The Bible is full of scriptures that call Christians to willingly and cheerfully help the downtrodden — including those who are of less than perfect moral virtue: “Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you,” the Gospel of Luke reads.

At the Last Judgement, Jesus says he will invite the righteous into heaven, telling them, “I was a stranger and you invited me in.” The Apostle James writes that “to visit orphans and widows in their affliction” falls under the definition of “religion that is pure and undefiled before God.”

And to be clear, the scriptures don’t say “help the downtrodden, but only if they’re Christian.”

“You must not mistreat or oppress foreigners in any way,” Exodus tells us. “Remember, you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt.” And just as the Israelites’ ancestors were foreigners in Egypt, most Americans’ ancestors were foreigners when they arrived in the U.S.