Berkley Center

The question of belonging—who is, and who ought to be, part of the political community—lies at the very heart of our national conversation. Religious actors have been some of the most prominent voices on all sides of this debate over national belonging. How does the lens of Christian nationalism shed light on our contemporary controversies regarding immigration and the treatment of migrants and refugees?

Yonat Shimron joined Religion News Service in April 2011 and became managing editor in 2013. She won numerous awards during her time as religion reporter for The News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina, from 1996 to 2011. Brad Onishi researches Christian nationalism and teaches at the University of San Francisco. His book, Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism—And What Comes Next (2023), examines what gave rise to January 6, 2021, and what comes next. He also co-hosts the podcast Straight White American Jesus.

Shimron and Onishi engaged in a conversation about immigration and national belonging in the context of U.S. Christian nationalism. Berkley Center Research Fellow Jerome Copulsky moderated the dialogue. This event was part of the Understanding Religious Nationalism and Populism collaboration between the Berkley Center and the Pulitzer Center. A reception followed the event.

This event was co-sponsored by Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting with support from the Henry Luce Foundation.

Public Health Measures: This event took place in-person at Georgetown University, which required all visitors to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, or to attest to having a medical or religious exemption from being vaccinated. All visitors completed the COVID-19 visitor registration for this event.