Southern Baptists Funding Open Borders? The Truth Exposed

what scripture teaches us about God's heart for the stranger. God commands his people to care for strangers and foreigners along with the poor, the widows and orphans.

What do you think of this? I mean, this is unacceptable. It's shameful. It's shameful to interrupt a public gathering of Christians in we are looking forward to eternity among our brothers and sisters from every nation, tribe, and tongue.

Jesus would be understanding and we're about love these folks. We're about spreading the love of Jesus. But did you try to talk to them as a, as everyone is willing to talk?

Okay. I have to take care of my church and my family. So I asked this you actually would also be you don't want us to I'm always worse if I'm a

Christian. God's people were to orient their lives to serve and uplift them by meeting material needs, integrating them into community life and ensuring justice before the law.

We need to structure our church and community life to bring in outsiders.

Can you understand why they're angry? I don't, I don't understand any of this cause I'm a simple man. I'm a simple man who loves the

Lord and has a good father. This is what we look forward to is coming, being with our family and praising

Jesus. And that's not something that we have to run away from. So we, this is kind of a bad day for us.

World Relief is a global Christian humanitarian organization whose mission is to empower the local church to serve the most vulnerable.

The work of the Durham office includes refugee resettlement, immigration legal services, and refugee and immigrant youth services.

I think people who are, you know, in religious groups like that, it's not the type of Christianity that I practice, but I think that they're entitled.

And that, that entitlement comes from a supremacy, a white supremacy. We can serve through advocacy by holding our elected representatives accountable for treating the immigrants and refugees residing among us with justice and mercy.

God has been on mission to welcome the stranger first through Israel. And now through us, we can be involved on many levels through welcoming international students or refugees or advocating for immigrants or giving financially summit church.

You are sent to welcome the stranger. Welcome to the conversations that matter podcast.

I'm your host, John Harris. This is an important episode for you to watch if you are a

Southern Baptist. And I would encourage you share this with all of your Southern Baptist friends who have any kind of interest in the future of their denomination.

There's going to be a call to action at the end, but before we get there, I need to reveal to you what has been taking place in your denomination for far too long.

You are going to learn things in this particular podcast. Even if you are a regular listener to this podcast that you probably do not know in granular detail, we will go through how refugee resettlement and even defending and propelling the quote unquote rights of people who are here illegally is happening and being encouraged within the

Southern Baptist convention. What you just watched is a video mashup

I made of two things. And I think it represents the tension that exists in the largest

Protestant domination. The first thing was a video from a few years ago put out by Summit Church, which is a large, it was once a flagship church for the

Southern Baptist convention in the Raleigh Durham area. And this is posted on World Relief's website, a settlement organization to endorse the idea that Christians need to be involved in the work of settling refugees from other countries into this country.

And you heard the justifications given for that. The second thing you saw were protesters against ice in the

Minneapolis area, specifically protesters who disrupted a Southern Baptist church service.

And the reason they did this is because one of the pastors also works for ice. That's why they targeted the church.

Don Lemon, who is a CNN reporter, happened to be there and you heard his line of questioning with both the pastor and then afterward,

I'm presuming one of the congregants in the church. And the tension that exists is this.

For years, Southern Baptist leaders have been promoting the idea both on the institutional level and at their annual meetings when they pass resolutions about immigration that we as Christians in the

United States need to be more compassionate, assuming we're not, we need to have policies that reflect this compassion.

If you look at Southern Baptist resolutions on this topic for the last 20 years, I wrote about this in an article at the

Federalist, you will notice that there is a softening of immigration language.

It starts at the beginning of the 2000s. With calls to enforce the law.

And then at the end, after 20 years almost of passing resolutions on immigration, there's all of a sudden a call to change the laws so that they reflect justice as if they didn't reflect justice before.

Now we need to change laws. We need to have compassion reflected in our laws. You will see joint statements put out by organizations like world relief or the

ERLC which oppose Trump immigration policies, whether it is rescinding

DACA or wanting extra vetting and therefore closing off immigration because we don't have the proper ways to vet and it's happening at a scale that's too much.

And Southern Baptists have opposed these kinds of things in the name of Christianity. Nonetheless, this has been going on.

I can give you many examples of this. And when there has been problems in immigration, you hardly hear a peep.

When Biden had open borders and there were immigrants flooding in from all over the place, you hardly heard a peep about this.

But when Trump tries to do anything to limit it, well, the rest is history. Until now, this is the golden moment.

This year is the point in time. And believe me, if you've listened to this podcast for any length of time, how often do

I say this about the Southern Baptists? I don't. This moment right now is the moment.

If you care about the Southern Baptist convention, if you are a messenger or qualified to be a messenger and you haven't gone before to the

Southern Baptist convention, even this is the year to go. Even if you go never again, this is it.

This is the time. And I think there's a variety of reasons for it, but this is one of the reasons.

There is a softening on this issue among those who are in authority in the convention right now.

In other words, they are starting to see that the immigration policies of the left, not only are destructive and bad, but that the left actually doesn't give you any points for going with them halfway.

They will come into your church. It doesn't really matter. They will target you. They do not see you as an ally.

And for all the concern about a year ago of ICE coming in to, to find illegal migrants and then try to get them into a situation where they could process them or verify their status or deport them.

What you just saw is the opposite of all that. You saw anti -ICE protesters, the opposition forces to ICE.

You saw them disrupt the church service. And that was all the concern a year ago. They're going to, ICE is going to disrupt church services.

Well, we just saw who disrupted a church service. And this is something that's somewhat sacred to Southern Baptists.

They want to be able to have their church service. And when it's disrupted, they don't like it.

And that goes for Kevin Eazell at the North American mission board that goes for Al Mohler that goes for Clint Presley.

There have been so many Southern Baptists who have come out in the last week and started condemning what just happened.

And I'm hoping this soft spot that they currently have this realization that they hopefully have over what's actually going on will continue.

And it can be the means by which perhaps conservatives at the convention this year in June will have momentum.

That's the political angle to all this in the Southern Baptist convention, but I need to show you what's happening in your denomination on a granular level.

So if you want to know more of the big picture and you want to see resolutions and what the

ERLC, the ethics and religious liberty commission in the Southern Baptist convention has said, and what seminary presidents have signed as far as statements and all that go check out my article in the

Federalist. Uh, it, the title of it and this is from about a year ago now is rift grows in Southern Baptist convention over support for leftist immigration policy.

So you can check out all the details on that for the big picture. I want to get into more granular details though.

I want to show you what's actually functionally practically happening on the church level in your denomination.

And it's not pretty. It will probably discourage you a little bit if you are a conservative and you really thought, you know, the

Southern Baptist convention, they're a bunch of Trump voters. They're politically conservative as well. Well, yes, the people in the pews are, but there have been things happening on the institutional level for far too long that have remained unchecked.

And I'm going to give you just a taste of what that looks like. So buckle your seatbelt.

If you need to listen to this in more than one sitting, I still encourage you, please listen to it if you're a

Southern Baptist. And again, send it to Southern Baptist, you know, because they need to be aware of what's actually happening within their own denomination regarding immigration policy and how that practically actually plays out in the churches that are members of this denomination.

So here we go. We are going to start here.

This is Redemption Church in Twin Cities. So it is in the same region that these anti -ICE protesters are happening.

It is where ICE is currently active. It is where there have been a number of fraud situations regarding Somali immigrants.

It is ground zero right now for the immigration question in our country. And what we see is that this particular church,

Redemption Church in the Twin Cities on their website. And I have all the links for everything

I'm going to show you on this particular slideshow. If you are a patron, then you will have access to this because if you go to the info section, the link for the

Patreon link is right there. If you are not a patron and you just really want this slideshow, you can reach out to me and I'll give it to you.

But Redemption Church in the Twin Cities has on their website that they are welcoming the nations. And they're doing so through something called

Arrive Ministries. And it says Arrive Ministries is a refugee resettlement agency providing essential services and practical assistance to refugees and immigrants to advance self -sufficiency.

We mobilize volunteers in partnership with local churches to extend love and friendship to our neighbors, to promote thriving in a new homeland.

And you often hear this language that the immigrants are our neighbors. It is this language of proximity.

You know, they're really close to you. They, and often you're going to find throughout this whole thing that you're going to, you're going to see language like we need them.

And it's, it's a violation of our own people, essentially our own neighbors, the people that we share life with to think that maybe they shouldn't stay here permanently if they're an asylum seeker or something like that.

So Arrive Ministries is the ministry. Well, let's look into what Arrive Ministries stands for and does.

Arrive Ministries is a, uh, actually it's called Arrive, but it's actually really

World Relief. World Relief, Minnesota is now Arrive Ministries. This is a headline and I have the link there.

The name change reflects growing partnership with churches. World Relief, Minnesota announces that it will become

Arrive Ministries. The name, the name change, um, is this, uh, way to demark itself as being more ministry focused.

Uh, it will continue to operate as an affiliate ministry of Transform Minnesota and will maintain its long partnership with World Relief Corporation.

