Emphasizing Jesus’s teachings shifts white evangelicals’ attitudes away from Republican anti-refugee positions

A new study published in Political Behavior reveals that religious messages emphasizing Christian values can shift white evangelical Republicans’ attitudes on refugees. By highlighting teachings such as Jesus’ call to love one’s neighbor, researchers found that evangelical Republicans became more supportive of refugee resettlement and expressed warmer feelings toward refugees, though support for government benefits remained unchanged. These findings suggest that moral framing rooted in faith may offer a pathway to bridging partisan divides on controversial issues.

The study was conducted by a team of political scientists: Brian Newman, a professor at Pepperdine University; Stephanie DeMora, an assistant professor at Stony Brook University; Jennifer Merolla, a professor at the University of California, Riverside; and Elizabeth J. Zechmeister, the Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor at Vanderbilt University. The researchers sought to examine the tension between Christian values and partisan Republican stances on refugee issues.

“We were drawn to this topic because we see an interesting tension in messages that reach white evangelical Christians: the party they tend to support (Republican) takes a restrictionist stance on refugees, while a wide range of evangelical leaders made explicitly Christian arguments for welcoming refugees with open arms,” the researchers told PsyPost.

Evangelical leaders and organizations have voiced strong support for refugees in various ways. For example, in 2017, over 500 evangelical leaders from across the United States signed an open letter urging then-President Donald Trump to maintain the United States refugee resettlement program. Additionally, organizations such as the National Association of Evangelicals and the Southern Baptist Convention have emphasized the biblical call to welcome and care for refugees.

Despite this, the researchers noted that “surveys show that white Evangelicals toe the party line – that is, they tend to oppose allowing a greater number of refugees into the United States,” the researchers said. “We wanted to see if highlighting a Christian message could affect white evangelical Republicans’ attitudes toward refugees. Typically, evangelical Republicans’ religious and partisan identities reinforce each other (think of pro-life abortion positions or opposition to trans rights). But in the case of refugee policy, these identities may be in conflict.”

“Some interesting research argues people may be more willing to change their opinion when they encounter arguments framed around their personal values (see here for an example). We applied those ideas to our study to test whether emphasizing values central to evangelicals’ religious identities could move opinion away from the anti-refugee stance that has been articulated by Donald Trump and other Republicans.”

The study included 682 self-identified white evangelical Republicans, recruited through a nationally representative panel. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: a control group, a group exposed to a religious message emphasizing care for refugees, or a group exposed to the same message with endorsements from evangelical leaders.

The religious message centered on the biblical story of the Good Samaritan, highlighting Jesus’ call to “love your neighbor as yourself” and care for vulnerable strangers, including refugees. For the group receiving the message with a source cue, the researchers included a statement noting that the message was supported by prominent evangelical leaders, such as Max Lucado and Timothy Keller. After exposure to their respective conditions, participants answered questions about their attitudes toward refugees, including their warmth toward refugees, support for resettling refugees in the United States, and support for providing government benefits to refugees already in the country.

The findings showed that the religious message increased feelings of warmth toward refugees and, to a lesser extent, support for refugee resettlement. On a 100-point scale, participants exposed to the religious message rated their feelings toward refugees 7–11 points higher than those in the control group. Similarly, support for resettling refugees in local communities and across the United States increased slightly among participants who received the religious message. However, the message had no significant effect on attitudes toward providing government benefits to refugees already in the country.

The addition of an evangelical source cue did not significantly enhance the message’s effectiveness, suggesting that the content of the religious message itself was the primary driver of attitude change.

“Highlighting core Christian values can shift white evangelical Republicans’ attitudes away from Republican positions,” Newman and his colleagues told PsyPost. “In this case, such a message moved attitudes toward refugees, making evangelical Republicans more positive about refugees as people and more supportive of bringing refugees to the United States.”

“However, there are limits, as the message did not change attitudes toward government support for refugees who are already in the United States (e.g., providing unemployment benefits and allowing children of refugees to attend public schools). This may mean Christian messages can shape evangelicals’ attitudes toward people more than they affect evangelicals’ attitudes toward policy.”

The researchers also explored how participants’ identity strength influenced their responses. They found that those with a stronger evangelical identity were more likely to shift their attitudes in response to the religious message. Surprisingly, strong Republican identifiers were not more resistant to the message; in fact, they also showed some positive changes in their attitudes toward refugees.

“We were a bit surprised that a pro-refugee message could shift evangelical Republicans’ attitudes on such a polarizing issue in highly polarized times,” the researchers said. “We were even more surprised that evangelicals who strongly identify as Republican were even more receptive to the pro-refugee message than those with weaker Republican identity attachments. We expected the opposite, that evangelicals with strong Republican identities would resist the message. Our finding means even some ardent Trump supporting evangelicals were open to a Christian message that directly opposed Trump’s clearly articulated position.”

But as with all research, the study has some limitations. It focused exclusively on self-identified white evangelical Republicans, meaning the findings may not apply to other groups. Additionally, many participants were already familiar with the religious message used in the study, which may have dampened the observed effects.

Despite these limitations, the findings highlight the potential of moral and religious framing to soften partisan attitudes, even in a polarized political climate. The researchers also noted related work showing that framing mask-wearing as an act of neighborly love made evangelicals more supportive of mask use during the pandemic.

“This is part of a book-length project examining the potential for Christianity to have a positive impact on U.S. politics and society in our highly polarized context,” Newman and his colleague told PsyPost. “Evangelicals are often depicted as fanning the flames of polarization in ways that can threaten American democracy. For example, Christian symbols, prayers, and songs were prevalent on January 6, some evangelicals were outraged by and protested against governmental responses to the pandemic, many evangelicals believed Trump won the 2020 election and expressed disproportionate support for political violence.”

“And yet, it seems just as possible that Christian messages and values could rein in hostility toward perceived enemies and the win-at-all-costs approach to politics. Evangelicals often take the words of Jesus seriously. Some of those words call the followers of Jesus to love and care for their neighbors and even their enemies. We explore the power of those words to temper evangelicals’ attitudes toward perceived enemies, outsiders, compromise, and political violence.”

The study, “Jesus was a Refugee: Religious Values Framing can Increase Support for Refugees Among White Evangelical Republicans,” was authored by Stephanie L. DeMora, Jennifer L. Merolla, Brian Newman, and Elizabeth J. Zechmeister.