Americans use the Book of Revelation to talk about immigration – and always have

18th century evangelists like the English preacher John Wesley urged sinners to take the path of righteousness, toward the New Jerusalem. Photo 12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images^[12]

Throughout American history, many of its Christian citizens have imagined themselves as God’s saints in the New Jerusalem. Puritan colonists believed they were establishing God’s kingdom^[13], both metaphorically and literally. Ronald Reagan likened the nation to the New Jerusalem^[14] by describing America as a “shining city … built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace,” but with city walls and doors.

Reagan was specifically quoting Puritan John Winthrop, one of the founders of Massachusetts Bay Colony, whose use of the “city on a hill” phrase^[15] quotes Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount^[16]. But Reagan’s detailed description closely matches that of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21^[17]. Like God’s heavenly city, Reagan’s picture of America also has strong foundations, walls and gates, and people from every nation bringing in tribute.

Barring the gates

If people imagine the U.S. as God’s city, then it’s easy also to imagine enemies who want to invade that city. And this is how unwanted immigrants have been depicted through American history: as enemies of God.

In the 19th century, when virtually all politicians were Protestant, anti-Catholic politicians accused Irish immigrants of bearing the “mark of the Beast” and being loyal to the “Antichrist^[18]”: the pope. They claimed that Irish immigrants could form an unholy army^[19] against the nation.

At the turn of the century, “yellow peril” novels against Chinese immigration imagined a heathen horde taking over the U.S. At the end of one such book^[20], China itself is depicted as a satanic “Black Dragon,” forcing its way through “the Golden Gate” of America.

‘Uncle Sam’s Farm in Danger’: an 1878 cartoon by G. F. Keller depicts Chinese emigrants fleeing famine. The Wasp via Wikimedia Commons^[21]

And all immigrant groups who were unwanted at one time or another have been accused of being “filthy” and diseased^[22], like the enemies of God in Revelation. Italians, Jews, Irish, Chinese and Mexicans were all, at some point, targeted as unhealthy and carrying illness^[23].

In political cartoons from the turn of the 20th century, Eastern European and Jewish immigrants were depicted as rats^[24], while Chinese immigrants were portrayed as a horde of grasshoppers^[25] – echoing imagery from Revelation, where locusts with human faces^[26] swarm the Earth. During COVID-19, an event itself considered apocalyptic, xenophobic fear has focused on Asian Americans^[27] and migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border^[28].

This constellation of labels from Revelation – plague-bearing, bestial, invading, sexually corrupt, murderous – has been reused and recycled^[29] throughout American history.

A 1909 political cartoon by S.D. Ehrhart. Library of Congress^[30]

‘Heaven has a wall’

Trump himself has described immigrants as diseased^[31], “not human^[32],” sexual assaulters^[33], violent^[34] and those “who don’t like our religion^[35].”

Others have more explicitly used images from Revelation to talk about immigration. Pastor Robert Jeffress, who preached at Trump’s 2017 inauguration church service, told viewers on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends,” “God is not against walls^[36], walls are not ‘un-Christian,’ the Bible says even heaven is going to have a wall around it.” The Conservative Political Action Conference held a panel in 2017^[37] titled “If Heaven Has a Gate, A Wall, and Extreme Vetting, Why Can’t America?” There are even bumper stickers that say, “Heaven Has A Wall and Strict Immigration Policy / Hell Has Open Borders.”

Revelation 21^[38] indeed describes the heavenly New Jerusalem with a massive shining wall, “clear as crystal,” with pearls for gates. Trump, similarly, talks about his “big, beautiful door^[39],” set in a “beautiful^[40],” massive wall that also has to be “see-through^[41].”

The city of God metaphor has long been a tool for American leaders – both to idealize the nation and to warn against immigration. But the concept of a walled-in city seems increasingly outdated in a digitally connected, global world.

As migration continues to rise around the world due to climate change^[42] and conflict^[43], I’d argue that these metaphors and the attitudes they drive are not just obsolete, but exacerbating crisis.

Authors: Yii-Jan Lin, Associate Professor of New Testament and Public Voices Fellow, Yale University

Read more https://theconversation.com/americans-use-the-book-of-revelation-to-talk-about-immigration-and-always-have-240969

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