LOCKESBURG, Ark. (KARK) —Some are hoping for an apology after an Arkansas baptist church displayed a sign reading, “Heaven has strict immigration laws, Hell has open borders.”
“It’s very hurtful,” David Arellano said. “To me that is a direct tag to undocumented immigrants.”
Arellano said he was shocked when he saw the sign on Sunday morning at Locksburg First Baptist. He took a photo of it and posted it to Facebook expressing his concern.
“I was very shocked, especially coming from a church,” Arellano said. “A church should be a welcoming place and a sign like that has a very negative connotation.”
On Arellano’s post, people in the comments say the church’s message is “Infuriating,” “inflammatory,” and “racist.”
“We are all immigrants. This country was built on immigrants. It’s hard to not see the sign as an attack,” Arellano said.
We reached out directly to the Pastor at Locksburg First Baptist. He said they have no comment and they’ve changed the sign to read something new.
The sign now reads, “The world is offended by everything but sin.”
“They didn’t remedy the situation, instead it was more of a ‘sorry for you guys being so sensitive about this,” Arellano said.
Arellano says he hopes the church will apologize to people who feel targeted by the sign.
“I feel like they may owe the community an apology considering the amount of Hispanic-Latino population that had to see that sign,” Arellano said.