So you think you're looking at Arrive Ministries here. You're actually also looking at World Relief, the relief and development arm of the

National Association of Evangelicals. Along with its partner churches, Arrive Ministries has resettled more than 700 refugees in the past.

And here you have their, uh, from 2024, their, uh, uh, tax information and on it, you see government grants over $3 million.

So most of their money, the majority of their money at that point was coming from the government. Here is a picture of, uh, from their social media.

This is a very recent picture. So within the last few days, and it says, keep caring for our refugee and immigrant neighbors.

Keep advocating for what is right. Keep praying. And I have the link there. This is from their

Facebook page. Now here are some of the ways that Arrive Ministries thinks

Christians as this would include Southern Baptist here can get involved. So number one, uh, they can volunteer, they can rent to refugees.

So if you have property, they can hire immigrant neighbors, right? They're, uh, they're the, again, the neighbor thing is used so often here.

And I put in a yellow here, cause I wanted to emphasize it. They can advocate. And it says in, in part not just speak out to those in positions of influence on behalf of the vulnerable and oppressed, but contact your elected representatives regarding current immigration and refugee policies.

Well, I wonder what that means. I wonder what that means. Current policies apparently are not good.

And you just saw from their social media posts, they think particularly right now we have to stand up.

Things are bad, right? Keep caring for our refugee and immigrant neighbors. Keep advocating for what is right.

I mean, that's exactly what they're saying to do officially on their website. You can have classes in your church.

You can donate. There's a troll church toolkit. You can order that, uh, prayer prompts.

You can give and donate. And then they have on their website immigrant services.

And what are these immigrant services? Well, uh, resettlement is part of it. Employment.

There's also immigration legal services. What does that mean? If you click it, green card applications, us citizenship applications, green card replacements and work permits.

Now, one of the things that you're going to notice probably immediately is wait a minute, us citizenship applications.

I thought that these were legal refugees already, right? That's the narrative you keep hearing over and over is these are all legal people.

There's, uh, I shouldn't be rounding them up there. You're rarely ever given a name. It's just ice is doing this and we know they're legal, but then why would they need a us citizenship application, right?

If they're here legally. Now the answer for those who know anything about immigration law is very simple.

Most of them are here on asylum. They've come here to the country because it's under the pretense or, or the reality that they have issues in their own home country.

And generally for asylum seekers, you're finding the closest country adjacent to the country, having issues to try to send them.

But that hasn't worked in the last decade. It's been, you know, you have problems in the middle East and people wind up in the

Western world. They don't go to the surrounding Muslim countries as much. Sometimes they do. I mean, Turkey has, has taken in quite a few, but it's, uh, it's not always based on proximity.

It ends up being something that they can come from very far parts of the world. And, um, and so when they're here, they're actually not usually here or, uh, with permanent status.

Uh, they are here because there was a problem in their country. And when that problem ends, they can go home.

That's the idea. But these organizations will try to create incentives, pathways, options, uh, for people who have come here to try to stay here.

That's why you have under immigrant services, uh, in part, at least immigrant legal services.

So links are, are there, this is, um, and again, this, this is all linked to us.

This is a Southern Baptist church. That's how I even started going down. This whole, uh, issue is because redemption church in the twin cities in that area is a

Southern Baptist church on the Southern Baptist directory. And this is one of the ministries that they support.

This is how they encourage their people to serve. It's in the serve tab. So their people are serving in an organization, uh, that is totally diametrically opposed to what's happening right now in Minneapolis.

They're opposed to Trump immigration policies. They think it's out of step with righteousness and justice.

And, uh, they, they want you to get involved in an organization that will advocate politically and, uh, provide legal representation for migrants who are not even citizens and not necessarily even permanent legal residents of this country.

Somehow that's part of ministry, right? Um, now you might think, well, that, you know, you're going to have your weird churches here and there.

Well, that's true, but there's a lot of churches doing this kind of thing. Um, arrive ministries.

This is, I found this funny. According to Minnesota aging and disability resources, this is a government website in Minnesota.

So according to the government of Minnesota arrive ministries, and this is the description.

The first two words are offers cash or other short -term aid to people in a crisis that is affecting their access to basic needs.

So arrive ministries is just, it's offering cash to migrants that are here.

Uh, that's a church ministry. Apparently, according to this, um, uh, here are some more posts from arrive ministries.

If you just really want confirmation that they are truly on the left politically here, there's a number of, uh, ways to verify this.

From last week, when all the stuff was going on in Minneapolis, they posted this know your rights.

You have the right to remain silent. You can say I'm exercising my right to remain silent under the fifth amendment.

So you're not even a citizen of this country. You got this constitutional fifth amendment, right? Uh, you also have arrived ministries clients will, uh, with refugee status are being detained.

So they're just saying this. Now they're not giving names. They're just saying, this is what's happening. They have refugee status and they're being detained.

Well, the question is always, uh, whether they have status or had status at one point, uh, what is their status now?

Uh, refugee status is not necessarily a permanent thing. You have, according to a local news article, and this is on January 23rd,

Jenny grown, program manager with arise ministries has been assisting many immigrants and refugees who have resettled in Wilmar over the past four years.

Obviously, what's occurring right now is deeply impacting our work grown told the council. She further commented about what she is seeing of the federal government's mass deportation campaign.

But I really want people to know she said in this moment is that we were told it was going to be people who did not have legal status or had criminal backgrounds.

And then we have had people who came as refugees, which is a permanent legal status.

So she she's telling you right now, refugee status is permanent legal status. If you come here as a refugee, it's permanent.

You're, I guess you're always a refugee. I don't know. You're, you're just like a citizen at that point, right? Like why would you even need all the legal help that arise ministries offers?

Why would you even need it? If you're here as a refugee, you're already, it's a, it's a permanent legal status. Um, and she said, these people are being arrested.

They're purposely, not accidentally. And so the motives of these ice agents, I mean, they really want to go after the people who are legally here and they're detained for days and some are still detained.

She said some of those who have been arrested have been transferred out of state and some are now in deportation proceedings.

Well, how are they in deportation proceedings? I want to, these are the things curious minds wants to want to know.

I mean, you have a few things going on, um, permanent legal status. So legally they can't go anywhere.

Right. And I mean, you have, I'm assuming, I mean, we just saw Don Lemon can't be arrested. So I'm assuming there's courts in the area that wouldn't allow that.

Right. But then why do you have these tools to legal tools to help people get status if they're already in a situation where they have permanent legal status?

So that the, um, message being sent here is that the Trump administration through ice is purposely going after people who are legal permanent residents.

They have status and they are taking them and shipping them out of the country. Even though there's so many people without the, uh, that, that particular status, presumably there's illegal migrants, right.

Or undocumented workers as someone called them, but they're specifically going after those who have permanent legal status.

That's, uh, and this is all Christian ministry stuff, I guess. Now, one of the interesting things that you will find in some

Southern Baptist churches that are involved in the immigration issue is very blatant, uh, actions to attempt to persuade people who may even be here illegally.

To not acquiesce to ice, to challenge the system, to challenge the law.

Now, uh, I remember, you know, Russell Moore just said this recently that you shouldn't abuse Romans 13.

And I mean, these, these guys in 2020 that were on the left were all about Romans 13, but all of a sudden we got to actually stand up.

We got to stand up to law enforcement because what they're doing is morally wrong on some level. And I'm going to give you a few examples of this happening.

Here's reality. Church is a church in Miami and again, Southern Baptist church.

All the churches I'm showing you are Southern Baptist. And this is a recent email from pastor Carlo, Carlos Lillette from reality church.

And it's under the heading administer justice, empowering vulnerable neighbors with the help of a lawyer and the hope of God's love.

Dear friends, I wanted to share about the opening of the Miami gospel justice center, a new resource for individuals and families facing legal challenges.

One of our members is spearheading this effort and it only costs $35 a session. The justice center offers legal guidance, referrals and advocacy in a compassionate and welcoming environment.

Churches and organizations are welcome to refer those in need of legal help. All right.

Well, there's people apparently in need of legal help. So if you click on the link, this is where it takes you.

This is where it gets real wild here. Welcome to Miami gospel justice center.

Could you think of a better, big, even name? It's the gospel justice center. Get the legal advice you need.

Don't let your legal issue hold you back for only $30 schedule. Now that's cruel. You're charging these people 30 bucks.

I mean, look, they're the stranger. They're your neighbor. I mean, how can you, how could you charge anyway, schedule a 45 minute session with one of our attorneys and receive support from the team and appointment at our center provides answers to your legal questions and so forth and so on.

And then you keep going important next steps, actions to take today for your immigration concerns.

Do you have immigration concerns? Cause apparently some people do, and this is the pastors need to let those with the immigration concerns know that they can just go to the

Miami gospel justice center and they can know their rights. What are their rights? Well, it's important to know your rights, what to do, what not to do.

If you're approached by an immigration officer. Oh no. The Illinois coalition for immigrant and refugee rights has produced a helpful handout with information.

