Evangelicals To Call For Pathway To Citizenship For Illegal Immigrants

The National Evangelical Association is taking out a full page ad in Roll Call using the Bible to argue for a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

“Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the families of his sons turned to Egypt in search of food,” it says. “Joseph, Naomi, Ruth, Daniel and his friends, Ezekiel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther all lived in foreign lands. In the New Testament, Joseph and Mary fled with Jesus to escape Herod’s anger and became refugees in Egypt.”

Forty evangelical denominations reached a consensus in 2009 when it produced a document laying out their position.

The Bible does not offer a blueprint for modern legislation, but it can serve as a moral compass and shape the attitudes of those who believe in God. An appreciation of the pervasiveness of migration in the Bible must temper the tendency to limit discussions on immigration to Romans 13 and a simplistic defense of “the rule of law.” God has established the nations (Deut. 32:8; Acts 17:26), and their laws should be respected. Nevertheless, policies must be evaluated to reflect that immigrants are made in the image of God and demonstrate biblical grace to the foreigner.

Signatories include staunch conservatives like Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention and Matthew Staver of Liberty University.  Of course, there is some self-interest here, as immigrants, legal and otherwise, make up a large part of the growth of evangelical congregations.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.