Internationalism with Evangelical Characteristics: The Case of Evangelical Responses to Southeast Asian Refugees

Abstract

Using evangelical efforts to resettle Southeast Asian refugees as a historical case study, this article argues that white evangelicals display both populist and internationalist tendencies and that a sense of religious peoplehood has shaped their humanitarian work. Although evangelicals often welcomed Southeast Asian refugees, archival and oral history evidence indicate that they were eager to resettle fellow Christians and to aid refugees through missions-centered projects directed by Christian organizations. Ultimately, evangelicals’ resettlement work did not represent an enthusiasm for welcoming racial and religious outsiders. Rather, it was a project that allowed them to serve and grow their own people.

Keywords:

• refugees
• evangelicals
• humanitarian work
• internationalism
• populism
• United States
• Southeast Asia

Notes

1. Phrases like “one of God’s own” are sometimes used by evangelicals in a more universal sense to refer to all humans as beloved creations bearing God’s image, but in this particular pamphlet the reference is clearly an appeal for compassion for fellow Christians.

2. Name has been changed at the request of the narrator.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Melissa Borja

Melissa Borja is Assistant Professor of American Culture at the University of Michigan, where she is a core faculty member in the Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies Program. Her book, Follow the New Way: Hmong Refugee Resettlement and the Practice of American Religious Pluralism (under contract, Harvard University Press) explores the religious dimensions of American refugee care. She serves as a senior advisor for the Religion and Resettlement Project at Princeton University.

Jacob Gibson

Jacob Gibson is a student at the University of Michigan, where he has earned university honors as a Philosophy, Politics, and Economics major. He conducted this research through the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program.