Well, what does that helpful handout say? I'm glad you asked. If you find yourself interacting with an ice officer in any location, including your workplace or out in the community, remember you have the right to remain silent when questioned or arrested you should, or arrested a pair.

Okay. You should remain calm and keep your hands where the officer can see them. You can state that you wish to speak with an attorney.

You are not required to discuss your immigration or citizenship status with the police, immigration agents or other office officials.

You can sign anything you do not understand, or you don't have to sign anything. If an officer knocks on your door, you have the right to not open the door.

Ice officers must have a warrant signed by a judge to enter your home. Ice warrants are not signed by judges.

They are ice forms signed by ice officers and they do not grant authority to enter your home without your consent.

Well, I'm really glad that Carlos Lorette from reality church in Miami is getting the word out that if you have immigration concerns, you have answers waiting for you out there from the

Miami gospel justice center. And if you go there, they will tell you, look, you don't have to comply with ice.

It doesn't matter. Like if you're at a legal migrant here, you don't have to answer any questions.

You don't have to get the door. You can just resist what ice is trying to do by questioning you and presumably deporting you.

I mean, here's the thing. If you're a citizen and ice comes and questions you, I mean, just think about this or they knock on your door.

If you're an actual city, ice has one job basically. And they come and you, you you're you're there.

I mean, you find yourself in this position is how they phrase it. Then what you need to do is tell them

I'm a citizen and here's my information. Here's my driver's license. Well, that doesn't even do it now.

Right. Or here's my passport, or here's my papers. I am a citizen, but what they're telling you to do is look, don't talk to them because we know why, right?

Cause you don't have those things necessarily because maybe they have a claim and maybe you're in trouble, right?

That's, that's what's going on. That's my read on it here. Um, at least, and, and this is in the

Southern Baptist, the conservative Southern Baptist convention that Don Lemon and these protesters think, uh, has all these right wingers in it.

This is the kind of thing that's happening though, in many of the churches in the convention. Here's another example of a church that is doing something similar.

This is the first Baptist church of El Paso, Texas. And they have the, uh, dio season migrant and refugee services incorporated that they partner with or that they refer people to.

And if you go to the church's website, they have resources and advocacy.

This is actually the organization that they're referring to that it's on their website, but they have removal defense, removal defense.

Our removal defense unit includes full representation for detained and non -detained individuals who are currently in removal proceedings in the

El Paso area immigration courts. During an initial consultation, your information will be collected by an attorney.

Our team of attorneys will analyze the facts of your case and present you with your options for relief from removal or deportation.

So you, you need relief, right? You need, you need relief. They're going to remove you.

They're going to deport you. And who should you look to in that scenario, but a

Southern Baptist church that is going to refer you to relief because there's an attorney waiting.

And if you are detained and unable to meet, you can send a friend or family member on your behalf.

Isn't that nice? If you cannot send someone to our office, please contact one of our legal orientation program staff members.

So here's the thing. I'm going to probably say this a few times, but you go through all this stuff and you might even think to yourself, well, okay, it's more progressive.

They're on the left. They don't like the immigration policies. Even if you think that does this belong on a church website, is this the kind of organization churches should be like for ministry purposes involved with?

And if so, why? And that's a good question to ask fair, right?

Southern Baptist church. And here's a letter that I found just to see where the funding's coming from.

This is probably a question on a lot of your minds. I'm going to get into some specific examples of how funding works here, but here's, here's a little,

I guess, appetizer to get us started here. It says here,

Congress of the United States delegation office, state of New Mexico. So this, they operate in, let's see,

I guess it's just more, more than just El Paso, Texas, but Estrella Del Paso, they oversee the diocese and migrant and refugee services.

The Estrella Del Paso is application to the department of homeland securities, 2024 citizenship and integration grant program has essentially been received and approved.

So there is money coming from the government, or at least there was, this is before Trump to make sure that there's refugee resettlement happening, but also things like removal defense.

If ICE tries to come and get you, let's talk about the Pleasant View Baptist church and port deposit,

Maryland. I know we're jumping around the country here, but here's another church that is a Southern Baptist church verified.

And they have on their local missions, the Salem center. Salem center is a

Pleasant View Baptist church founded ministry. So that's interesting. This church is Southern Baptist church founded this ministry of compassion, seeking to assist

Muslim refugees and acclimate them to the United States. When they come to America, we assist them in learning the

English language and laws and adapting to American culture as they start a long journey to citizenship while serving them and meeting their needs.

We work to share the love of Christ with them. We also strive to cultivate relationships with them to create opportunities to share the good news of the gospel.

Now, a lot of that sounds good, right? I want to share the gospel. I really do. I mean, I, and if immigrants are going to come here, if the policies are not policies that even

I agree with, and these are people that are now by me I would hope that if the opportunity allows it,

I'm going to share the gospel with them. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I don't think there's anything wrong with some of the,

I mean, you don't know how many things I overlooked and I thought there might be a tie here, but I'm just going to overlook it because I'm sure there's

Christians involved in some of these activities like preparing like a food pantry or a bag, goodie bags for migrant workers and stuff.

And I'm trying to give the benefit of the doubt of like, doesn't mean they like all the policies and everything.

It just means that they, they want to love and help the people that are in their community. And this is part of it.

They didn't necessarily vote for it, but here it is. There's nothing wrong with that. Okay. I just want to make that very clear.

I was very, I'm very specific with the examples that I picked because even if there's other bad examples out there,

I want the ones that are just very obvious. So you can see, and there's so many of them. I had to limit it to be honest, but the

Salem center. Okay. Now what does the Salem center do from Pleasant View Baptist church?

They founded it. Well, the Salem centers offers essential support for refugees and international individuals facing challenges.

So they assist all these people in need. And how does the assistance look? Well, language support programs.

So ESL classes, job placement assistance, housing assistance, housing assistance, not okay. Cultural orientation got to teach them about American holidays, customs, et cetera, healthcare access.

Okay. We can get at people with healthcare services. What I'm wondering if these healthcare services are funded by the government.

Uh, I'm just curious. It doesn't say, but legal assistance. And I highlighted this, we help people understand the legal system and connect them with legal professionals, immigration.

We help people understand their immigration status, seeking aid. We help those in desperate need apply for aid through government programs.

Well, that might explain the healthcare. Here is a post from a month ago,

I guess, a month and a half ago, the Salem center in Baltimore, the warm memories of last

Thanksgiving will fill our hearts with gratitude. It's just a Thanksgiving thing. And here's a photo of refugees and I think workers.

So that is the Salem center started by a Southern Baptist church. Now, at this point,

I'd like to give you an idea of how this works, starting with some more tentative connections.

So it can get very confusing because the, the government has a limited number of organizations that they will contract with for refugee resettlement in the country.

Then those organizations will partner with other organizations to intake donations and other materials in order to complete their task.

And so there's a mixture of government funding, sometimes local and state funding as well as, as federal funding.

And then in addition to that donations and partners on the ground, volunteers, even at times, there's a lot of money to be made in this whole thing though.

And sometimes it's not just an org, an NGO that the government has grant given a contract to it's sometimes, and it's sometimes not even just the organization that that NGO is also using.

It's the organization, the organization, the NGO is using. That's also involved in this and sometimes getting a piece of the pie.

It can be somewhat complicated. And so I want to show you a little bit about how this works. And I'm going to start with some

SBC examples. And there's a number of them. This is not comprehensive, but let's go to one.

That's pretty familiar for all of us. This is Send Relief. Send Relief, here's a headline. This is from 2024.

Send Relief and World Relief working together to resettle Afghan refugees. Now, World Relief is one of the

NGOs with a contract to do resettlement. So World Relief is then going to get the help of Send Relief, which they did to resettle these

Afghanis. On the website up until March of 2025, at least, so this has changed.

But I was like, wow, this is less than a year ago. I think there are Send Relief might and again, this is why this might be the sweet spot where we need to really hunker down and get a conservative in the

Southern Baptist Convention because they're changing things in real time. But you have here care for refugees.

Every day, refugees are forced to leave everything to find security. So they have this whole thing about how we care for refugees at Send Relief.

That's one of the things we do. And this is some of the funds going into Send Relief would be cooperative program funds.

This is Southern Baptist funds. You give a tie that you are Southern Baptist Church.

Some of it goes into this stuff. Five ways you can help refugees. Here's one of the articles that they had.

You can give, you can pray, you can facilitate ESL classes, you can pack backpacks, you can go on a missions trip, right? These are all things that you can do.

But they are also partnering with Send Relief. So I wanted to give you that example of how, you know, sometimes like what you asked yourself, like what's wrong with Send Relief?

A lot of this, probably there, there isn't anything necessarily wrong, but then there is a connection to government funding and refugee resettlement, which may be against the policies that you as a politically conservative

Southern Baptist agree with, but your tithe money is going to helping those policies continue.

So if you, I do think this is fundamentally different. If you, as a Christian, as someone in a 501c3 in your local area, you see,

I don't agree with these policies, but Hey, these are the people near me. We need to do something. I understand that. I do think most people see a difference though, when, okay, now we are assisting government contractors or the government directly, or we're receiving funds from the government directly.

