The Hypocrisy of J.D. Vance and the Christian Right on Immigration
How Pope Francis Exposed the Christian Right’s Betrayal of Its Own Faith
J.D. Vance has spent years remaking himself. First, he was the conservative intellectual, the earnest critic of Trumpism, positioning himself as the voice of a more principled right. Then, when that persona failed to deliver power, he shed it like a second skin, reemerging as a firebrand MAGA loyalist. And somewhere in that transformation— between abandoning his previous convictions and embracing the very movement he once denounced—he found a new faith.
Vance’s conversion to Catholicism was not the quiet work of spiritual reckoning. It was the final brushstroke in his self-portrait as a champion of the religious right, a man reborn in both ideology and theology. But faith, at least as Christianity defines it, is not a costume one wears to better fit the political moment. And now, the leader of his chosen religion has made that painfully clear.
“But Vance isn’t just an individual case. He’s the perfect symbol of what the modern Christian right has become. A movement that once claimed to stand for ‘faith and values’ has abandoned both in its desperate grasp for political power.”
In a letter to American bishops, Pope Francis condemned the Trump administration’s mass deportation policies—not just as cruel, but as a moral failure, a betrayal of the Christian commandment to care for the vulnerable. He did not name names. But one man had taken it upon himself to defend these policies, to rationalize their brutality as righteous governance: J.D. Vance.
And therein lies the deepest irony. Here is a man who aligned himself with a faith whose central figure was a refugee, only to turn around and champion policies that would have condemned that very refugee family to death. It is a hypocrisy so glaring, so absolute, that even the leader of his church could not ignore it.
But Vance isn’t just an individual case. He’s the perfect symbol of what the modern Christian right has become. A movement that once claimed to stand for “faith and values” has abandoned both in its desperate grasp for political power. Their gospel is no longer the one Jesus preached—it’s whatever helps them stay in control. And that’s precisely what Pope Francis was calling out.
The Bible Is a Story of Refugees
“The Old Testament doesn’t depict a God who is neutral in the struggle between the powerful and the powerless. He takes sides. And He is always on the side of the vulnerable.”
Long before Jesus arrived on the scene, the defining event of Jewish history was an act of mass migration. The Exodus story—the Israelites fleeing slavery in Egypt—isn’t just a tale of survival. It’s the foundation of the Old Testament’s entire moral vision. Again and again, God commands the Israelites to remember their past oppression and to treat foreigners with the compassion they never received when they were slaves in Egypt.
“When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them,” says Leviticus. “The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt.”1
This isn’t an isolated verse. It’s a theme that runs through the entire Bible. Deuteronomy 10:18 describes God as one who “loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.” Proverbs 14:31 makes it even more explicit: “Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.” To exploit the vulnerable is to insult God Himself. To mistreat the poor is to spit in the face of their Creator.
The Old Testament doesn’t depict a God who is neutral in the struggle between the powerful and the powerless. He takes sides. And He is always on the side of the vulnerable.
This biblical vision of justice resonated throughout American history. The Statue of Liberty wasn’t just a patriotic symbol—it was a promise. “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” These words, penned by Jewish poet Emma Lazarus, were a direct response to the Jewish refugees fleeing violent pogroms in Eastern Europe. She saw America as a new promised land, a refuge for those escaping oppression.
And yet, today, the people who shout the loudest about America being a “Christian nation” have abandoned the most Christian part of our national identity.
Jesus, the Refugee
Christian conservatives like J.D. Vance claim to worship Jesus Christ. But their policies reveal that they either don’t understand His story—or they don’t care. Because the most famous refugee in history was Jesus Himself.
Jesus wasn’t born into wealth or power. His family was poor. His mother, Mary, was a teenage girl. His earthly father, Joseph, was a working-class carpenter. And shortly after Jesus was born, they were forced to flee.
