Which Borders are Christian?

Andrew Guffey • February 5, 2026

Where Did Early Christians Think Their Borders Were?

There is often talk about what Christians should think about citizenship, what Christians should think about immigration, what Christians should think about national borders.


Just this week, during a press gaggle, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson was asked this question: "Pope Leo has cited Matthew 25:35 to critique Donald Trump's mass deportation agenda. How would you respond to Pope Leo in scripture?" (Matthew 25:35: "...for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me....") Johnson gave a tw0-minute response, and then later a longer statement on his social media, in which he said "borders and walls are biblical, from the Old Testament to the New." The rest of the answer was convoluted, trying to reconcile the biblical injunction to welcome the stranger with the responsibility the Bible gives to civil authorities (in Johnson's view) to maintain order, etc.


All of this is, to some extent, an exercise in missing the point. Do go and read Matthew 25:31-46, and I think you'll see what I mean. Johnson seems to think this is an "individual ethic," not a civic responsibility. That's a clever way of getting around the law of Christ, an artful way of avoiding the cost of discipleship, in my view.


But it raises a deeper question: which borders are Christian borders? Is there a Christian approach to bordered territory?


In thinking about that question, I like to ask what my ancestors said, and yes, what the New Testament especially has to say on the matter.


I think of Jesus: "Pilate replied, 'I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?' Jesus answered, 'My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom belonged to this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.'" (John 18:35-36)


I think of Paul:  "But our citizenship [or, commonwealth] is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ." (Philippians 3:20)


I think of the author of Hebrews: "All of these [Abel, Enoch, Abraham, and Sarah] died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better homeland, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them." (Hebrews 11:13-16)


But I also think about what other early Christians said about who they took themselves to be. And I think about a passage from a text from sometime in the second or third century of Christianity, called the Letter to Diognetus. The author addresses the letter to "most excellent Diognetus," whoever that may be, who has apparently asked to learn more about who these Christians are and what their way of life is. Now, there's a fair bit of anti-Jewishness in the letter, too, because Christians were trying to distinguish themselves from Jews in this period. The author is trying to show Diognetus that they are neither Jews nor Gentiles, but a "new race or way of life." But what I really find striking is this passage from chapter 5:


For Christians are not distinguished from the rest of humanity by country, language, or custom. For nowhere do they live in cities of their own, nor do they speak some unusual dialect, nor do they practice an eccentric way of life. This teaching of theirs has not been discovered by the thought and reflection of ingenious people, nor do they promote any human doctrine, as some do. But while they live in both Greek and barbarian cities, as each one's lot was cast, and follow the local customs in dress and food and other aspects of life, at the same time they demonstrate the remarkable and admittedly unusual character of their own citizenship. They live in their own countries, but only as nonresidents; they participate in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. Every foreign country is their fatherland, and every fatherland is foreign. ...They live on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven.


The early Christians, according to this author, were cosmopolitans in their daily lives: the cosmos (the whole word) was their polis (home-city), cosmopolitans. They noted the borders mortals draw. But they thought they were irrelevant. "They live in their own countries, but only as nonresidents; they participate in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. Every foreign country is their fatherland, and every fatherland is foreign." This is not a case for open borders, but it is a repudiation of the notion of a "Christian nation," and of the notion that borders are biblical. Because it is a declaration of the irrelevance of borders. It's an affirmation that borders are always secondary, that our allegiance as Christians is not to any set of borders except those of the kingdom of God, and no one has yet been able to measure those borders. Christians have from our earliest days pledged our allegiance first and foremost to the kingdom in which our common humanity and our common status under God is what is most important. And in that situation, there is no line between individual responsibility and civic responsibility. What God requires of us is required of us no matter which borders we currently inhabit.


And what does the Lord require of us, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God. (Micah 6:8) We cannot claim to be God's people and condone cruel enforcement of unjust laws. We cannot walk humbly with our God if we are determined to make God say only what we want God to say and to assure ourselves that God underwrites all of our vicious fantasies. We cannot claim to be Christian while wielding the sword against our neighbors. We cannot be God's wandering people if we've decided this land is God's land, our land, and that those borders must be policed with cruelty.


I'll remind you again of what St. Paul says: "Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery; you shall not murder; you shall not steal; you shall not covet,' and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law."

