When the church trades prophetic witness for political favor, it always loses both.

The Pioneer Fund, born in the 1930s to promote eugenics, spent decades funding “scientific” racism. It bankrolled FAIR, the group that built today’s anti-immigration movement.

Then came Thomas F. Ellis, Jesse Helms’s strategist, sitting on both the Pioneer Fund and the Council for National Policy (CNP). Through him, the ideology crossed the river from race science to religion.

Inside the CNP, the fear of racial dilution got rebranded as “family values.” Leaders like Jerry Falwell Sr., Pat Robertson, and James Dobson carried it into pulpits and TV studios, preaching cultural defense as if it were Gospel truth. “Protect our way of life” replaced “Love your neighbor.”

Ellis’s quiet bridge made hierarchy sound holy. It baptized exclusion in biblical language. And half a century later, we’re still worshiping at that same altar, the one built on fear of losing power.

But the Kingdom of God was never about preservation. Jesus crossed every border. He touched the untouchable and shattered every purity code. So when the state fears prayer for immigrants, or the church mirrors that fear, 1 Peter 4:17 rings loud:

“For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God.”

We don’t need a moral crusade focused on others. We need repentance within, and the courage to call fear what it is: unbelief in disguise.