. “So what we see is a lot of people getting caught up in this fear-based rhetoric. That’s what the Trump administration has done.”
Over the last year, he’s had conversations around immigration with families in the City Church community. They’ve leaned into learning how to understand what families are facing, and how to best support them during this time — and if things escalate.
“I’ve realized that a lot of the families that I work with are just living in fear and they just want to know that somebody sees them, somebody loves them, somebody is advocating for them,” Nelson said.
Chris Moore, lead pastor at Tulsa’s Fellowship Congregational United Church of Christ, signed the letter after it was released. He wanted to support the pushback against the administration’s immigration enforcement policies.
“It’s encouraging to see more clergy not only seeing that but speaking out like finding their voice and saying this is an appropriate role for the church to say this is morally wrong,” Moore said.
There are a few people within his congregation who are directly affected by immigration enforcement changes, he said.
“Most of them are affected by that tangentially, you know, they’re related to somebody or they’re connected to somebody or friends with somebody,” Moore said. “There’s very few in our predominantly white congregation who themselves are directly impacted by that.”
There are a few who are nervous because their legal status is in question, he said.
It’s quite heartbreaking for Moore to know colleagues who lead congregations with a much higher percentage of immigrants who are terrified.
“It’s a really difficult environment in which a good subsection of our city is living in,” he said. “it’s important that people know that’s not far off, that’s not just in Minneapolis, it’s not just in other places. It’s right here.”
Eric Costanzo, lead pastor at South Tulsa Baptist Church, said the letter calls on recent policies that are affecting people who came “the right way,” he said.
Many of the rules are changing, sometimes on a daily basis, causing potential loss of legal status or pathways to citizenship even if the individual has been consistent in following the instructions of the government, he said.
“The rhetoric related to refugees and immigrants is often and even dehumanizing,” Costanzo said. “It is a very important time to send a clear message about the dignity of all persons, and the biblical commands to seek justice and to demonstrate love and compassion for others.”
He still recognizes the importance of having strong and secure borders and a vetting process for newcomers.
The administration is not only removing criminals from the country, Nelson said, but removing families and people who have been ingrained in the country.
“Right now, there are a lot of Christians in the churches that are using the words of Jesus and the Bible as a weapon and that’s a gross misuse of it,” he said. “Part of it is calling that out and then part of it is helping disciple people and correct them and what it actually says, you know, and what it means to be loving.”
Angelica Perez is the Eastside/La Semana reporter. You can reach her at angelica@tulsaflyer.org. También habla español.
This article was produced as part of a partnership between the Tulsa Flyer and La Semana, a Tulsa-based bilingual Spanish-English newspaper serving Latino communities in Oklahoma.
News decisions at the Tulsa Flyer are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
