Misplaced People, Bordered Subjects: Discerning a Theology of Place in an Age of Displacement

Abstract “Heaven has a wall and strict immigration policies. Hell has open borders.”1 Written on billboards and church signs from Nebraska in the Northern United States to nearer the US-Mexico border in New Mexico, this sentiment portrays a theological assumption about the nature of national borders and those seeking to cross them. Allied to the political rhetoric and policies of figures such as Donald Trump, these signs represent a transnational movement to cast immigrants and refugees as existential threats—threats to the national spirit—that demand stringent and unforgiving border policies. The exclusionary dynamic represented by these signs perpetuates the notion that sacred-like places are principally bordered, enclosed spaces.