As the Center for Baptist Leadership found out with the Southern Baptist Convention and how I think it was either

Send or NAM, they were, they were getting money essentially from World Relief. So to resettle, they were actually getting money.

So that's government money that's coming in at least a chunk of it is. And is that what you wanted your tithe money to also band together to, to help complete?

You know, it's probably not. You probably would be against that, but that is what's been happening in the

Southern Baptist Convention. So this is a little illustration of how this works. I'm going to give you another example, refuge hope partners here.

Um, and I put world relief Durham here is because a world relief Durham is involved in this again.

And one of the NGOs is involved in this particular organization. So you think to yourself, well, refuge hope that sounds good.

Doesn't sound like the government's involved in that. Doesn't say well indirectly. Yes, actually. And our church partners here.

So these are churches that would give money and I've highlighted all the ones that are Southern Baptist here.

Some of you might be surprised because you might think, you know, like Bayleaf, that's a really conservative Southern Baptist church, right?

What's that doing there? And well, I think there's probably good motives behind many of these churches and they think they're doing a humanitarian thing, but, uh, there's more than just humanitarian work, uh, going on here, uh, significant changes to us, refugee resettlement, a new crisis and how refuge hope partners is responding from March 6th, 2025.

Uh, to our refugee neighbors, you are not alone. We see you, we care for you. You are deeply valued. You are not a burden.

You belong here. You belong here. Uh, you have followed the extensive process to resettle in our country legally, and you deserve safety and stability.

Well, if they've done that, then why here's the thing. Like if they're here legally, then this shouldn't be a problem, right?

If they actually are here legally, you have a legal right to be in the United States. ICE isn't going to,

I mean, there's some, I know you've heard narratives out there, but it's not in the policy and courts can challenge it.

It's it's, but the impression given here is like, you know, all your fears drummed up by the left, that those are all, if you're, if you're here legally, they can just still take you.

Those are all legitimate. I think more than likely what's happening is they're saying these people are here legally because they got temporary asylum or something.

And it doesn't mean that they're here permanently or legally necessarily. So anyway, this is what a refuge hope partners is saying that has all these

Southern Baptist churches supporting it. Uh, let's see. Right. If you show partners amplifies their voices, immigrant voices, it promotes inclusivity and it works towards creating a more welcoming and supportive city for all these initiatives at, uh, refugee partners contribute to raising awareness and building empathy within the broader community.

So you see what this is going towards, right? This is about fundamentally transforming Durham and I lived near Durham for a while and I got to see in real time how it is being fundamentally transformed.

So, um, you can thank refuge partners for contributing to that. And you can thank these

Southern Baptist churches for getting some of your tithe money to helping them change your community, recent immigration shifts, touching the lives of our refugee neighbors.

Here's another one, December 5th, 2025. So this is a month and a half ago. Refugee hope partners gives an immigration narratives that have emerged in recent days, sorry, griefs, the immigration areas, many of which created misunderstandings and even fear about our refugee neighbors as champions for legal resettlement.

We acknowledge that the potential removal of individuals who followed all required legal steps to seek refuge here has caused understandable concern among many families in our community.

Notice the word potential here that you don't see the names. It's because then you could fact check it.

It's like this impending narrative that's emanating from where the Trump administration, uh, it, these immigration narratives that are going to, they create all these misunderstandings about our refugees there.

We're vilifying these people when they don't deserve it. And we're just champions for legal resettlement.

Well, legal we've already know we already know because you told us refuge hope partners, what you think legal is you insinuated it at least because you're, you keep saying that the people that are being targeted by the government, by ice now under Trump, these are all apparently legal residents here.

They there's nothing, there shouldn't be anything for them to worry about. It's unfair. They followed all the steps they came here.

So that's what you think legal is. We have a fundamental disagreement on that level. We have to discuss what that, what really that means.

And then what you think legal ought to mean. Um, so I think there's like a very fundamental disagreement here, but.

Even if you disagree with me politically, you got to ask yourself these Southern Baptist churches that are supporting us in tandem again, with an

NGO, with world relief, is this really what ministry is about? Uh, is this really all about soup kitchens and sharing the gospel with people, or is there something else?

Is there a political agenda here? That's probably not an agenda. Most of these congregants would actually agree with.

So, uh, here's refuge hope upstate Utica Baptist church in South Carolina partners with refuge hope upstate.

So does Lutheran services. That's another one of the NGOs. So similar to world relief world

Lutheran services, um, refugee hope upstate depends on partnerships with churches, civic organizations, and businesses who support refugees in our area.

The following organizations are currently a part of this ministry. And so here's a Southern Baptist church right here.

And this is, I'm just showing you how these connections can happen where you don't think that there's anything going on and there actually is.

You got to, you got an NGO that's partnering with another organization that your church is partnering with.

If you're a member of Utica Baptist church, here's another example for you.

This is Willow bend community church in Lutz or Lutz. I don't know how you pronounce it in Florida.

And on their website, they have welcoming the stranger as part of their immigrant ministries, discovering and living

God's heart for immigrants and learning group guide from world relief. Okay. So they, they're, they are citing a world relief here.

And if you go to, this is, um, actually let me backtrack just here for a minute.

So if you go to Willow bend community church, I skipped a step.

They have the Florida Baptist convention here as, and refugee resettlement specifically singled out as part of their missions.

Okay. Then you go to Florida Baptist convention, which is a lot of Southern Baptist churches would be members of, and you find world relief stuff.

Materials. I just happened to look at this cause I was, I was curious. Like, what is this, this document that they're recommending?

So it's not the church directly recommending it, but they're recommending for refugee resettlement, this organization and this organization has this particular, uh, this resource that they recommend from world relief.

I'm just going to read this to you. The individuals whose stories I have included in this chapter, Pedro and Martha Francisco and Alison and Fernando and Liz are representatives of the many undocumented immigrants and their families.

I Matthew Matthew Sorens have interacted with over the past several years in my work with world relief and living in neighborhoods with many immigrants.

As I've gotten to know them, I have found them to be good friends, neighbors, and often brothers and sisters in Christ. They're not perfect, but they are also certainly not the criminals that the media portrays them to be.

Like me, they're concerned about their families, their faith, their day -to -day realities of paying rent and affording groceries.

I worked for a number of years as a legal counselor tasked with informing the immigrants who came to me for advice about what the law says.

And in rare cases, the law provides them an option to obtain legal status. But more often I have to break it to them, the bad news that under current law, they have no real options.

This realization made me wonder how is it that my ancestors who I am told came much for the same reasons as those described here were able to immigrate to the

United States. So that is just one sample of this resource that they're recommending.

And what's the impression you get from all that? It's not fair. These people that come here illegally and are not documented workers, they're great people.

They are just like you. And it's just so sad that we have a government that says they can't all stay.

That's the impression you get from that. World Relief notes that they actually have given the

Florida Baptist Convention money, $25 ,000. Now this may be for hurricane related stuff, but one of the dynamics that I think is worth me pointing out to you is that oftentimes there are financial incentives, there are ties between these groups.

And so when World Relief, let's say loses money because Trump's not going to allow them to receive federal resources, at least at the rates they had previously, this doesn't just affect them.

This affects their partnering organizations, organizations that would receive sometimes money directly from them and organizations that relied on the refugees they were bringing in to have work themselves, to have a job to do.

So there is this symbiotic relationship. And I think Southern Baptists need to be aware of that.

This is happening, not just in your churches with maybe an organization, one of your churches partners with, this is happening on the local convention level in some places.

And in this case, the Florida Baptist Convention. And one of the things that you'll see here from the

Florida Baptist Convention is the narrative that we've been seeing everywhere against ICE.

At first it was the threat of ICE, agents coming to church and trying to arrest people and deport people,

Voltaire said. But now I have people contacting me directly, crying, asking, what do we do?

Then the humanitarian parole program and the temporary protected status program in August will together inflict a multilayered wound upon churches, families and gospel witness,

Haitian and Hispanic leaders told Baptist press. Nobody wants to have criminals running around, but in the process, we have people who are good neighbors, who are members of our churches, deacons and pastors, we have a lot of clergy.

Also, John Voltaire, the Florida Baptist Convention, Haitian multicultural analyst, catalyst, what kind of, that's an interesting position.

You are the Haitian multicultural catalyst. I don't know where you go to school to become one of those, but that's what he said.

They came through those programs. Now they are actively working in our churches. This is just, the impression that the

Florida Baptist Convention is giving you is that Southern Baptists are hurt by this, ICE is coming and rounding up people that have a temporary protected status that lapsed or they're not here legally or something's going on there.

They're deporting them and they're deporting all these pastors and all these members of the Southern Baptist Convention, which makes you wonder if true, how invested is the

Southern Baptist Convention of Florida and the Florida Baptist Convention in illegals?

And, you know, you may not like that term if you want to say undocumented and say undocumented, but how invested are they in this?

And that if they are invested at all, that is a political statement. And you can certainly see they're playing politics here.