King Herod, fearing a challenge to his rule, ordered the murder of every male child under the age of two in Bethlehem. To escape, Joseph and Mary fled to Egypt with their infant son, seeking asylum in a foreign land.
Now imagine if Egypt had Trump and Vance’s immigration policies. Imagine they had closed their borders and sent Jesus and His family back to Bethlehem. Christianity would have ended before it even began.
Thankfully, Egypt gave them refuge. And Jesus grew into a man who would challenge every earthly power with His radical vision of love.
Who Is Your Neighbor?
“For Jesus, there were no outsiders. No one was beyond love. And to claim to follow Him while embracing cruelty is, in His own words, a lie.”
For Jesus, faith wasn’t about religious ritual or national identity. It was about how you loved and cared for others—especially those different from yourself. When asked to define the command to “love your neighbor as yourself,” Jesus didn’t give a legalistic answer. He told a story.
In the Parable of the Good Samaritan, a Jewish man is attacked by robbers and left for dead. A priest walks by. A Levite (a member of the presitly clan) walks by. Both see him, both know God’s commands to love the stranger and care for the vulnerable—and both ignore him. Then, a Samaritan—a member of a group Jews despised—stops to help. He bandages the man’s wounds, takes him to an inn, and pays for his care.
Jesus then asks, “Which of these three was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The answer is obvious: the one who showed mercy.
This was a radical story. for several reasons. Jews and Samaritans had hated each other for centuries. And yet Jesus chose to make a Samaritan, not a priest, the moral hero. More fundamentally, He was making it clear: your neighbor isn’t just the person who looks like you or worships like you. Your neighbor is the person you’ve been told to hate.
This ties directly into one of Jesus’ most revolutionary teachings found in Matthew 5:43-44:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
For Jesus, there were no outsiders. No one was beyond love. And to claim to follow Him while embracing cruelty is, in His own words, a lie.
A Religion of Convenience
At this point, some will say: “Sure, Christianity teaches love and compassion, but we can’t base immigration policy on it. It’s just not practical.”
What they usually mean is that it would be inconvenient to treat migrants humanely.
But when did Jesus ever call His followers to prioritize convenience? Jesus calls us to do plenty of things that are difficult, uncomfortable, and inconvenient. It’s hard to love people we want to hate. It’s hard to forgive those who have wronged us. It’s hard to lay down our lives in service to others instead of thinking only about ourselves. But the entire point of Christianity is that following Jesus means doing what is right—not what is easy.
That’s why Jesus warned in Matthew 7:13-14:
“Broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
If your Christianity can’t handle inconvenience, then it was never Christianity to begin with.
But beyond practicality, what’s most disturbing is the sheer joy that some Trump-aligned Christians take in cruelty. They don’t see deportations as a tragic necessity. They revel in them. They cheer for suffering. They mock the desperate. They celebrate policies that separate families and throw children into detention centers.
If this isn’t a rejection of Jesus, what is?
Rejecting Immigrants, Rejecting Jesus
The backlash to immigration isn’t about crime or economics. It’s about scapegoating. It’s about stoking fear and resentment so people don’t ask harder questions about why their wages are stagnant while billionaires hoard more wealth than ever.
But when these so-called Christians stand before God, what do they think He will say?
That they honored Him? That they followed His commands?
Or that, like the priest and the Levite in the Good Samaritan story, they saw the suffering of their neighbor and crossed to the other side of the road?
Because when they cheered for cruelty, when they justified oppression, when they turned away from the most vulnerable, they weren’t just rejecting immigrants.
They were rejecting Jesus Himself.
Jason Chukwuma (@truthispeaking) is the creator of TRUTH IS SPEAKING on YouTube and the TRUTH SPEAKS newsletter on Substack, delivering sharp commentary on politics, news, and culture. His work reaches audiences across Instagram, Twitter (never X), Medium, and more, and has been featured on MSNBC and The Daily Beast, establishing him as a rising voice on politics and culture. He is a student at Harvard Law School and a graduate of Harvard College.
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