# How Pastors Can Talk About Race and Immigration With Care Pastor Adam Mesa and his co-host Sammy reflect on why slogans fail on race, immigration and politics, and what research, lived experience and honest friendship add. Source: Pray.com — https://www.pray.com/articles/how-pastors-can-talk-about-race-and-immigration-with-care Author: Adam Mesa Category: Faith & Wisdom Published: 2026-10-22 Last revised: 2026-10-22 --- ## Key takeaways - **Complex issues need more than a verse.** Pastor Adam Mesa says a quick Bible reference or a slogan rarely answers the real question people are asking. - **The same event lands differently.** Black, white and Hispanic friends often read a national moment in different ways, and so do people within one ethnic group. - **Lived experience deserves grace.** Mesa's father-in-law carried real pain from a racist act, and that history shaped how he heard conversations about race. - **Show your work.** Leaders who speak on public issues should be able to explain how they reached a conclusion, or admit they are still researching. - **Disagree face to face.** A call that asks a friend to explain their view can lower the temperature between believers. ## A conversation after the interview Pastor Adam Mesa and his co-host Sammy sat down on Beyond the Letter to reflect on a leadership podcast interview Mesa had just finished. He appeared with two other guests, Dr. Stetzer and Dr. Sharon, and the panel was asked how pastors and leaders should handle political and cultural moments. Mesa said he spoke for perhaps fifteen minutes of the hour and a half. He had prepared answers on immigration, racial reconciliation and conservative versus liberal politics in case he was asked, but the questions turned toward helping leaders manage emotion and handle negative feedback online. Sammy told him he had done a great job, and he liked that Mesa kept bringing in personal stories, since every strong opinion has real people attached to it. The rest of the episode is Mesa saying what he did not get to say. ## Why one-liners fall short Mesa's first concern is that religious leaders often handle these topics in lines short enough to tweet. Someone says there can be no racism because America has had a Black president. Mesa answers that Nelson Mandela became a national leader after years in prison, so two things can be true at once. Another says Jesus was an immigrant because he went to Egypt. Mesa says Egypt was a Roman province, as Israel was, so the comparison is closer to moving to Puerto Rico than to crossing a border. He applies the same standard to a verse about loving the immigrant. What does that actually mean for someone today? Mesa says a pastor has to do real study to help people apply Scripture to a specific moment, and a three or four minute segment in a sermon cannot do that. His own answer is to get involved at a local level, and to vote. He separated two kinds of issues. He places abortion and the church's orthodox teaching on sexuality among the things that are clear in Scripture. Parties, education and immigration he finds much grayer. ## One event, many reactions To show why, Mesa walked through recent moments: reactions to the killing of Charlie Kirk, a video that portrayed the Obamas as monkeys, and the death of George Floyd. He said he was using stereotypes, which exist because there is often a pattern behind them, and that white, Black and Hispanic communities tended to respond differently. A leader has to make note of that. He also named hypocrisy: forgiving something on the side you favor, then coming down hard on the same thing from the other side. He was just as clear that ethnic groups are not hive minds. He described two Mexican Americans who can both be Christians, one strongly against illegal immigration and the other strongly for it. On immigration itself, Mesa said the system sends mixed messages. States and the federal government pull in different directions, and each administration swings loose or strict. He said about eleven million people sit in a backlog after their paperwork was stamped, and he invited fact checks, noting that he is a pastor and theologian, not a political science major. He agrees borders should be secured. He also asks what happens to people who were brought here as toddlers and now speak no Spanish. His own position, he said, is pro assimilation, with a clear and consistent process from federal to state level. ## Lived experience changes the conversation The most personal part of the conversation was about Mesa's wife's family. His father-in-law joined the army in the eighties and was stationed at Fort Hood in Texas. A white Christian chaplain there refused to marry him and Mesa's mother-in-law because they were a mixed-race couple, so they had to ask a chaplain of another religion. Mesa said his mother-in-law shrugged it off as stupid bias, while his father-in-law was hurt by it until he died in 2020. He was a believer and an elder in their church, Mesa said, with his identity in Christ, and the pain was still real. Mesa's takeaway is practical. If he told that man to get over it, he would be speaking from outside his experience. When he knows the history, he can choose his words with grace. He also told of his friend Will, who is Korean, and how upset Will was during the Stop Asian Hate period. At first Mesa thought he was being sensitive, until Will explained what those words carried for him. And at a fundraiser last year, a woman from a large church told Mesa his English was great and asked when he had learned it. He told her it was his first language and that his church was diverse. He gave her grace, and said, "We're all ignorant somewhere." ## Showing your work in the pulpit and online Mesa uses a classroom picture for leaders who speak publicly. A teacher asks you to show how you got your answer. When someone with influence cannot explain how they reached a conclusion, he will say, "Just show me your work, and I'll have more respect" for that opinion. If a leader cannot say how a law passes or how the levels of government differ, he suggests holding back or saying openly that research is still underway. That is also why he does not always announce his views. He said anyone can message him for his opinion, but with his influence he knows some people would adopt a view simply because he holds it. In his words, "I don't ever want to be quoted for your beliefs." He wants to show how he thinks through an issue, and said, "I'm not trying to tell you what to think." In the pulpit he preaches doctrine and Scripture, and he aims at personal conviction. He said, "I don't answer to culture. Culture answers to us." Both pastors said that teaching through books of the Bible lets hard topics arise from the text and not from the news cycle. Mesa pointed to a recent series in Ephesians, where Paul's passage on sexual sin required him to speak plainly about what was happening in Paul's day. ## Rooms, friends and honest disagreement Sammy said that as technology and AI make online content harder to trust, he expects people to swing from high tech back to high touch. He encouraged leaders to build rooms and small moments, and pointed to the early church in Acts 2, which moved from the temple to the table. Mesa described how he handles disagreement. When a pastor friend posted something Mesa strongly disagreed with politically, he called him and asked him to explain where he was coming from. He still disagreed afterward, but he understood the reasoning, and his feelings toward his friend softened. He also said he is around about ten ethnicities a day, so when something happens nationally he hears from Korean, Puerto Rican, Black, Egyptian and Mexican friends. Most people have friends of one background, or one token friend from another. That limits perspective, and you can choose to widen your circle. ## What this means for you You may never lead a church, but you probably talk about these issues with family, coworkers or friends. Mesa's approach gives you two questions to carry into those conversations. Can I explain how I reached this view? Whose experience am I not hearing? Try the call Mesa described. Ask someone you respect to help you understand their position, and listen long enough that you could explain it back. You may still disagree, and Mesa says you can. Sammy reminded listeners that the church has a ministry of reconciliation, and it starts in rooms where people listen to each other.