I've been reading this book steadily for the past 2 weeks. Just a chapter at a time, so that I can digest the topics. It is a challenging book because it is making me think about my prior notions about border issues. As a person living in the northeast US, I don't encounter these situations. I appreciate the work of the author to tie current situations to the life of Jesus. Thank you, Julia Lambert Fogg, for thought-provoking work.

Finding Jesus at the Border: Opening Our Hearts to the Stories of Our Immigrant Neighbors is an intriguing juxtaposition of story and Bible study. Author Dr. Julia Lambert Fogg is not only a professor of Religion at California Lutheran University with specializations in New Testament and Early Christianity, but also serves as a minister at a Lutheran church. The specific church where she serves offer two distinct services. One is comprised of mostly older English speaking individuals of Scandinavian descent whose grandparents had started the church. The second service is comprised of predominantly Spanish speaking immigrant families. Fogg combines these two perspectives into a marvelous and very readable book.

In each chapter Fogg shares stories from her ministry experiences and frequently shares the story of a specific immigrant. After setting the stage with this current day story, a biblical story is examined through this perspective. Fogg expertly addresses a wide variety of issues that relate to immigration including economics, working conditions, sexual assault, power struggles, and many more. To re-read and consider familiar Bible stories using these same lenses is quite eye-opening. While a reader may not agree with Fogg on every issue, her perspective is important to read and consider due to her first hand experience and academic expertise.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received Finding Jesus at the Border from Baker-Brazos Press via NetGalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

Finding Jesus at the Border is a good book to read if you have no previous understanding of immigration issues or no relationships with immigrants. I think the most valuable chapter was the last one, where Fogg shares a list of organizations and ministries doing good work in advocacy for immigrants.
Overall though, I think I was just a little disappointed. There's good information here and helpful biblical support for viewing immigrants as our neighbors by relating their stories to biblical characters. And yet, I don't think this book really adds anything new to the conversation. Some of the biblical connections are a stretch and the actual immigrant stories being shared, which should've been especially compelling and interesting, just fell flat.
There also isn't a clear condemnation of the broken laws and unjust systems that lead to these immigration issues or the particular politician who has exacerbated the problem... but really, the first thing you should do to support and love your immigrant neighbors is voting for a president who will do the same.
2.5 stars rounded up.

Finding Jesus at the Border: Opening Our Hearts to the Stories of Our Immigrants Neighbors by Julia Lambert Fogg, a pastor and New Testament scholar, is a personal observation of the immigrant situation in the United States. It is a book which seeks to show American Christians what they can do to help our immigrant neighbors. According to Fogg, it is not a book to explain the complicated US immigration law and policy but to help readers to understand how the experience of migration and border crossers reveals God’s work in exciting and transformative ways. Using real immigration stories, Fogg attempts to draw parallels with Jesus’s life and teachings and the immigrant’s stories and attempts to put a human face on the immigration stories and debate. Fogg argues that Christians need to step out of their comfort zones and learn to cross the social, ethnic, and religious borders and encourages them to become advocates in their own communities and be an example of Christ to the DACA dreamers, asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants.
Finding Jesus at the Border is not the book I was expecting. I am a little disappointed. I was excited and intrigued to read it, but it quickly faded to disappointment with each chapter. I excited to read stories from immigrants and while there were stories from a few immigrants, it felt very flat. Fogg quickly focuses on the immigration issues and her biblical interpretations are inconsistent, and at times, a stretch. Overall, this book did not add anything new and basically calls for Christians to care for the immigrants as individuals not just a number on the news. While she provides names of organizations to get involved with, Fogg does not provide any contact information for these groups such as websites. I appreciate Ms. Fogg’s passion and concern for the immigrants who are coming to the US simply for a better life and I agree that Christians need to be more involved because children of God are involved; however, I feel she fells short in her goals. I do not recommend Finding Jesus at the Border.


Finding Jesus at the Border:
Opening Our Hearts to the Stories of Our Immigrants Neighbors
is available hardcover, paperback, and eBook

Despite the fact that there are more people on the move in our world than ever before, there still aren’t a lot of Christians writing about migration out of a deep foundation of faith and theology while also being grounded in our contemporary reality. So, whenever I see a new book on the topic, I get excited. Unfortunately, as I dug into Finding Jesus at the Border my excitement quickly began to fade.

While Fogg’s faith-based treatment of immigrant issues is well-written, it’s structure lacks imagination and it’s biblical interpretation is inconsistent at best and teetering on the edge of heresy at worst. Each chapter begins with the story of an immigrant individual or family, illuminating some of the unique challenges faced by asylum seekers, undocumented immigrants, or mixed-status households. Then the chapter superimposes that immigrant's story on a passage of Scripture. Some comparisons make sense and don’t require a lot of twisting or finagling to make the author’s point, but others are distorted beyond recognition.

The most egregious example of this is in chapter 4 where immigrant women who have endured discrimination and racial slurs are compared to the Syrophonecian woman in Mark 7 and those who discriminate against them are compared to Jesus. In order to explain away Jesus’s use of an ethnic slur and to placate both herself and the immigrant women she is teaching, Fogg seems to imply that Jesus has sinned in this biblical interaction. “After his conversation with her [the Syrophonecian woman], Jesus more fully embodied his divinity.” Millions of Christians around the world would consider this statement heretical. I am one of them. And what is most heartbreaking is that there is no need for Fogg to twist Scripture this way in order to convince Christians to extend compassion to their immigrant neighbors. The Bible teaches this very clearly without us sweeping challenging passages under the proverbial rug.

Unfortunately, it’s unlikely that many readers will call Fogg out on her poor exegesis because, as many authors on justice topics do, she is preaching to her own choir and the vast majority of her readers will close the back cover of this book with a pat on the back for the good work they are already doing. Overall, Finding Jesus at the Border doesn’t really contribute anything new to the discussion of immigration from a Christian perspective, and whatever new ideas it does present woefully miss the mark.

This is an important book that many people don't know they need to read, urgently. Fogg has done an excellent job making connections between events in the Bible and the current day. She helps us to understand how significant border crossing and immigration were in Scripture. This illuminates current events in a new light and instructs Christians as to opportunities we have to care for 'the least of these.'

Please read this book with an open mind so that it can stir your imagination. I know it has mine.