“Gimme Shelter,” Sasha Abramsky‘s report in The Nation on the “New Sanctuary Movement” — a formalized network of houses of worship that provide sanctuary to illegal immigrants — is uncommonly good religion journalism. It’s a report, not a narrative (which means other writers are needed to provide thick description of New Sanctuary churches), but it asks tough questions even as it advances the liberal magazine’s natural sympathy with the movement. There’s the question that all such efforts provoke — can a movement that helps only a handful of undocumented immigrants be anything more than symbolic? “It also gets into what is in many ways an even thornier issue,” writes Abramsky. “Progressives don’t like faith-based infringements on the secular political and legal system when conducted by conservatives. How, therefore, does it make sense to claim sacred privilege from the left? ‘Our legal system,’ [NYU legal scholar] Chishti notes, ‘does not recognize a church-based sanctuary. We have a separation of church and state.'” There may be no easy answer to that one, but Abramsky’s story is an admirable beginning to a discussion religion reporters everywhere ought to be exploring. Here’s a place to start your inquiries: the New Sanctuary Movement’s website.