Open Hearts, Closed Doors

A history of mainline Protestant responses to immigrants and refugees during the twentieth centuryOpen Hearts, Closed Doors uncovers the largely overlooked role that liberal Protestants played in fostering cultural diversity in America and pushing for new immigration laws during the forty years following the passage of the restrictive Immigration Act of 1924. These efforts resulted in the complete reshaping of the US cultural and religious landscape.During this period, mainline Protestants contributed to the national debate over immigration policy and joined the charge for immigration reform, advocating for a more diverse pool of newcomers. They were successful in their efforts, and in 1965 the quota system based on race and national origin was abolished. But their activism had unintended consequences, because the liberal immigration policies they supported helped to end over three centuries of white Protestant dominance in American society.Yet, Pruitt argues, in losing their cultural supremacy, mainline Protestants were able to reassess their mission. They rolled back more strident forms of xenophobia, substantively altering the face of mainline Protestantism and laying foundations for their responses to today’s immigration debates. More than just a historical portrait, this volume is a timely reminder of the power of religious influence in political matters.

[Makes] a highly distinctive contribution by clarifying the relationship between ecumenical, ‘mainline’ Protestant churches and immigration policy. While analyzing the multi-decade liberal Protestant lobby against racist immigration laws and practices, Pruitt reveals a sophisticated understanding of denominational cultures, the importance of which down through the 1960s is too often forgotten. . . . A carefully designed, skillfully executed work that will interest students of the relation of religion to politics in modern America., An outstanding study examining the role of mainline Protestant churches in fostering religious pluralism in twentieth-century America. Steeped in original research and lucidly written, Open Hearts, Closed Doors not only serves as an important study to understand an overlooked aspect of twentieth-century American Protestantism. It highlights ongoing struggles today regarding how we interpret America’s uneasy relationship with pluralism. Pruitt serves as an expert guide in taking the reader through his topic, producing a work that will be invaluable to scholars and students alike., Open Hearts, Closed Doors makes valuable contributions to the academic literature on immigration, religion, and American history…By highlighting how white mainline Protestants in the past chose to care for the foreign-born and advocate for fair immigration policies, Pruitt offers a gentle lesson to white mainline Protestants in the present—that they, too, can choose to engage compassionately and humanely in the immigration debates of the current day.

Nicholas T. Pruitt is Assistant Professor of History at Eastern Nazarene College.