SBC Pastor Criticizes Trump's Immigration Policy and Conservative Senator Walks Out

Immigration, Church Unity, and Concern Over Raids

I just watched Pastor Matt Crawford at Trinity Baptist Church in Cordova, Tennessee, go off on President Trump's immigration policies. This guy, who's with the Southern Baptist Convention, didn't hold back on his criticism of the roundups.

But here's the kicker. Senator Brent Taylor was in the House, and guess what? He got up and walked right out during the sermon. Multiple sources confirm this to KWAM, but Senator Taylor isn't saying a word.

Check out the video for yourself. It's a real eye-opener on where some religious leaders stand versus conservative politicians when it comes to immigration.

I want to stop before we begin our service and just talk briefly with you about something that's a little bit sensitive. Some of us may have different opinions on this. Some of us may have strong opinions on this, and I ask you to consider it with love and grace and the spirit of unity that our church has consistently been marked by.

It has to do with this issue of what's going on with immigration in our country right now and some of the actions that are being taken. I think we all believe in the rule of law. I certainly do. I don't think we should have wide-open borders.

But I do believe that immigration is a major part of what has made this country so great. It's a major part of our history. We all believe that violent criminals should not be allowed to remain here and terrorize innocent people.

We can agree on that. I do think that there are many good people here who are undocumented who would like a path to legality. I believe it's too hard right now for good people to find that path. It's sometimes nearly impossible.

When I was in Florida, we had a Hispanic congregation there at my first church where I was a senior pastor, and there was our associate pastor. He was not on the payroll, but he served as a volunteer there as an associate pastor, and he was not documented.

He had been here from Costa Rica for 10 or 11 years and wanted to be legal, and it was very hard for him to get there, and that's unfortunate. I think we need reform in that area. I don't know the legal status of all of our people who come to Trinity in Espanol.

I don't know the legal status of all of our people who come to ESL. I don't think we're called to police that as a church. That's the government's job. We are called to love and to help those in need.

It's been announced that now churches can be targets of raids. No one is being sheltered or kept here, but I don't like the idea, and I think you probably agree, that worship service could be disrupted by a raid.

I don't want people who come here to be ministered to and to hear the gospel to be afraid to come here, so I'm disappointed by that change. I hope that we can believe both in the rule of law and feel that we don't want worship services disrupted by that.

I hope that me saying that doesn't anger you, but I wanted to address that. Hopefully we can talk about things with unity and nuance and even differences of opinion because it's on the hearts of some of our people.

Elizabeth Richards is going to pray about it during our intercessory prayer time, so I hope that we can give each other grace if we disagree on the details there. Be a unified church because the unity of the church of Jesus Christ is so important.