Bishop of Episcopal Church says resettling white Afrikaners 'crosses a line'

The Episcopal Church terminated its refugee resettlement work with the US federal government after the Trump administration allowed 60 white Afrikans from South Africa entry to the US. Bishop Sean Rowe told ABC that the church ended their program because resettling white South Africans is too far astray from the church's mission.

"So the classification of these immigrants as refugees cross a moral line?" ABC News' Linsey Davis asked Rowe.

"Well, the reality is," he said, "we can't be ourselves in the Episcopal Church and take the step of resettling white Afrikaners from South Africa. Our church has a long commitment to racial justice and reconciliation, and we have historic ties with the Anglican Church of South Africa. Desmond Tutu has been a partner in this work for us. We're just not able to take this step. It's not in line with anything that we're about. 

"And it also saddens us," Rowe went on, "to see that other refugees who are being denied entrance to the United States are people, brave people, who worked alongside our military in Iraq and Afghanistan, now face danger, have been in camps for a long time, and are not being allowed in. And so this is just—the program no longer aligns with where we are as a church and what we're about."

Davis then turned to the reaction of those in South Africa to the resettlement of white people facing race-based violence in their home nation. "The Episcopal Church has a long history of advocating against apartheid in South Africa," she said, "as you mentioned, and has worked extensively with the late Desmond Tutu organization. How are people in South Africa reacting to these refugees being allowed into the United States?"

Rowe admitted that the only information he had on the matter was from the "spokespeople for the South African government." He said, "they don't understand why this is happening, and it's causing significant diplomatic relations. But that's not my area of focus. Really, it has been saying that this is not where our church is. This is not, we're not going to participate in this. We can't do this."

Davis offered concerns for other refugees who may not get "the help they need" if the Episcopal Church withdraws from refugee resettlement.

Rowe said there weren't any others because "the president has essentially shut the program down. Virtually no refugees have been admitted to the United States since January. So this is this. This program has largely been shut down, so people who have been vetted, people who are ready to come to this country, have been denied access. So I have no idea what this administration does next, or whether they continue to admit refugees or not, but I don't know what would be asked of us next. Who else would we be asked to resettle? So this is just, isn't a place we can go."

The Episcopal Church is going to focus on their "migrant work." Rowe said, "this is what we feel like, is the stand that we have to take there if there comes a point when it it crosses a line. And we feel like, with this particular situation of admitting Afrikaners as refugees that really meet no definition of a refugee, but the President is entitled to do it his way. But we're, we're gonna, we're gonna draw the line here."