Chicago Pastor Defends ‘Hell Has Open Borders’ Church Sign That Upset Neighbors

New Hope Community Church in Palatine, Illinois, sparked community backlash by posting a message the pastor said is straight from the Bible. “Heaven has strict immigration laws. Hell has open borders,” reads the church’s electronic sign.

James Pittman Jr., senior pastor of the Chicago-area church, said he often uses current events to draw people’s attention to the gospel. But he denied making any statement about U.S. immigration policy or President Trump.

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“The immigration we were talking about is very clear in the sign: heaven and hell,” said Pittman. “And our message is very clear, the scriptures are clear. Not everybody makes it to heaven.” The pastor also denied promoting any political agenda, saying, “We push one man and one man only here, and that’s Jesus Christ.”

But some Palatine residents describe the church sign as extreme, hateful, and exclusionary. They’ve launched a campaign to post signs with positive messages near New Hope, saying schoolchildren who walk by are affected by what they read.

Pastor James Pittman Jr. Responds to Church Sign Controversy: ‘The Bible Is Clear’

On its Facebook page, the church posted on Feb. 10:

We want to be clear. We did not mention nor intend this sign to be about U.S. immigration policy. 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. People are getting triggered by the word “immigration.” We took a stand on “immigration” to heaven, not to the United States.

In response to the controversy, New Hope added an “About Our Sign” pop-up on its website. It links to a 14-minute video in which Pittman explains the sign’s intent—and calls out people whose god is “political victimhood.”

In his video, the pastor said the sign had been up for six days before anyone expressed concerns. “The kids were okay, the sky wasn’t falling, racism wasn’t running rampant through Palatine,” he said.

New Hope often uses “issues of the day” to point people to “the righteousness of God and who he is,” Pittman continued. Rather than being about illegal immigration, the sign “used the buzzword about immigration and borders to start a conversation about this one question everyone has to answer: Where are you going to spend your eternity?”