But after spending five weeks biking more than 1,600 miles along the border with a group of faith leaders and activists, where I spoke with border patrol officers, ranchers, humanitarians, faith leaders, mayors, business owners, residents, migrants, and asylum seekers, I can say this picture of the situation at the border is far from the truth. There is a crisis at the border, but it is one that puts immigrants – not US citizens – in danger.

Throughout our journey, which aimed to create a better understanding of the US immigration system and the reality along the border, I asked the same question of everyone that our group met: “What do you know to be true based on living here that you wish people in the rest of the United States knew?”

One of the most common answers is that border communities are not as dangerous as they are portrayed in the media. We heard this everywhere we traveled, from people of all backgrounds and political persuasions. One day we floated along the Rio Grande River near McAllen, Texas, landing in the exact location where a group of governors held a press conference just days before in which they stoked fear about the border. The local riverboat captain we were with pointed to the place where they held the press conference and said to me, “We are here every day. What they described is simply not reality.”

The border is safe unless you are an immigrant. For immigrants and asylum seekers, it is dangerous and even deadly. The only option for entering along the southern border is to cross the Rio Grande River, climb a wall, or trek through a desert. We spoke with immigrants who told us about their experiences nearly dying in the desert of thirst as they tried to make it to the United States. We heard from others who nearly drowned with their children attempting to cross the river. Immigrants have drowned crossing the river in the very same place the 10 governors spewed their lies. We met a woman who fell from the wall and broke her pelvis, and we were just feet away when a man broke his legs from a fall off the wall in El Paso.

READ: The Mark of Cain: On Who Deserves to Live

Why do these immigrants take such risks? Because they are left with no better options.

Since 2018, the United States has shut off nearly all asylum claims for people from Central America and more recent COVID-19 restrictions have frozen the asylum process for everyone else. What’s more, the roughly 200,000 farm worker visas that are offered each year are nowhere near sufficient to meet the needs of employers in the US or migrants seeking to work.

Meanwhile, the crisis in parts of Mexico and Central American countries is intensifying. We spoke with Indigenous women from Guatemala who needed to flee their villages because gangs were recruiting and threatening their children’s lives. We talked with a man from Honduras, who lived on a small island off the mainland that caters exclusively to cruise ships, and who was economically devastated by the impacts of the pandemic. His town had been thrust into poverty. His daughter needed surgery to correct the effects of scoliosis, so he knew that he needed to do all he could to get to the United States and earn enough money to pay for the surgery.

There used to be a way for people in this situation to enter the United States. But due to the “Remain in Mexico” policy – a Trump-era policy that is continuing under President Biden that requires nearly all asylum seekers to await their adjudication in Mexico – tens of thousands of asylum-seekers are living in makeshift camps in Mexico. This makes them vulnerable to Mexican drug cartels. All of the people we spoke with told us they not only had to pay to make their journey to the United States, but they went into debt to criminal cartels along the journey. Now they face an even more dire financial situation than when they started. The “Remain in Mexico” policy has strengthened cartels and created more human suffering.

Much of this could be solved with changes to US policy. The US must drastically increase the number of farm worker visas available from 200,000 per year to at least 1 million per year. The shortage of workers in the US demands it. The Biden administration must also immediately put an end to the Trump-era ban on asylum seekers. Once this is done, the asylum adjudication process will need to be overhauled; the US should engage thousands of former judges and magistrates to serve as asylum judges and create a system capable of processing more cases per week. The Biden administration’s plan to raise the refugee cap to 125,000 is better than the disastrous 15,000 under the Trump administration, but it does not go far enough. We need to further increase the number of refugees allowed to enter the country.

There is a crisis at the border. It’s not a threat to Americans or borderland communities, but it is a desperate gauntlet of life or death for thousands looking to escape violence and build a better life. Immigrants are not the ones to be feared – they need our help.

Read the original article on Business Insider

As authors published by Zondervan, a division of HarperCollins Christian Publishing known for its NIV Bibles, and activists against Christian nationalism, we were alarmed at this news, first reported by Religion Unplugged. We’re delighted today that Zondervan announced it will not support this Bible.

The growing specter of Christian nationalism

From our screens, we watched the rioters on Jan. 6 storm the Capitol. We can’t unsee the Jesus signs next to Trump signs, the Confederate flag paraded, the broken windows, injured bodies and officers assaulted. What some of us remember most are the prayers rioters prayed in the Senate chamber “in the name of Jesus,” including the now recognizable QAnon shaman who wore Viking headgear and publicly thanked God for helping rioters take over the Capitol.

After that day, hundreds of evangelicals, pastors, authors and faith leaders began to mobilize.  We started texting and calling everyone we could, especially friends who transcend partisan politics and are committed to Jesus and the common good.  We jumped on Zoom calls with some of the most influential evangelicals in the country.

Before long we had a movement of evangelical Christians denouncing what happened on Jan. 6 – as well as, and this is important, the conditions and theology that led up to the events on Jan. 6.  Over 5,000 pastors, faith leaders, bishops and authors signed on.  And that was just the beginning.  The momentum has continued to build, as evidenced in new websites like www.SayNoToChristianNationalism.org and www.LamentingChristianNationalism.org.

Last week, some three months after the original petition launched, six different organizations, all led by people of color, organized a week of action to respond to White supremacy and “Christian” nationalism… and the ways that racism tries to camouflage itself as Christianity.

It was during this week of action that we learned about the “God Bless the USA Bible.”  It’s advertised as: “The ultimate American Bible. The Bible and the founding documents of America. Now . . . together in one very unique Bible.”

