The letter was signed by Chairman Ralph Reed (pictured) and Executive Director Timothy Head, who stopped short of criticizing the Trump administration’s border policy, which has resulted in thousands of children being held in tents and warehouses. | Molly Riley/AP Photo Border separations open rift between Trump and evangelicals

An influential evangelical group on Tuesday endorsed legislation to end the Trump administration’s practice of separating migrant families at the U.S. border, adding to a chorus of criticism from the faith voters that helped propel the president into office.

In a letter to lawmakers, the Faith & Freedom Coalition said immigration bills from Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and House leadership aren’t perfect, but called for a quick legislative fix to the administration’s policy of detaining migrant children.


Faith & Freedom, with 1.8 million members, was instrumental in turning out evangelical voters for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and has promised to spend $20 million defending Republican congressional seats in the November mid-term election.

The letter from Chairman Ralph Reed and Executive Director Timothy Head stopped short of criticizing Trump‘s border policy itself, which has resulted in more than 2,000 unaccompanied children being held in tents and warehouses along the U.S.-Mexico border.

“The separation of families illegally crossing the border is heartbreaking and tragic, part the larger tragedy of a broken immigration system that does not reflect our values or our faith,” they wrote. “The Bible instructs God’s people to show compassion and love for the foreigner and the immigrant. Scripture combines this obligation to care for the alien with a corollary responsibility of the immigrant to obey the law and respect the customs of the nation in which he resides. How these principles apply to immigration reform is a matter of prudential judgment in enacting sound public policy.”

Trump’s treatment of asylum seekers is the first crack in what until now has been a unity of purpose between the administration and the evangelical community. Conservative faith leaders have been stalwart defenders of the president, who has appointed hundreds of conservative judges, cut abortion funding and, most recently, worked to advance a long-sought prison-reform agenda.

“We’ve been very happy with a lot of things this president and this White House and this Department of Justice have done,” Head said. “It’s premature to consider this a break. I expect they’ll listen on this just like they’ve listened on justice issues or human trafficking issues or Title X funding for abortion.“

Officials inside the Trump administration with close ties to the faith community, including Vice President Mike Pence and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, have stuck to the administration talking points. Sessions last week defended the administration’s zero-tolerance policy by citing the Bible’s New Testament.

“I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13, to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained the government for his purposes,” he said in a speech.

As a community, evangelicals wear a multitude of political stripes, but with few exceptions Trump’s treatment of families at the border has all but unified them. Hundreds have been speaking from the pulpit, tweeting and writing letters to the White House.

“What‘s unique about this moment is that it transcends all the usual ideological and political boundaries. I know of very few religious people of any stripe who are not morally appalled by what’s happening on the border right now,” said Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, the country’s largest Protestant denomination. “This is something that should be morally obvious. The very fact that we have to have this controversy is discouraging.”

The Southern Baptist Convention, the National Association of Evangelicals and the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities are part of a coalition that earlier this month called on Trump to end the practice of separating migrant children from their parents, citing the biblical belief that families are “the fundamental building block of society.”

Evangelical leader Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham and a prominent Trump supporter, told the Christian Broadcasting Network last week that the practice was “disgraceful, and it’s terrible to see families ripped apart and I don’t support that one bit.”

Days later, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops condemned the practice on anti-abortion grounds.

“This decision negates decades of precedents that have provided protection to women fleeing domestic violence,” conference President Daniel Cardinal DiNardo wrote June 13. “Unless overturned, the decision will erode the capacity of asylum to save lives.”

Other supporters of Trump, including Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr., defend the administration’s policies.

“I’ve got no patience for all this outcry about how inhumane it is. It’s more humane than the way children are treated in the United States when U.S. citizens commit crimes,” Falwell said, speaking for himself and not the university.

“I’m not a minister, I’m a lawyer,” he said. “I have a little different view of the world that the clergy does. They wouldn’t be good pastors and ministers if they didn’t look at the world through the eyes of compassion and maybe some emotion. But I think sometimes tough love is the only way to get real compassion and to get real improvement.”