Charlotte pastor: The Border Patrol, the Bible, and our clear instructions | Opinion
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells a large crowd a small story: “The Kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” This parable captures the tension of salvation. Finding the treasure of heaven sparks wild and everlasting joy. Procuring it costs us everything.
Greg Bovino, the Border Patrol chief leading domestic immigration enforcement actions, is bringing those efforts to Charlotte, sources report. If Chicago is any indication of what is coming to us, we can expect chaos and cruelty on our streets. Anyone a CBP agent “reasonably guesses” could be here illegally can be snatched by masked men, thrown in cars and imprisoned indefinitely. Prisoners in these holding centers will not receive sufficient food, medical care or any semblance of due process. We will watch this happen on our streets and in the parking lots of grocery stores, schools, hospitals and churches. It will happen to undocumented immigrants, and it will also happen to citizens, green card holders and those who have lived here legally for decades with Temporary Protected Status. Anyone who doesn’t look American to agents is at risk of being abducted.
In Chicago, peaceful protestors have been shot with rubber bullets and sprayed with chemical agents. The Trump administration has banned prayer inside the Broadview Immigration Processing Facility, so we must prepare for similar bans here as well. Clergy who gathered to pray for prisoners have been teargassed and shot with rubber bullets. Federal agents have rammed cars causing multi-vehicle accidents, shot pepper spray into vehicles containing children and invaded a preschool to arrest teachers in front of terrified toddlers.
The Bible is very clear about the obligation people of faith have toward foreigners and neighbors. The Hebrew Bible is full of commands to show justice and mercy to immigrants. In Leviticus, Deuteronomy and Exodus we find requirements that “The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself because you were foreigners in Egypt.” In his letter to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul writes that “the entire law is fulfilled in the keeping of this one commandment, love your neighbor as yourself.” And in the gospel of Luke, a lawyer asks Jesus to clarify “who is my neighbor,” no doubt hoping to precisely differentiate between people who must be loved and who can be regarded with cruelty or indifference. In response, Jesus tells a story of a Good Samaritan — a foreigner — who stops to show mercy to a stranger who’s been attacked and beaten on the street.
The message is clear, we are a good neighbor when we show mercy. And our neighbor is the least fortunate person we know.
In the coming weeks, many of us may find ourselves living out the parable of the Good Samaritan. Some of us may be ambushed and attacked. Some of us may cross to the other side of the street and carry on with our day pretending that the misery we witness has nothing to do with us. And some of us may take great risks and pay a heavy price to come to the aid of the vulnerable.
Preachers like me often preach about the joy of salvation, and those are faithful sermons. But sometimes we aren’t honest enough about the price we must pay. Salvation is free, yes. But it costs us everything. The man found the treasure, but then he had to sell all he had to buy the field before he could possess it. Federal agents may be about to descend on our city to attack our neighbors, native and foreign born. Any preacher who tells you God doesn’t care if you intervene is lying to you.
We have a lot of churches in this city. Many of us profess to be ‘Bible believing’ Christians. We’re about to see who likes to talk about the Bible and who walks out its truths. It’s about to be judgment day in Charlotte. The inhumane cruelty we’ve been seeing on our screens is coming to our streets. We must pray for the moral courage to non-violently disrupt the persecution of our neighbors. Will we follow the example of the Good Samaritan and make sacrifices to care for the most vulnerable? Or will we make excuses? Will we be good neighbors? Or will we be bystanders?
Kate Murphy is pastor at The Grove Presbyterian Church in Charlotte and author of “Lost, Hidden, Small.”
This story was originally published November 14, 2025 at 5:00 AM.