Thread: Evangelical leaders make D.C. push on immigration

Evangelical leaders make D.C. push on immigration

June 09, 2010
comments 31

Evangelical and conservative Christian leaders visiting Washington to push immigration reform this year say it's a moral imperative and will also be good for their flocks.

"The issue of comprehensive immigration reform is just about the only issue on which there is great unanimity across the Christian spectrum. Abortion divides us. Gay rights divides us. War and peace divides us. Comprehensive immigration reform unites us," Rich Nathan, senior pastor at the Vineyard Church in Columbus, Ohio, said at a Capitol Hill press conference Wednesday,

Conservatives for Immigration Reform organized religious leaders for the lobbying day. The roster included such big-hitters as Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Conference and Leith Anderson of the National Association of Evangelicals.

Organizers conceded that during the last big debate on the issue in 2007 there was a divide between "pew and pulpit"--with ministers supporting the legislation and many rank-and-file churchgoers opposing it. However, they said they think the drive has more support now, especially if combined with strong efforts to secure the border and a "tamper-proof" "biometric" Social Security Card.

"I believe that this is a crisis. I believe that the failure to resovle this issue is rending the social fabric of the nation," Land said.

Anderson began the presser on a rather provocative note, by observing that "unlike other countries" such as those in Europe, immigration to the U.S. has been predominantly Christian. (Europe has seen a major influx of Muslims in recent decades, legally and illegally, but Anderson did not explicitly allude to that fact). Anderson and other leaders suggested that illegal immigration has been a boon to U.S. churches because it has boosted their rolls.

The ministers said they are scheduled to meet Wednesday with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence of Indiana, and at the White House with Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama.

Obama has pledged to support a debate in Congress on immigration this year, but he has stopped short of promising to pass a bill or even hold votes in advance of the November midterm election.

Mat Staver, dean of Liberty University School of Law, said the only alternative to reform is mass deportation, which he said would run afoul of biblical doctrine. "If you just simply deport everybody it's not practical, it's not only not practical, it's not moral and it's not biblical either," he said.

Staver and other speakers spoke about the difficulty of deporting an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants. However, they also spoke about background checks for those who remain in the U.S. legally after reform on a path to citizenship. Depending on what rules are part of reform, as many as 4 million immigrants could be deportable because of criminal records in the U.S. or abroad. Deporting 4 million people may be nearly as unrealistic as deporting 12 million, a fact Obama and other reform proponents glossed over during the 2008 presidential campaign.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/joshgerst ... ation.html

"Big Religion, the hierarchy of any church, is like any other Special Interest Group, just follow the money. Most Special Interest Groups are only concerned for "their" agenda of profit and/or power, not the people they pretend to speak for or save from harm. Something about living in a Glass House, these self proclaimed "Evangelical and conservative Christian leaders" should be able to clean their own house before they tell others what they are doing wrong! Of course they are expecting money to flow in from "our" Federal Government to assist with their Big Religion ministering to the ILLEGALS or they just may receive some funds from the ILLEGAL EMPLOYERS who benefit from their ILLEGALS! Doubtful they will get any monetary help from the ILLEGAL EMPLOYERS they of course expect the United States Taxpayers to pick up the bill for their ILLEGALS while they soak up all of the PROFIT, you have to admit the SOAKING of United States Taxpayers is good."

Since it isn't likely that these individuals live in areas that have suffered from illegal immigration they of course think that everyone else should think the way they do.

Further, no church should involve itself in deciding that a nation should admit outsiders to citizenship. That is a political matter and has no relation to theology or spiritual issues.

Mat Staver, dean of Liberty University School of Law, said the only alternative to reform is mass deportation.

Absolutely untrue, and Staver should know better.

Attrition through enforcement of laws is the true middle ground way.