As Christians around the country organized to address “Christian” nationalism, we heard about this new Bible, with the American flag on the front cover.  It features the text of the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the Pledge of Allegiance and the words to the song, “God Bless the USA.”  It’s available for pre-sale on their website for $49.99 and releases in September, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

There are many versions of the Bible and many translations. There is the “Justice” Bible and the “Green” Bible that emphasize the consistent themes in the text that we are to care for the poor and for the earth. There is even a military edition of the Bible, wrapped in camouflage. This is not the first time there has been an attempt to fuse American nationalism with the holy book – in fact Thomas Nelson released “The American Patriot’s Bible” over a decade ago, which was a very similar project.

But what is new is a growing awareness of how dangerous nationalism is when coupled with faith.

American nationalism is its own civil religion, where America rather than Jesus is the center of attention.  Instead of Jesus and the Church being the light of the world and the hope for humanity, America becomes the Messianic force in the world.  Like any religion it has its own liturgy, saints and holidays.  These symbols are on full display in this new Bible – the eagle, the flag, the red, white and blue.  America’s civil religion has its own creeds too in the new Bible – “We hold these truths to be self-evident…” It has its own “worship” songs – like “God Bless the USA” and “I’m Proud to be an American,” both by Lee Greenwood.  It has its own theology – manifest destiny, the doctrine of discovery and American exceptionalism.  And this is precisely why it is dangerous to mesh patriotism with orthodox Christian faith.

After all, the Bible does not say “God bless America.” It says, “God so loved the world.”  The national anthem should not be in the church hymnal, and the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States should not be in the Bible.

There are 66 books in the Bible.  Some streams of Christian faith include 14 others, known as the “apocrypha.”  But no version of orthodox faith has an American apocrypha.  Including the founding documents of America and the theology of American nationalism in the Bible is offensive.  We do not need an “American apocrypha.”  (And there is a verse in the book of Revelation that says: “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll.”)

The bombshell article by Meagan Clark at Religion Unplugged that broke the news on this custom Bible had some deeply disturbing quotes from Hugh Kirkpatrick, the creator and driving force behind the “God Bless the USA Bible.” Here’s what he said as the visionary behind it:

 “We noticed the divide in the public where some people started seeing pro-American images like the flag, the bald eagle, the statue of liberty as weaponized tools of the Republican party, and we didn’t understand that… We started seeing statutes coming down and we started seeing history for good or bad trying to be erased…  That’s when we started thinking, okay how far does this erasing of history go? Love it or hate it, it’s history. But how far does it go?… We’ve never heard of anyone throwing a Bible away. It’s always prominent somewhere in the house, it’s either on the coffee table, it’s somewhere that’s accessible. So if the Bible contained holy scripture but it also contained these documents it would be a one-stop shop for people to learn the basics of why the founders built into those documents divine providence.”

This customized Bible is a reminder that the “Christian industry” must do better to stand against the heretical and deadly “Christian” nationalism that we saw on full display on Jan. 6.  It is like a spiritual virus, infecting our churches, homes and social institutions.  Just as we take intentional actions to stop the spread of COVID, like wearing masks and staying six feet apart, we must take concrete steps to stop the spread of this theological virus.

How can we better guard the Bible?

As authors who have written multiple books for Zondervan, we reached out to the people we know and love at the publishing house.  Some of our contacts at Zondervan did not know about the new Bible at all until last week.  Others explained how difficult it is to micromanage every project that wants to print the NIV version of the Bible.  It is a common if not well known practice for publishers who hold the rights to Bible translations to print customized versions of the Bible for organizations and special projects.

We recognize that it is a daunting responsibility to be the guardians of the Bible or to hold a copyright to the “Word of God.”  It is also a daunting responsibility to steward money made from over 450 million copies of the NIV sold worldwide.  The business of Bibles raises questions about how corporate America collides with the revolutionary movement of Jesus of Nazareth.  After all, Rupert Murdoch now owns HarperCollins, Zondervan and as of 2012, Thomas Nelson, which published the so-called Patriot’s Bible in 2009 that is still available at many retailers. For many of us, learning the fact that the man who owns Fox News also owns the company that is the gatekeeper to one of the most popular translations of the Bible is a bit shocking, even concerning.  But that fact is beyond the scope of this article.

We are authors, but we are also activists.  So when we heard about the “God Bless the USA Bible” and the potential it has to fuel the already hot flames of Christian nationalism, we couldn’t help but respond.  We also wanted to do that in a way that is respectful, not just reactionary, and in a way that might actually make a difference.

We are delighted to hear that Zondervan has released a statement today that affirmed this Bible is not their product. They will not be publishing, manufacturing or selling the Bible. They were approached with the product, but it was not something they decided to support. All the marketing on the “God Bless the USA Bible” website was premature. It is entirely possible that the folks crafting this Bible will find another translation with another publishing house, but for now it is on hold, and we rejoice. We hope that future projects like this one will be reconsidered as well.

We don’t need to add anything to the Bible. We just need to live out what it already says.

And if we are to be good Christians, we may not always be the best Americans.  The beatitudes of Jesus where he blesses the poor, the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers – can feel very different from the “beatitudes” of America.  Our money may say in God we trust, but our economy often looks like the seven deadly sins.  For Christians, our loyalty is to Jesus.  That is who we pledge allegiance to.  As the old hymn goes – “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness/ On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.”  Our hope is not in the donkey of the Democrats or the elephant of the GOP . . . or even in America.

Our hope is in the Lamb.  The light of the world is not America. It is Christ.

This piece first appeared at Religion Unplugged. 

At Vote Common Good we encourage people of faith to bring about a change on election day by making the common good their voting criteria and by deepening into Faith, Hope, and Love to stop the re-election of Donald Trump.

READ: Voting for Our Own Souls

We’ve been talking with voters across the country about why they cast their vote for Donald Trump in 2016 and why they will not vote for him in 2020.

Here are a few of their stories.