illegal immigration raises two separate matters of conscience, which pro-sanctuary Christians blur and equate. The first is the question of immediate need and the Christian duty to extend compassion. The second is the long-term issue of how best to preserve the common good.

it seems inadvisable to the church, as a societal institution, to disobey the law to protect illegal immigrants from deportation. Christ expected his followers to treat criminals in prison the way they would treat him, but he said nothing about busting them out of prison.

There is a time and place for Christians to resist manmade laws in extreme circumstances – when laws contradict the express commands of Scripture

C.S. Lewis wrote in The Abolition of Man that “a hard heart is no infallible protection against a soft head,” but a soft heart does not guarantee right thinking, either. Disregarding the rule of law to “help” illegal immigrants is a paradoxical way of hurting them.