National evangelical leaders in the US have urged Christians to welcome refugees to America. 

President of the National Association of Evangelicals Leith Anderson broached the topic in a podcast with Scott Arbeiter, president of World Relief, the NAE's humanitarian wing, on Wednesday.

In response to a question from Anderson on fear, Abeiter admitted 'it's a frightening world'.

But he went on: 'As believers I don't think fear is ever our best instinct, and I don't think it's what God gives us. We understand that he's given us not a spirit of fear but of power, and love, and of a sound mind. We ought to operate out of that even as we recognise we need to be diligent.'

Exit polls suggest that 81 per cent of white evangelicals backed Trump in the presidential election. And despite widespread condemnation over Trump's refugee ban from other groups, 76 per cent of white evangelicals back the controversial move.

But in an implicit criticism of Trump's policy and its supporters, Arbeiter told evangelicals the Bible says they should 'enter into an open-hearted view towards the stranger and the suffering'.

He said: 'So I ask myself: If Jesus was self protective, what would have happened? There would have been no manger, and no cross, and no resurrection, and I would be dead in my sins.

'But Jesus threw off all the protections of heaven, because he loved you and me and the refugee enough to come for us.

'And so the question I ask is: What is it about those of us who follow Jesus and our response to this crisis? What most resembles him? And I think that a primary interest in our well-being and safety cannot be the principle driver. We should be wise, but we shouldn't be fearful.'