There's no doubt about it. This is a, there's, and you have to ask yourself again, is this a, is this politics of the third way?

Is this not left or right? Or does this slant left? Because I'm pretty sure this slants left. Here's Iglesia Bautista, West Brownsville, Texas in West Brownsville, Texas.

It is a Southern Baptist church there. It is listed and there here's a

Baptist press article about them. Migrant ministry is a rollercoaster. Navarro said, adding that Golan.

So Golan is the ministry that they have at Iglesia Bautista West has just received the opportunity to manage a 40 bed

Brownsville shelter, no longer subsidized by the city. The shelter will temporarily house migrants as they enter the

U S from Matamoros to apply for political asylum. That's from 2019. Um, and you have here

U S Mexico border and interior immigrant aid organizations listed on the human rights first website.

Okay. So, and it says what we're doing. Okay. So what humans rights first is saying, this is what we're doing.

Look, we're tracking and challenging the anti -asylum measures. Like the title 42 remain in Mexico and asylum bans under both

Biden and Trump administration. But like Biden was really, I'm sure you're really hammering

Biden. Human rights first is saying, here's what we're doing. And one of the things they're doing, wouldn't you know it is we are highlighting and recommending, uh, as a

U S Mexico border and interior immigrant aid organization, Iglesia Batista, West Brownsville Baptist church. Oh my goodness.

How does this church wind up on this far left website? Well, it's because they sponsor a ministry called

Golan, which attends to the emergencies to serve migrants, collect toiletries, clothes, backpacks, food, water, and other items to help support them.

Uh, at the bus station prior to their departure. So, uh, this is how they wind up on that website.

Now here's more about Golan. Uh, this is 2024 article from faith works at organization, and it highlights

Iglesia Batista, West Brownsville, and the reporter here says, or the member of that particular organization says,

I also see many unaccompanied minors who are transported to our church through arrangements with their care providers in a special section of Iglesia Batista.

So there's, so they're taking an unaccompanied minors and faith work is faith works is, is tracking this.

Here's, um, a, another feature on faith works website, Carlos Navarro, who started this organization.

Um, it says among other things that he is the recipient of support from Knox fund for immigrant relief since 2019.

So that means this leftist organization is funding them to do what they're doing.

You have Baptist press highlighting this, uh, Baptist press. They say,

I'll just read a little bit of that here, uh, tracking the stats under the title, hosting angels on the church's Facebook page.

Navarro told RNS in March that the church had since 2019, get this assisted more than 91 ,000 migrants, 91 ,000 materially and seen more than 26 ,000 make decisions for Christ, which again, if those are legitimate, we praise

God for another 3 ,461 migrants have stayed overnight in the church's respite, respite,

I can't say it their center and ministry has given out more than 25 ,000 Bibles.

Like other migrant ministries, Navarro has faced accusations. He's promoting illegal immigration. And, uh, despite his close partnership with the government, right.

And that's, it doesn't like make us any when, when this was written, which I think it was 2023 or 2024.

It doesn't really make us any to, to, to be in league with the government, uh, it doesn't help us anyway, several occasions.

Navarro said people have taken photos of his license plate, which, uh, he interpreted as a threat. Um, he says this, let's see, uh, they operate without government funding.

It says they did maybe, but without government, but they do have this other money coming in, they differ from any other religious shelters at the border that received substantial federal government aid.

Okay. In line with a Baptist perspective on separation of church and state Navarro said the ministry has relied on donations, um, and, or labor and materials from church groups and parachurch organizations.

Now listen to this fellowship Southwest urban strategies, world relief, world vision, the salvation army, send relief

Southern Baptist of Texas, cooperative Baptist fellowship serve now church world service and local restaurants. So world relief again, comes up there.

So you have NGOs, some of them getting money from the government that are, he said, we're not getting government money.

Well, maybe not directly. That's, that's what I'm trying to like communicate to you. Like maybe not directly people wonder, okay, well, how are these organizations funded?

I don't understand. Well, some of it may be donations and all that kind of thing, but then. There's also government money can go through a few hands before it gets to the on the ground stage.

Here's faith works recently, January 15th, 2016. This is an organization that again, funds and features, uh,

Navarro. And, uh, Golan ice agents with the blessing of the Supreme court are free to harass and apprehend suspected immigrants or even us citizens based at least in part on race.

Oh, they're a bunch of racist. Okay. The terror unleashed by masked ice agents roaming the streets is highly racialized their tactics, aren't just victimizing those who are undocumented and they aren't just going after folks with a criminal record as promised during the campaign instead, productive and beloved members of society who own businesses have us citizens and children and grandchildren are being rounded up, sent to detention and deported with little due process.

The murder. I mean, I guess you tell us what you really think the murder of Renee good was a foreseeable tragedy when terror is a strategy.

Uh, so they're, they're terrorists, these ice agents. I mean, there's, they're sending unmarked vehicles full of armed mass men, many with little training, little training in the neighborhoods where people don't support their goals as a recipe for catastrophe.

Give you a little idea on whether they're politically neutral here. Um, I don't think so. Switching gears, talking about redemption church.

Now in Mobile, Alabama, you know, this guy, this is Ed Litton with his mask on in 2021 at the border.

You can see the border fence there and he's handing out resources. And that's, he's the pastor of redemption church.

And one of the ministries that we support, it says at their website is dwell mobile. With a vision to see resettled refugee families find their home and community dwell mobile provides post resettlement services.

And that's including trainings and tutoring and that kind of thing. Well, a little more about dwell mobile.

Uh, they, this is their front page cultivating opportunities for resettled refugees. Well, mobile says their agency relies on federal funding to operate according to Fox 10 dwell mobile says about 80 % of their funding comes from the federal government.

So in the absence of government funds, because of Trump dwell mobile says donations are critical and encouraged. There was a rumor circulating that ice rated dwell dwell denies.

This says while they weren't rated or shut down, they have changed a few of their services they can currently offer as they navigate what's next.

I am wondering what those services were a little bit, but. But that's a dwell mobile.

That's the church, Ed Litton, former president of the Southern Baptist convention, his church, which is redemption church and mobile.

This is the organization that they support as part of their ministry and organization that was under Biden getting 80 % of their funding from, uh, your, your tax dollars forcibly.

And then we're just wedding. We're, we're adding more to the funding by, uh, church donations and voila, you have dwell mobile.

And, uh, I don't, I don't know a lot more about it, but I just, I think I would. The reason

I'm bringing it up is just to point out that these are organizations that are funded. Some sometimes very well funded by, or were very well funded by the federal government.

And, um, they, they have a stake in this because of that. There's an incentive to keep the money coming in and keep the jobs going.

And if you were losing money, you're going to try to replace it by appealing to Christians and ministries and these kinds of things, uh,

Karis church in Columbia, Missouri, Harris community church. Uh, they are, they have ministry partners with city of refuge, city of refuge is a nonprofit that's created to help refugees and their families recover and regain control of their lives.

So the other thing I wanted to point out here is city of refuge or, uh, dwell mobile. I mean, faith works, you know, all these organizations that are popping up everywhere, uh, they, some of them don't do the resettling directly.

Like I said before, they have an NGO that, or sometimes the government, if they are an

NGO, they'll have a contract that will allow them to do the resettlement, but other times when it's like city of refuge, um, they are more likely just assisting those who are doing the resettlement.

So they're doing most of the busy work. So another organization is bringing the people here and then city of refuge comes and provides resources and that kind of thing after the people are essentially resettled.

Um, Columbia's refugee community, uneasiest federal rules keep changing. It says, uh, this is from Debbie Beal.

This is March, 2025 city of refuge director. She, um, said even so some refugee families are changing their typical routines, including avoiding church and community gatherings because they're concerned.

Uh, she's relaying these statements. She has received from staff members working with refugee residents. So these staff members from city of refuge are, which is a ministry.

Apparently, according to some churches, uh, that are Southern Baptist, they are working with these people who are avoiding church and community gatherings.

Now I'll ask you, do you think that means they are undocumented at present? The refugee community is calm since deportations have not yet happened.

Is there, there's a refugee community and there is not yet an ice presence in Columbia and boom County. Another statement note, uh, here's 2025 in April city of refuge takes on refugee resettlements as it's other services face funding cuts.

So there you have it. They are doing refugee resettling that a new partnership with the Missouri office of refugee resettlement.

So it's a state level office, um, from the international.

So, so M O O R a is a private nonprofit from the international Institute of St.

Louis. It was selected by the federal office. So there you have it. Federal office of refugee administration contracts with this

NGO and this NGO then partners with the, um,

Missouri office of refugee or this NGO rather. Yeah. Partners with Missouri office, office of refugee resettlement.

And then there's these connections that are given in part to city of refuge. Ah, man, that's a, that's kind of a mouthful there.

Um, city of refuge in Columbia share our vision of a Missouri that values and champions refugees.

So they are getting government money. Uh, support services costs 50 ,000 a month or 600 ,000 per year, which was supported through grant funding from the

U S office of refugee resettlement. They are getting direct money from the government and this is a ministry of Karis community church.

