Conservative Evangelicals Breaking Immigration Stalemate
Conservative evangelicals are breaking the political stalemate over immigration reform.
Last week a group of 13 conservative evangelical leaders, representing a large segment of evangelicalism, from the Southern Baptists and Liberty University, to Presidents of the Evangelical Free Church, Christian Reformed, Nazarene and Vineyard denominations, and Bill Hybels, John Perkins, and Michael Gerson joined Leith Anderson, NAE President in calling on Congress to “lead our nation towards a bipartisan solution on immigration”.
These leaders published an ad in Roll Call, a newspaper widely read by politicians and staffers on Capital Hill, calling for an immigration solution that:
- Respects the God-given dignity of every person
- Protects the unity of the immediate family
- Respects the rule of law
- Guarantees secure national borders
- Ensures fairness to taxpayers
- Establishes a path toward legal status and/or citizenship for those who qualify and who wish to become permanent residents
Signers Included:
Leith Anderson President, National Association of Evangelicals
Jerry Dykstra Executive Director, Christian Reformed Church of North America
Michael Gerson Senior Fellow, Hastert Center, Wheaton College
Bill Hamel President, Evangelical Free Church of America
Joel Hunter Senior Pastor, Northland-A Church Distributed
Bill Hybels Senior Pastor, Willow Creek Community Church
Richard Land President, Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission
Sammy Mah President and CEO, World Relief
John Perkins Chairman Emeritus, Christian Community Development Association
Samuel Rodriguez President, National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference
Mat Staver Founder and Chairman, Liberty Counsel and Dean, Liberty University School of Law
Berten Waggoner National Director, Vineyard USA
David WilsonGeneral Secretary, Church of the Nazarene
Major media outlets took notice and recognized the influence and ability of evangelicals to break the stalemate to urge both Republican and Democratic leaders towards a bipartisan solution.
- “New force for broad immigration reform: Conservative evangelicals” – CNN
- “Schumer tries to raise holy help on immigration overhaul” – Wall Street Journal
- “Immigration reform could revitalize GOP” – Arizona Republic
- “Pentecostals join call for ‘just’ immigration policy” – Charisma Online
- “Land, other conservative evangelicals urge comprehensive immigration fix” – Associated Baptist Press
- “Evangelicals’ full page ad in DC will call for immigration reform” – Yahoo! News
- “Evangelicals find new unity on immigration” – Christianity Today
In 2009 the NAE, which includes more than 40 denominations and 30 million evangelical Christians, adopted a resolution on immigration reform, outlining a Biblical framework for dealing with immigration in modern day America. Since then momentum has been building among evangelical denominations and leaders to push for reform.