Pub Theology 2/3/26 -- "Deadbots" and the "digital-afterlife industry"

By Peter Trumbore • February 2, 2026
Just when I thought we had exhausted the possible universe of discussion topics about all the various and troubling ways that artificial intelligence technologies are promising to reshape the human experience (and rarely are these for the good) I come across another example that makes my head spin. This one is populated by what are called "deadbeats" being built by companies in what is coming to be known as the "digital-afterlife industry." There's a long article over at The Atlantic's website ( click here for a gift link to the story ) that goes into detail about the people and the companies developing the products that in some cases promise to make grief obsolete by giving users AI chatbot versions of deceased loved ones -- for a monthly subscription fee, of course. Or, in industry parlance, access to AI "deadbot" versions of those loved ones. And it seems that this is a lucrative technology. In 2024, the industry was valued at more than $22 billion, a sum expected to more than triple in less than 10 years. There are a lot of questions that emerge as we think about what all of this means for the way we experience grief and loss: "'Deadbots,' as these posthumous AI creations are known, promise to replace the dead, and the way they are remembered. This raises plenty of ethical issues, not least the extent to which turning deadbots into marketable products will rely on exploiting people in mourning. But perhaps the biggest question is how such a product might shift our experience of personal grief and collective memory. Is grief merely a painful human shortcoming that we haven’t learned to optimize our way out of yet, or does it have a purpose?" As the article makes clear, this technology is very different from the familiar ways we have come to memorialize those we have lost, whether through portraiture, literature, memoir, and so on, which are interpretive expressions of the living's memories of the dead. Instead, "Interactive griefbots are generative, producing “new utterances, new reactions, even new ‘memories’ and ‘behaviors,’ all under the guise of the deceased,” she said. This shift from representation to emulation presents a new ethical line, one that may require new legal protections. Both death and grief are states of profound vulnerability, she warned; the dead cannot stand up for their own interests, and the bereaved may not be in a psychological state to protect themselves from financial manipulation by a company incentivized to prolong their grief. One company, called You, Only Virtual, or YOV, says its point isn't to make grief easier, but rather to bypass it altogether. The company launched with the tagline, "Never have to say goodbye," and promises a user experience that will make you feel as if your loved one never died. In other words, they are promising not to capture every aspect of the person who has passed, but instead to capture how the user felt with that person when they were alive. The point of the interaction is "about inducing the emotions of the living, not imitating the emotions of the dead." We're going to talk about all of this in our conversation this week. Not just about the technology, but about grief itself, how we experience it, and what grief does to and for us. Read the article by clicking on the link above, then join us for the discussion this Tuesday, Feb. 3, starting at 7pm at Irish Tavern in downtown Lake Orion.

Fourth Sunday after Epiphany | February 1, 2026

By Andrew Guffey • February 1, 2026
This Sunday, all are welcome to join us for a morning of worship and fellowship. Whether you are with us in the sanctuary or joining from afar, your presence strengthens our community. Our service is at 9:30 a.m. We warmly welcome those who cannot attend in person to join us via our live stream.

Praying in Unsafe Times

By Andrew Guffey • January 30, 2026
"...Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances..."

Third Sunday after Epiphany | January 25, 2026

By Andrew Guffey • January 25, 2026
This Sunday, all are welcome to join us for a morning of worship and fellowship. Whether you are with us in the sanctuary or joining from afar, your presence strengthens our community. Our service is at 9:30 a.m. We warmly welcome those who cannot attend in person to join us via our live stream.

