Evangelical Leaders Call for Immigration Reform

Washington, D.C., - More than 150 influential Evangelical Christians from across the country publicly endorsed a statement of principles on immigration reform at a press conference on Capitol Hill. 

Evangelical Leaders Meet in Washington to Mobilize Immigration Reform

“Its time to enact what we believe is a moral and biblical comparison to fix this broken system,” Sojourners Christian Ministry President Jim Wallis said.

The group, called The Evangelical Immigration Table, is made up of Evangelical leaders from a variety of denominations and calls for a bipartisan solution on immigration.

“The evangelical foundation table is diverse in its formation but it is unified in its biblically mandated vision to help create a better life for immigrants in America based on the principles that are stated in this immigration reform platform: 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 for taxpayers, and establishes a path for legal status and/or citizenship for those who qualify and who wish to become permanent residents,” Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission President Richard Land said.

According to Land, the Evangelical Christian vote is important to American elections. 

“82.3 million Americans self-identify themselves as ‘Evangelicals’ in the United States. That means, that we make up 26.3 percent of the population of our country and that’s the largest religious affiliation in the country, larger than both Catholics and main-line Protestants,” Land said, “According to exit poling, the largest single constituency that actually took the time to go out and vote in the 2010 elections, self-identified as Evangelicals, 29 percent of the people who voted.”

Wallis said in order to change immigration policy, American Evangelicals must band together.

“Big things don’t change in Washington first, they change in the nation’s capitol last,” Wallis said, “Things change when hearts and minds across the country change, things change when social movements begin, when people’s understandings change, when families rethink their values, when congregations examine their faith, and when nations are moved by moral contradictions.”

The Evangelical Immigration Table is urging “our nation’s leaders to work together with the American people to pass immigration reform that embodies these key principles and that will make our nation proud.”

“Today we’re making a prophetic announcement. Washington DC will change on this issue. Washington DC will enact comprehensive immigration reform because the people of God have come together to begin that change in their own lives and their own churches,” Wallis said.

Support for the Evangelical Immigration Table includes leaders from Evangelical groups such as World Relief, National Association of Evangelicals, Focus on the Family, and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

For more information visit: www.evangelicalimmigrationtable.com