New Hope Community Church in Palatine, Illinois, has been branded as hateful by some residents in the neighborhood for promoting a message on their electronic sign that says, “Heaven has strict immigration laws, Hell has open borders.”
The criticism comes as a coalition of progressive Christian and Jewish groups, including the Episcopal Church and the Union for Reform Judaism, filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday challenging a recent move by the Trump administration to rescindguidelines that limited immigration enforcement in “sensitive” areas such as churches, schools and hospitals.
Critics of the New Hope Community Church’s message contend it is hateful and politically charged as it appears to be in support of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration. However, the church insists that its message is strictly about the Gospel.
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“We want to be clear. We did not mention nor intend this sign to be about US immigration policy,” the church said in a statement on its Facebook page Monday night.
“We understand that immigration is a hot topic today and wanted to use that to turn people’s attention heavenward. We did not mention any country or any people group. We do not believe that all go to heaven and wanted the community to examine their relationship with Almighty God,” the statement continued. “People are getting triggered by the word ‘immigration.’ We took a stand on ‘immigration’ to heaven, not to the United States.’”
Lisa Beth Szczupaj, president of the Palatine Elementary District 15 school board, told the Daily Herald that she found the church’s message to be harsh and asked them to change it.
“It is unfortunate that a couple of phrases that some adults feel to be clever are posted in the face of many innocent schoolchildren having to ask parents, friends and adults what they mean and why,” Szczupaj said. “Pulling kids into the edginess and politics of the moment is absolutely inappropriate and causes real fear for our school-age children.”
Palatine resident Katharine Huddleston told ABC 7 that they moved to the neighborhood for its diversity and found the church’s message “really upsetting.”
“Part of why we moved to Palatine was the diversity [and] being able to show our kids that everyone should have [the] opportunity to love each other, and seeing something like this is really upsetting,” Huddleston said.
She has since followed up that statement with a message on the church’s Facebook page, declaring: “I am proud to have spoken out against the hate your ‘church’ is spreading. Our community is one of love and acceptance, and signs like yours have no room here!”
Other Palatine residents, like Theresa Greinig, are mobilizing other community members to create what she called “signs of positivity” around the church, ABC7 reported.
“The messaging that I saw today is not the face of Palatine. It’s not our community; it’s not what it means to live here,” she said.
New Hope Community Church did not immediately respond to calls for comment from The Christian Post, but Senior Pastor James Pittman Jr. insists his church’s message is clear.
“The immigration we were talking about is very clear in the sign: Heaven and Hell. And our message is very clear, the scriptures are clear, not everybody makes it to Heaven,” he told ABC7.
Despite a push to get the church to censor their message, Palatine Village Manager Reid Ottesen said: “It’s a legal sign. Its content is protected by the First Amendment.”
In their lawsuit Tuesday, the coalition of Christian and Jewish groups claim that Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions in and around places of worship without a judicial warrant burden religious exercise in violation of the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The lawsuit also argues that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s enforcement actions interfere with the plaintiffs’ ability to fulfill the religious mandate to welcome and serve immigrants.
“We believe their struggles reveal the heart of God, and we cannot worship freely if some among us live in fear,” Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe said in a statement Tuesday. “We are seeking the ability to fully gather and follow Jesus’ command to love our neighbors as ourselves.”
According to the lawsuit, Episcopal congregations across the U.S. have seen decreased attendance at worship services and social service ministries due to fears of ICE raids. Even congregants with documented legal status in some places are choosing to stay home for fear they might be mistakenly arrested based on their appearance.
“Welcoming the stranger is not a political act — it’s a sacred obligation. When immigrants walk through our church doors, they’re not entering as outsiders; they are stepping into the heart of our faith, where their dignity and stories are embraced as reflections of God’s love,” Julia Ayala Harris, president of The Episcopal Church’s House of Deputies, said. “This lawsuit is about protecting our ability to live out the Gospel without fear or interference.”
In an interview with The Christian Post last week, Pastor Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, said the Latino community has nothing to fear from the Trump administration.
“Under no circumstance in the past 250 years of American history has there ever been a moment where federal troops have come in guns blazing into a church. And it will not happen under the Trump administration,” he vowed.
The aim, he said, is to target criminal illegal immigrants and ensure that “there is no safe space for criminals to be able to hide.”
Rodriguez reiterated that “churches are a sacred space […] a holy ground for parishioners, and there shouldn’t be any fear or angst from the immigrant community, or any community, any group of our demographical landscape, as it pertains to whether they can worship without any fear.”
He attributed concerns about the new policy to “misinformation,” which he said church leaders were working to address.
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