All right. So they, there you have it. They, they are, uh, I don't really know if there's much more for me to say.

I'll just sort of leave it there. Midway heights, Baptist church in Columbia, another Southern Baptist church and on their missions, city of refuge right there.

So another Southern Baptist church involved with that FBC first Baptist church of Asheboro.

They, uh, have on their website. Let's see, which one am

I looking at here? Their missions links. So they have their missions, links, links to world relief.

All right. I'm gonna talk a little bit more. I think at this point about world relief, refugees are being unjustly detained 4 ,400 world relief families are at risk that's if you go to their website and they have an act now to help refugee families in the

U S stay, because this is a horrible injustice that's happening. Do due process is missing.

It says refugees are being deceived. They're detained. They're held in captivity for a re -interview. They need to speak up and help is urgent with you.

World relief triad is boldly responding. It's audacious belief that we have that human flourishing is possible, even in the midst of crisis.

So they're, they're getting very up in arms about this. And you got a Southern Baptist church that is helping them out with it and giving them money.

Um, this Southern Baptist church in particular, I was just going to point out, uh, Jenny Johnson, the missions pastor there, uh, has been involved in some level, some capacity with the evangelical immigration table.

And, um, one of the things that the evangelical immigration table stands for is establishing a path towards legal status.

So there it's amnesty with steps. I've gone over many of their statements and plans, and that's basically what it is.

So you have a pastor there that who's committed to this. Um, but let's talk about world relief world relief condemns

Trump administration's needless and reprehensible re -litigation of recently resettled refugees. They're deeply grieved by this decision.

Uh, it was, well, inevitably generate alarm among many individuals who will fear being returned to the countries where they face persecution.

And this is, this is a horrible thing to do. They will no longer, uh, this, this one's, yeah, listen to this under the big, beautiful bill passed last

July refugees who have not been granted lawful permanent resident status are no longer able to qualify for snap benefits.

This indefinite delay in processing lawful permanent residence applications from refugees will also indefinitely delay their eligibility for this vital nutritional support.

So they are boy, if you are not up in arms about the, the vital nutritional support that refugees who have come to the

United States who have sought asylum status, they're not receiving, uh, then you're a bad person if you're not up in arms.

In fact, I think this should be a ministry of your church. I think that your tithing money that goes to church should go to, and I don't really care if your family, uh, needs it.

I don't care if your children can't afford school or houses. Um, I don't,

I don't really care because we have, it's not just food. It's vital nutritional support that these refugees from other countries who have come here need, and they're in danger every day, ice can come in the door at any second and not just take their nutritional support, but also take them and return them.

Um, of course I'm being a little facetious here. I, I just, I think that there's like a tone deafness to it.

There's just a, I think if you're in an organization that has been used to receiving so much money to do this, and you're used to seeing the thousands of people from other countries coming and you're directly involved, these are people, people are precious.

And you, you form relationships. I get all that. Uh, you get, you get used to it though. And you start thinking this is just the norm and it's not the norm.

It's not the norm for most countries. Most countries don't do what we do. They haven't been as generous and people coming here are coming here because the situations are leaving or worse.

And, and it is sad. I, and I do wish, I mean, in a hypothetical world, I wish every, the whole world was happy and there were no problems, but it's not.

And Christians have to figure out how, how they can do two things at once.

The first thing is protect their country, which means also protecting themselves financially. If you're not financially solvent, that's a national security issue.

Second thing, and it's more than finances, by the way, it's also your culture. It's, it's all kinds of things that I think, um, high levels of immigration can affect.

The second thing is regardless of government policy, you live in a particular community. How do

I reach the people here? And you can always do that without partnering with the government. You can actually just do that as a church.

You have the capacity to engage in charity as an individual too. You can, you can do these things without having to partner with bad guys.

With people that fundamentally disagree with how you work out handling that first question of defending your country, you don't have to partner with them, but you see a lot of Southern Baptist doing that very thing.

And, uh, and so world relief, I have really, I don't have much patience for him, but here's, uh, where they get money from 85 % public grants in 2023.

I mean, they've been relying on your tax money for a long time, and I think they feel entitled to it.

Normandale Baptist church in Fort worth, uh, also supports world relief. Here's another, by the way, headline from world relief.

This is a more recent one, January 13th. They condemn the aggressive tactics of ice. This operation must cease in the

Minneapolis area. So they are engaging in politics very directly. Um, how dare you, how dare you go and try to round up people who aren't here legally?

Uh, you have governor Greg Abbott. Here's an evangelical immigration table. A document that was signed an open letter in tandem with world relief.

They both collaborated and it says in 2019, we're we're writing to urge you to allow refugees to continue to be resettled in Texas.

There are global neighbors. What in the world is a global neighbor? Well, I guess that's who they are.

I mean, I've never met a global neighbor, so maybe I should go check out who they're talking about a global neighbor. Um, normandale .org,

uh, the church website has, uh, it says they work with refugees and they do so in North Texas.

There's a story from world relief that says 400 families were served on a single Saturday through Normandales Baptist church's food distribution.

Our friends at the Texas national guard also came out to help Normandale Baptist church signed this letter from the evangelical immigration table and world relief as well to urge

Greg Abbott to allow our global neighbors to stay here, Southern Baptist church,

Normandale summit church in Durham, North Carolina, you know, this church is J. D. Gersh church, the former president of the

Southern Baptist convention. Let me just go over a few things. Um, they are also, or have been partnering with world relief road.

Relief's own website says our church partners, the summit church. Um, there you go.

You guys can get more clear than that. Uh, in an article here, and the article is called caring for the immigrant and refugees.

So that's where they talk about this. Uh, the assembly of North Carolina, Adam Clark in that particular journal, a magazine, whatever, newspaper, whatever it is said, he's the director of the

Durham branch of the Christian charity world relief. He said that summit church has probably contributed largest number of volunteers to help his organization resettle refugees in the triangle.

So more than any other church, you can thank summit church for helping world relief resettle refugees in the triangle area summit church themselves, um, let's see, talk about, we've had more than 650 people serve refugee families with world relief.

So their own website mentions world relief a number of times and how they're involved with them as well.

And of course that video I played for you at the beginning, uh, was also taken from the, um, uh, summit church and they're in their partnership capacity with world relief, true

North church in Russia. And I'll say one thing, let me just say one thing real quick. I, I didn't want this video.

It's already so long. I didn't want it to be at longer, but I've talked about JD Greer in the past and his critiques of the Trump administration, his supportive things like DACA and, and dreamers and that kind of stuff, um, his, uh, critiques of harsh immigration policy, et cetera.

I'm focusing now more because the personality is that you're so used to hearing me talk about that. I'm focusing on what's happening on the granular level, nuts and bolts in your denomination.

I want to see where, where's the money going and where's the money coming in? What organizations are that your churches and your denomination and your, your local associations, who are they partnering with, what are they actually doing?

That's what I'm more concerned about in this particular podcast. And I think that's probably the more important question, the rhetoric. Uh, it matters because it ultimately will motivate this kind of thing, but this is the kind of thing that real really matters.

What is actually fundamentally happening on the ground in your denomination? True North church of Rochester is also partnering with world relief.

Here's a weird one. I'll tell you, this one's weird. True North church, Southern Baptist church of Rochester, New York has an address 420

Winton road, North Rochester. I only noticed this cause I was, I was looking at it. I was like, wait, hold on a minute.

World relief has the same address. They literally have the same address. And then I saw a news report from ABC in 2024, walking in their shoes, a new simulation created by world relief,

Western New York at the true North church in Rochester takes people through the journey of refugees, wait a minute, hold on at world relief,

Western New York at the true North church. So it's like the same, it's operating as if it's like the same entity. They literally either share a building or are the same thing.

I'm not sure exactly which one it is. Uh, but here you have a government NGO that is, um, that is very closely working.

They have the same address with a church. Uh, then you have quorum day.

Oh, Bible church with in Davenport, Iowa. They also partner with world relief.

Redeemer church in Greenville, South Carolina areas to engage world relief.

Um, rush Creek church of Arlington, Texas, local missions, opportunities, world relief,

King's cross church, Greensboro, North Carolina, primary service opportunity, world relief. So you see this all over the place.

This is not comprehensive. I didn't want to bore you. There's a lot of churches that are partnering directly in this Southern Baptist convention with world relief.

And you already saw what world relief represents, stands for, and does price fellowship in Cherrydale.

Where is Cherrydale? I don't, I didn't put what state South Carolina. Um, they also partner with world relief upstate specifically seeking to welcome immigrants, refugees to the

Greenville and Spartanburg communities, Bethlehem Baptist church, this is in Kentucky, Cunningham, Kentucky.

Uh, they, they have, uh, a partnership with refugee ministry.

It says in Bowling Green refugee Bowling Green, which is really just refuge Bowling Green, um, confirmed that 30 individuals from Latin America would be relocated to Glasgow in an article from 2024.