A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart

By Andrew Guffey • January 23, 2026
Sheep in the Midst of Wolves

Pub Theology 1/20/26 -- The arc of the moral universe

By Peter Trumbore • January 19, 2026
It has been our practice in recent years to try to build our discussion around the words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. whenever our conversation falls around the celebration of his birthday. This seems especially appropriate this year given the events unfolding in Minneapolis and elsewhere since the start of the new year. This time we're going to focus on the idea referenced in our illustration above. This is often misquoted as "the arc of the universe ..." which leaves out King's important qualifier, the "moral," universe, not the universe more generally. Before we did deeper, what do you think is the key difference or differences between the two ideas, the universe generally vs. the moral universe? King used this quote many times in his sermons and speeches, and according to Stanford University historian Clayborn Carson , he borrowed it from 1850s abolitionist Theodore Parker. In fact, King drew quite heavily on the oratorical tradition of the early abolitionists, bringing their words and sentiments to bear in the 1960s struggle for civil rights. But what are they getting at here? Is the idea that while things may be bad now, if we wait long enough the scales will tilt to the side of justice? Or is it not that simple. What this little snippet of a quote does not do, is give any suggestion as to how the arc of the moral universe bends. Or what is required to make it do so. So what do you think? If the arc of the moral universe ultimately bends toward justice, by what mechanism or mechanisms does it do so? And what is our role in that process? Now that I think about it, this train of thought is kind of a continuation of something we landed on last week in our discussion of hope. James McGrath, a professor of New Testament language and literature at Butler University, addresses things this way: "The arc of the universe may bend towards justice, but it certainly does not do so in a steady and straight line. Precisely because of the slow but real progress ... the racists, misogynists, antisemites, Islamophobes, and homophobes are offering a backlash. Progress towards equality has always involved a process like this. It is important to emphasize that, because those of us who are living through this particular moment can feel like these are unprecedented times." Join us for the conversation this week as we talk about the arc of the moral universe and how it bends. And if this isn't a meaty enough topic, here's one more MLK quote that we can chat about if we have the time: "If any earthly institution or custom conflicts with God’s will, it is your Christian duty to oppose it. You must never allow the transitory, evanescent demands of man-made institutions to take precedence over the eternal demands of the Almighty God." The only trick here, of course, is figuring out what does and does not conflict with God's will, and who decides. Come out of the cold this Tuesday evening, Jan. 20, and let us know what you think. The discussion starts at 7pm at Irish Tavern in downtown Lake Orion.

Second Sunday after Epiphany | January 18, 2026

By Andrew Guffey • January 18, 2026
This Sunday, all are welcome to join us for a morning of worship and fellowship. Whether you are with us in the sanctuary or joining from afar, your presence strengthens our community. Our service is at 9:30 a.m. We warmly welcome those who cannot attend in person to join us via our live stream.

Pub Theology 1/13/26 -- Hope in troubled times?

By Peter Trumbore • January 13, 2026
I don't know about you, but it feels like 2026 has gotten off to a really rocky start. Where even to begin? Wars, and threats of war. Economic turmoil and uncertainty. The actions of federal agents causing chaos, fear, and sadly, deaths and injuries to innocent people. In short, things look pretty bleak, and what's over the horizon doesn't seem all that much better. In fact, the pessimists among us might suggest that things will continue to get worse. What are we to do? Is there anything you're looking forward to this year? Is there anything you're hopeful about? And is hope even the answer? The quote in the illustration above has been attributed to a number of different people over the years, from film director James Cameron to legendary football coach Vince Lombardi as well as various military leaders and politicians. It shows up in movies like "F1" and "Deepwater Horizon." And in "Mad Max: Fury Road," Max says: "Hope is a mistake. If you can't fix what's broken, you'll go insane." Go back far enough and we get a variation of this from the classical Greek historian Thucydides in the Melian Dialogue from his "History of Peloponnesian War" Here he calls hope "danger's comforter" that can only be indulged in by those possessing the abundance of resources necessary to avoid disaster when things go wrong. And yet we are told that the Christian message is one of hope. The idea that our "hope is in the Lord" appears in countless scriptural passages, hymn texts, and sacred poetry. For example, in the hymn "I'll seek his blessings," A.M. Cagle writes: "My hope is in the Lord, the blessing bleeding lamb. I'll seek his blessings every noon." So in our conversation this evening, we're going to talk about hope. What does it mean to you? Where do you find it in these difficult times? Is hope a strategy, or is it "danger's comforter'? In short, is hope a luxury for the few fortunate enough to be able to ride out whatever storms comes next? Is hope a mistake? Join us for the discussion tonight, Jan. 13, starting at 7pm at Irish Tavern in downtown Lake Orion.

First Sunday after Epiphany | January 11, 2026

By Andrew Guffey • January 11, 2026
This Sunday, all are welcome to join us for a morning of worship and fellowship. Whether you are with us in the sanctuary or joining from afar, your presence strengthens our community. Our service is at 9:30 a.m. We warmly welcome those who cannot attend in person to join us via our live stream.

Second Sunday after Christmas | January 4, 2026

By Andrew Guffey • January 4, 2026
This Sunday, all are welcome to join us for a morning of worship and fellowship. Whether you are with us in the sanctuary or joining from afar, your presence strengthens our community. Our service is at 9:30 a.m. We warmly welcome those who cannot attend in person to join us via our live stream.