{"id":26353,"date":"2026-06-25T07:45:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T02:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/who-belongs-in-america-five-faith-leaders-on-immigration-identity-and-americas-250th\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T07:45:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T02:15:12","slug":"who-belongs-in-america-five-faith-leaders-on-immigration-identity-and-americas-250th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/who-belongs-in-america-five-faith-leaders-on-immigration-identity-and-americas-250th\/","title":{"rendered":"Who belongs in America? Five faith leaders on immigration, identity and America&#8217;s 250th"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<p><iframe title=\"Everlit Audio Player\" src=\"https:\/\/everlit.audio\/embeds\/artl_eQjyeHDBxBP?ui_title_intro=Listen+now%3A&amp;client=wp&amp;client_version=3.2.3\" width=\"100%\" height=\"136px\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">(RNS) \u2014 As the United States marks its 250th anniversary, debates over national identity, religion and immigration have intensified. Was America founded as a Christian nation? A pluralistic democracy? A nation of immigrants? Who belongs, and who gets to decide?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">In 2026, these questions are not abstractions as America grapples with an immigration crisis. Immigrant and faith communities have been on the front lines, navigating the federal enforcement system, shaping public opinion and wrestling with questions of responsibility and morality.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335551550&quot;:0,&quot;335551620&quot;:0}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Religion News Service asked five prominent faith leaders and thinkers to weigh in. Their answers, in a new five-part video series beginning Thursday (June 25), are not uniform. Their perspectives reflect their different religious traditions, immigration experiences and personal visions of what America is and should be.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The series features Georgia pastor and U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock; Rabbi Sharon Brous of IKAR in Los Angeles; historian John Fea of Messiah University; Tony Suarez, pastor and COO of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference; and Eboo Patel, founder and president of Interfaith America.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335551550&quot;:0,&quot;335551620&quot;:0}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">In the opening episode (below), Patel argues \u201cmelting pot\u201d is the wrong metaphor for America. Drawing on his experience as a Muslim immigrant from India, he proposes a different one: the United States as a \u201cpotluck nation\u201d \u2014 a place where the expectation is not assimilation but contribution. Everyone brings something, and everyone is accountable to the table.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335551550&quot;:0,&quot;335551620&quot;:0}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">New episodes will be added each week to<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/religionnews1\"> RNS\u2019 YouTube channel<\/a> and this page. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat Does It Mean to Belong in America?\u201d<span data-contrast=\"auto\"> is a video project for <a href=\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/the-atlas-of-american-belonging\">the Atlas of American Belonging<\/a>, Religion News Service\u2019s multimedia initiative examining how belonging has been claimed, granted, challenged and denied at the intersection of faith and immigration. The Atlas is a project supported by the<em>\u00a0<\/em>Henry Luce Foundation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335551550&quot;:0,&quot;335551620&quot;:0}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"8SbA0vVgUuc\"><iframe title=\"What Does It Mean to Belong in America? | Ep. 1: Eboo Patel\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8SbA0vVgUuc?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p><!-- CONTENT END 1 -->\n        <\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/2026\/06\/24\/five-faith-leaders-on-what-it-means-to-belong-in-america\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(RNS) \u2014 As the United States marks its 250th anniversary, debates over national identity, religion and immigration have intensified. Was America founded as a Christian nation? A pluralistic democracy? A nation of immigrants? Who belongs, and who gets to decide?\u00a0\u00a0 In 2026, these questions are not abstractions as America grapples with an immigration crisis. Immigrant [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}