So they are doing refugee resettlement. A refuge Bowling Green has been awarded a $700 ,000 grant to expand its workforce training programs for immigrants and refugees across Warren County.

The funds distributed by the Kentucky office for refugees. So they're getting money from the state and they're training people.

Now I don't know that, you know, I'm not saying every single thing that they do is bad. I don't know enough, but I'm sure much of it is probably good.

Um, I think what you should be concerned about again, is that you have a Southern Baptist church that's putting this under a ministry or a mission, uh, heading.

And then when you look at it, it's a, uh, government funded, I guess you could say an

NGO that's doing refugee resettlement from Latin America. Um, so yeah,

I think that's all I had on this one that I wanted to show you. And this might be one of the more, uh, like, you know, less kind of, uh, uh, concerning connections, but even this should,

I wanted to point out that even the ones that I don't think are as concerning, there's still a concern there, there's still a level of concern that I think

I would have about. And questions I would have about, okay, these people are coming from other countries and now, and they've, they've come in during the

Biden administration. And now they're still here in many cases.

Um, they have not come here, they've taken, we'll put it this way. They've taken advantage, um, not seeing everyone, but a lot of them of the temporary protected status.

And now we, this is unsustainable. We need to do something about it.

And that is only a temporary status anyway. And so my question is, uh, are these organizations when they bring these people in using government money and then churches come in and help them make the process easier?

Are the church, are the churches assisting in a very unwise move for the people of this country?

And with a good heart, perhaps thinking they're doing the right thing and stuff, but are they actually helping incentivize something that is not good for this country and is now creating a problem that is, uh, that, that has allowed people that are here now illegally staying, allowed them to stay here and tried to shield them.

And that's the concern. That's the issue with all of this Calvary Baptist church,

Santa Clara, California, Santa Clara is a beautiful place, by the way, missions, teams, and volunteers sent to the following groups, fire bow migrant center.

Okay. So they send people to fire about my migrant center to help with charitable efforts. Let me tell you a little bit about the fire bow migrant center.

The fire about migrant center, um, is funded in part by the community action partnership in Maduro County.

So there's some, and this is California, mind you, you've got to keep that in mind. This is California. So they are getting money, uh, from the local

County and they are also a headstart program. A headstart program means essentially.

They actually may have legitimate illegal aliens, undocumented people as part of those receiving this kind of aid.

How do you know that John? Oh, the ACLU headstart services and illegal aliens, ACLU federal judge blocks

Trump's effort to bar some immigrant families from headstart. So headstart is a lot of these organizations are working to provide resources to migrants who come here and it's under headstart.

It's on, it's giving them a leg up. When they get to this country, the ruling halts a Trump administration directive that would have excluded certain immigrant children from headstart a program serving families who are eligible nationwide.

A decision ensures immigrant families can continue to access early education, childcare, and critical support services.

So you have a church that's partnering with an organization that is providing headstart stuff for, and I, and I know enough about California.

I can basically guarantee for illegal aliens in part. Chilohe hills,

Baptist church, Knoxville ministry partners, bridge refuge services, nonprofit agency operating in Knoxville and Chattanooga.

Okay. Sounds fine, right? They do a protection and assistance and refugees inspiring journey.

I mean, I guess some of them could be inspiring. The bridge refugee service here.

Uh, services shows the money that they're receiving and you probably already guessed it if you've been paying attention the whole time.

Yeah. The lion's share of it is federal grant income, federal grant income. It's, it's mostly government money that's coming in here.

And here's a recent, uh, actually this is not recent. It's 2023, but this is a, an update from the director here.

Friends of bridge, sir, refugee services for many in the resettlement industry, 2023 has been fraught with challenges and victories.

So she says it's a resettlement industry. That's what it is. It's an industry, and that's probably the best term she could have used.

Uh, she goes through how the government, we have seen increase of almost 50 % of new refugee families arrivals.

That's a lot of arrivals in 2020 is under Biden. Our staff volunteers and donors have made it possible for families, individuals to thrive here.

So it's, it's always, I guess it's always good when you got more people coming in, right? Cause you got to raise the money. You got to get the money to meet that need, but when you have less, it's like an outrage, it's terrible.

Anyway, I'm looking towards 2024 bridges, anticipating an increase of more than 100 % in annual clients.

We expect government grants sources to provide the average refugee arriving in East Tennessee. Only 70, only 70, only 75 % of the financial backing.

What a measly amount. What a bunch of cheapskates in the federal government.

I tell you, they're only going to give 75 % of the financial backing necessary for in, for the, to back up the resettlement industry or word, not mine.

I mean, we could do better. Can't we, can't we just do better than 75%, especially when you have, you know, 100 % increases in people coming, you got to do better than that.

So this gives you a little bit of an idea of what was happening just a very short time ago with bridge refuge services or refugee services.

Once refugees have been approved by the various federal agencies for travel, the U S state department's bureau of population refugees and migration programs coordinates emissions of refugees and their allocation of specific cities with local resettlement agencies, such as bridge.

So bridge is a resettlement agency. The government, uh, it says the U S state bureau, a population refugees and migration, they're the ones coordinating the, the refugee admission.

So then they contact the state, uh, or the resettlement agency, which is bridge and they, that we got these people coming in, we were, we're going to pay apparently 75 % of their way.

Can you make up the rest and, and can you put them in your, your town or your region state partners?

In addition to the partnership that brings refugees to Knoxville bridges, supporting, uh, supported through the

U S department of health and human services, office of refugee resettlement. So this, this makes a lot of sense to me that the, some of the people in Tennessee who just moved to Knoxville within the last few years are there.

They're saying so many people from the North have come and from California have come and all of a sudden there's all these, uh, people from Latin America around to like, where did they come from?

Well, you know, now, and it's churches helping also because that 25 % has to be made up.

So how are you going to do it? Well, call contact Shiloah, she'll she'll. Holy there we go.

She'll Holy hills Baptist church in Knoxville. They're Southern Baptist. They'll help you out. That's how it works.

All right. Christ's way. Church, Ulta, Tennessee priceway community church bridge, refuge

G services. Another Southern Baptist church helping them out. Uh, Eastlake community church in Irmo, South Carolina, they partner with Lutheran services.

Another NGO kind of like world relief. Last year, the nonprofit received about 16 million in federal grants to fund its offices in Greenville, Myrtle beach in Columbia this year, it's getting 4 million to help refugees pay.

They're upset that there's been a decrease in the support that Lutheran services Carolinas has gotten because the federal cuts, uh, in 2025, this was a, this is a story from November of 25 have hurt them.

You got new covenant community church in Lincoln, Nebraska. They also partner with Lutheran family services.

They're new Americans program, new Americans. That's an interesting title too. They're, they're, they're,

I think when they touch the soil, they are now Americans and they're new. So it's let's see, they got volunteer opportunities on the church website.

Uh, they have a Christmas Eve special offering that they gave for refugee resettlement specifically.

Um, they want to show the love of Jesus to refugees. We grow and are changed by understanding our refugee neighbors more deeply.

Isn't that sweet. That's very sweet. Uh, they, that, that, this is also,

I guess something that the refugees do for us. It's not just what we do for the refugees.

Now here's the, here's the truth of the matter. Um, I think anyone you interact with does change you.

That's true. And people from cross -cultural settings, people have come here, especially if they have endured hardship, which

I think anyone who comes here has endured something to get here. Um, I don't mock that by the way.

I think that's a very serious thing. It's a very sad thing, but anyone who you have a relationship with,

I think is going to change you on some level, even the bad relationships, but that doesn't mean that you need to have relationships with people from other countries because you only have so much bandwidth, you only have a scale in your life that you're able to operate on.

And so if you have people coming from other countries and your time is being devoted to them, where's your time? Not going right.

The people that are in closer proximity to you, more likely. And I'm not saying that's good or bad. I'm saying though, there's a trade -off.

And oftentimes I hear that, you know, we need oppressed perspectives. We need people who are very different than us to help us understand things.

Um, there are times when you need to travel to a country to understand the country. There's times when you need to talk to someone who's experienced something to understand what their experience is.

That's true. But we also are changed by the people around us.

And we also create sometimes strong bonds that need to be there with people that are just like us.

And the, the idea that it's superior to get foreign or different people over the people that you know, personally in your own life who live in the local area and have been shaped by that area.

Just like you have. Um, I don't think that's accurate. I don't think that's right. And that's the impression you often get.

All right. Let us continue here. House of Grace, New Jersey city,

Jersey city, New Jersey, uh, to help earthquake refugees from Haiti with counseling, language shelters, food programs, and locating them to immigration centers that can provide them legal surfaces, there you go again, legal services through the

TPS and other programs. Um, this is the organization house of grace, Jersey city supports a mission house of grace.

Lafayette Baptist church in North Carolina. They, uh, have on their website, welcome house network of refugees is one of their ministry, uh, supporting the ministry of missionaries.

And that's one of the, I guess, missions support things they do. This is through the

CBF and C the federal funding for ministry partners working for refugee, uh, resettlement in North Carolina, we stated that we will adapt and pivot and that we will continue to partner with refugee resettlement agencies that serve our friends and neighbors that are already here.

So people came in under Biden. We're going to serve the ones who are already here. And this means that they are going to, uh, get money from various places.

Um, and some of the money is going to that they get is going to then in turn, go to world relief triad.

There you go. World relief shows up again. Um, in March, it was announced that instead of evaluation, the president decided to cancel the contracts for all 10 refugee resettlement agencies across the country.

Once again, C B F N C. I think that's a local association that Lafayette Baptist church of North Carolina is part of, um, the, these churches sought consistency in this ministry.

We knew this would end at least for this year, the arrival of refugees in the United States and in North Carolina, we were deeply saddened and troubled by this decision.

Our refugee resettlement agency partners were devastated. Funding stopped, committed employees were furloughed or let go.

Worse refugees who waited for years and years were out the door about to come inside, had the door slammed in their faces.

So they're lamenting this situation. Uh, but this is the, okay.

So this is the welcome house network of refugees, which is, and this is what

C B F N C is, which is part of the ministry of their, what kind of like the

Florida, um, organization I was talking about before. This is the cooperative Baptist fellowship of North Carolina.

So it's a Southern Baptist church, but their local cooperative Baptist fellowship is involved with refugee work.

And some of their money is then going to organizations like world relief. So from the, that's how it works in this.

It's money's going in multiple directions, but you have the church giving to the local, uh, pro the, the local network, then the local network or association then, uh, funnels it through their network for refugees, which then goes into these refugee resettlement, uh, organizations and they help along the way and the church can also volunteer.

I'm sure their, their time and their talent and that kind of thing. Do this Soma Christian church in Clovis, California.

So my Christian church in Clovis, California, they have a low local mission focus and they support

Fresno interdenominational refugee ministry. Fresno interdenominational refugee ministries. Uh, they talk in 2025 about how they met with congressional leaders in DC to share refugee and immigrant communities, concerns about immigration cuts to essential benefits and the lack of refugee pathways.

Let me translate that for you. Uh, Fresno interdenominational refugee ministries went to Washington and they said, look, we got people who aren't legal here and they need to be, we need paths to make people who are not legal, legal, or to extend their stay so they can be here permanently and be citizens or whatever, and we need more money from you tax money that comes from your, my pocket, but it's distributed through the federal government.

We need it. That's, that's what they did. And this is supported by the Soma Christian church of Clovis, California funders and friends, uh, city of Fresno, California department of social services and Fresno County superintendent of schools among others.

So they have a multiple government agencies in California giving to them. The Fresno interdenominational refugee ministry identified 130 refugees who would have been eligible for continued support from the organization, which helps refugees settle during their first 90 days, the nonprofit was preparing to receive eight more refugees from countries such as Afghanistan and Armenia.

But firm was alerted January 20th that their flights had been canceled. Under Trump, Trump's not helping any of these people.

22nd street Baptist church, Tucson, Arizona. Jennifer Tompkins here, uh, is the,

I jumped ahead of myself. She is okay. The head of Tucson refugee ministry, which is what 22nd street

Baptist church supports. And, um, here she is pictured right next to, uh, representative

Raul Grijalva or Grijalva and Raul Grijalva, who

I believe is a Democrat said, uh, that the resettlement organizations. And he, he, along with them denounced president

Donald Trump's latest action to curtail the influx of asylum seekers. So there she is in the middle there, kind of with her eyes up.

That's her Jennifer Tompkins encouraged people to contact their local state and federal lawmakers and ask that they advocate for the continued resettlement of Syrian refugees in the

U S that was back when the Syrian refugee stuff was going on. So there's an advocacy thing going on here.

This isn't just about giving people food who happen to be here. This is about trying to get more people here. This is about. Um, getting money from the government and they are of course supported by the

Southern Baptist church, a Lathea church, uh, they support village to village, a Christian nonprofit organization that partners with church world services to set up homes for new, uh, to our country refugee families.

And let's see, uh, all kinds of things. They do trauma care training and clean water filtration systems and libraries and more.

And this is part of their missions funding. So there's mission support. They support village to village at a

Lathea church, another Southern Baptist church there in Harrisonburg, Virginia, by the way. And let's see this, this church was, um, why did

I put this here? This church was started by a couple who came from California.

It looks like, and, um, near James Madison university, if you've ever been to Harrisonburg, that's big there, that's where they started this.

And, uh, okay. So it's a Southern Baptist church has been funded by the SBC for a while. And this is what they're also involved with now, uh, village to village and village to village partners with church world services, church world services.

Let's talk about that. They work with partners in the U S and around the world to build interfaith and intercultural coalitions to eradicate hunger and poverty, promote peace and justice.

They're resettling refugees among other things. The population served individuals who are not in legal immigration status, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender.

Okay. So let's just, let's just put it all out there. Uh, we, we help illegals and we help people who would fundamentally disagree with Southern Baptist ethics.

Good to know. Um, and, and also domestic violence victims. So there's there, at least there's that.

Right. We all, we all agree we should help them. The here's the money that they are getting a church world service from USA spending .gov.

Well, I don't know, like, you know, they they've well over $25 million.

That's a lot of money from 2022 to 2023 national capacity building assistance projects is a 2021 church world services received funding from the

U S department of state and department of health and human services, office of refugee resettlement. So, and Southern Baptist helping them out.

All right. Well, that's, that's the information. Okay. That's what I wanted to show you on this particular podcast.

I have spent some time finding all of this to give you a picture of what's happening within your denomination.

If you're a Southern Baptist. Now you might ask John, thanks for showing me now

I'm depressed. What do I do about it? I'm a conservative. I'm also a proud Southern Baptist. I'm still in the denomination and we keep losing.

What do we do? They give a window. I think you really do this year. And it really depends if people show up,

I've never really pushed this stuff, but I see an opening this time. Part of it is

Trump's in office. And like, for example, let me give you a few things. Last year was the first year.

They didn't have a resolution on racial stuff at the Southern Baptist convention in a long time. Um, they, they've been kind of on the defense regarding the female pastor issue, which may come up again.

If I have anything to do with it, it's definitely coming up again. Um, they also, the

Southern Baptists have a, an E RLC ethics and religious liberty commission, which has been their primary kind of juggernaut for leftist politics.

They are on their toes and in disarray, not very organized. They also have a president right now.

Who's, um, I don't know. I mean, I don't know all the things Clint Presley's under. He, he is not a hero in the story.

He has been very vocal in his advocacy against DACA or I should against doc for DACA or dreamers against president taking that away.

Um, he even, I believe is as far as I know, still has an illegal migrant on his church staff.

So he hasn't been great, but he hasn't pushed the needle on the leftward direction either. As far as I know, he's kind of, I don't talk about him much because there's not much to say.

And that's better than the previous presidents who have been aggressively towards the left.

You also have a guy running Willie Rice. I think he's got a shot. He's kind of like a

Trumpian candidate in the sense that Trump knew all these people, right? He was in New York politics.

And then he just did a, he did a reverse move on them. And that's what really rice would be doing.

He knows all these people. He knows where the skeletons are buried. They can't come after him the same way they can come after an outsider. If all of these things are the case right now, then what needs to happen is there's been resolutions for years about immigration from the

Southern Baptist convention, sort of giving the moral kind of bellwether. This is where we're at.

We need to start reversing it right away. And I think center for Baptist leadership, uh, someone probably involved with them needs to put out a really tight, good

Ordo Amoris immigration, um, biblically grounded, but practical resolution out there.

Look to a center for Baptist leadership for that. Um, I have assurances that that will, that there will eventually be a submission.

We're not in submission time, but that would be what I would look for. And if you're the person to write it, write it and send it to them.

That's step one on this kind of stuff. Churches need to know that there is a danger here, that if they are assisting in things that are actually a threat to our country, they may think they're doing a lot of good, but they're also doing a lot of bad.

That needs to be communicated. I think very clearly. And then the people who feel muzzled, who haven't said anything about this because they're afraid of the political backlash, you just need to be brave.

If you're in the Southern Baptist convention, be brave. Now, if now's not the time, when that's my call to action, get it.

If you're a Southern Baptist, get involved this year. If, if you'd never get involved again. Okay. But this year I would just say, if you are in the convention, get involved.

I'm not saying partnering with Southern Baptist for gospel ministry is something I'm advocating.

I'm not saying that you should even join the Southern Baptist convention if you're happy and you're doing ministry apart from that, but I'm saying if you're in the

Southern Baptist convention, then I think you do have a responsibility at some point to know where your money's going and to try to make sure it goes towards things that you actually agree with and that are actually good, not just for your convention, but for your country.

That's my call to action. And now you have all the information you need to know it's actually a problem.

So you shouldn't have to be able, you shouldn't be, you might still, but you shouldn't have to get into debates with people about this stuff, about whether it's happening or not.

It's happening. I put in the work so you don't have to, so you can see very clearly the link to the PowerPoint is in the info section if you want it.

And if you're not a patron, you can just talk to me and send me a message. I'll send it to you with that.