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Evangelicals on Immigration Reform: 'How We Treat the Stranger Is How We Treat Christ'
Christian Post ^ | 05/09/2013 | Stoyan Zaimov

Posted on 05/09/2013 2:22:10 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

The evangelical "Pray for Reform: 92 Days of Prayer and Action to Pass Immigration Reform" campaign called on Congress in a press call on Wednesday to pass meaningful legislation in the next 92 days, throwing further support behind the current momentum in Congress to finally pass a immigration reform bill.

The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, explained in the press call that the number 92 is significant for evangelicals because the Hebrew word for immigration is mentioned 92 times in the Old Testament.

"This number represents the biblical call to welcome the stranger. I'm convinced that we stand on the edge of the Jordan called 'immigration reform.' On the other side lies the promised land of integration, secured borders and safer communities," Rodriguez said.

"We have 11 million hard-working, God-loving family individuals who contribute daily to the spiritual and economic well-being of our nation, waiting to step in," he continued, calling on Congress to show "prophetic courage" when deciding on such measures.

Immigration reform has become a bipartisan issued after the November 2012 election, with both Republicans and Democrats insisting that it is time America found viable solutions for the roughly 11 million people living in the U.S. without legal documents.

The Evangelical Immigration Table leaders have sent Congress a letter calling for bipartisan passage of a bill within 92 days, which they hope will both be fair on American taxpayers but also provide opportunities for undocumented immigrants. In a previous press call in March, EIT outlined some of the key provisions it hopes to see in an immigration reform bill.

EIT argued, however, that those who have been trying to obtain citizenship through a legal path should be addressed first: "This will ensure that those applying now do not enjoy an advantage over those who have been trying to comply with immigration laws, while allowing all qualified applicants to earn status within a reasonable period."

Jim Wallis, president and CEO of the Christian ministry Sojourners, noted on Wednesday that in the dysfunctional political system in Washington D.C., immigration reform is one of the few issues that has a chance of receiving bipartisan support.

"How we treat the stranger is how we treat Christ himself. That message is converting evangelicals by the thousands, by the millions – and we've seen now how that conversation is changing politics," Wallis said.

"We're praying that the dysfunction can be overcome for the sake of 11 million vulnerable undocumented people that Jesus calls us to welcome. Prayer is necessary in these final stages. We are going to pray without ceasing that they can put aside their interests and agendas and finally do something together for those people and for the common good," he added.

Dr. Richard Land, outgoing president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention and incoming president of the Southern Evangelical Seminary (SES) in Charlotte, N.C., called immigration reform a "moral issue."

"We are calling on Congress not to act like politicians who are focused on the next election, but to act as statesmen and stateswomen who are focused on the next generation," Land said.

He highlighted how legislation has already gone further than many people thought was possible, and explained that the Prayer for Reform campaign shows Congress that evangelicals are behind them on this issue.

"We must begin the mending process, we must focus on the human dignity of each of these individuals and their families and look upon them as the assets that they are, not as liabilities to our nation's future," Land added.


TOPICS: Evangelical Christian; Moral Issues; Religion & Culture; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: 113th; aliens; christians; evangelicals; illegals; immigration; reform
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To: FrdmLvr

When did Jesus or the Old Testatment Jews ever say; “Take the food off your children’s plates and give it to foreigners” or “Let the foreigner come into your country and push your children out of your country.” or “Let the foreigners come into your country in great numbers until they begin to subjugate your children.”

People in ancient times understood tribal warfare very well. It was kill or be killed. Even the World War II generation understood that survival wasn’t pretty. It is the wimpified, liberalized people even the *evangelicals* who want to be popular more than anything that want illegal immigraion.


41 posted on 05/09/2013 3:26:21 PM PDT by cradle of freedom (Long live the Republic !)
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To: SeekAndFind
'How We Treat the Stranger Is How We Treat Christ'

So... Christ would sneak into a country for the express purpose of stealing from the inhabitants?

Yeah, somehow I doubt that.

Let's read the words of Christ.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.

John 10:1

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

John 10:10

Sounds like Jesus had a real low opinion of thieves.

42 posted on 05/09/2013 3:36:12 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (Join AAAA : Americans Against Acronym Abuse)
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To: Alex Murphy

It is like dominoes, Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, who to me sounds like the serpent in the garden, knocked down Richard Land, then Richard Land knocked down Pat Robertson, then he knocked down *Focus on the Family’s* Dobbson etc., etc,. Rodriguez went around schmoozing all the big name evangelicals until he convinced them that it was the *Christian* think to do to welcome these poor, holy undocumented immigrants. I watched Rodriguez schmoozing Richard Land, then I watched him use the same routine on Pat Robertson and then I heard him use the very same routine on the Focus on the Family radio show. This Rodriguez is some kind of plant from the open borders crowd.


43 posted on 05/09/2013 3:36:15 PM PDT by cradle of freedom (Long live the Republic !)
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To: montag813

What church is the Christian Post affiliated with?


44 posted on 05/09/2013 3:37:38 PM PDT by cradle of freedom (Long live the Republic !)
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To: cradle of freedom

Thank you! Well said!


45 posted on 05/09/2013 3:40:19 PM PDT by FrdmLvr (culture, language, borders)
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To: cradle of freedom

Thank you! Well said!


46 posted on 05/09/2013 3:40:49 PM PDT by FrdmLvr (culture, language, borders)
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear

RE: So... Christ would sneak into a country for the express purpose of stealing from the inhabitants?

Well, Christ’s parents did flee Israel to go to Egypt to escape Herod’s slaughter of the innocents.


47 posted on 05/09/2013 3:40:59 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: This I Wonder32460

I wonder if these *Evangelicals* teach their little children to always trust the stranger especially if he is offering them candy as he lures them into his car. What a bunch of liberal trusting dummies.


48 posted on 05/09/2013 3:43:00 PM PDT by cradle of freedom (Long live the Republic !)
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To: SeekAndFind
In other words, they migrated to another part of the Empire?

How does that fit in with what I said?

49 posted on 05/09/2013 3:44:19 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (Join AAAA : Americans Against Acronym Abuse)
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To: SeekAndFind

Egypt and Israel were all part of the Roman Empire at that time.


50 posted on 05/09/2013 3:45:34 PM PDT by cradle of freedom (Long live the Republic !)
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To: SeekAndFind

I hate the “we’re all immigrants” meme. When I hear it, I propose the following scenario.

You and your family are adrift at sea when a ship appears and saves you and your family. In the hours that follow, more and more people are found struggling to survive in the water, and they are helped aboard the ship. You notice that the ship rides lower and lower in the water with each new person that comes on board. You know that the next person that comes aboard will swamp the boat leaving everyone adrift. Does the fact that you are not a member of the original ship crew mean that you do not have a right to say “enough”?

Liberal logic, the belief that a course of action in which everyone dies, is morally superior to a course of action in which as many as possible are allowed to live.


51 posted on 05/09/2013 3:46:39 PM PDT by Sergio (An object at rest cannot be stopped! - The Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight)
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To: SeekAndFind
Evangelicals on Immigration Reform: 'How We Treat the Stranger Is How We Treat Christ'

So, if I am to be a Christian, I must treat a lawbreaker the same as I would treat Christ. Then how should I treat the law abider? Like crap?

This is how the government treats taxpayers. I am still dealing with my tax prep professional struggling to document 2012 so that I can have the right to live in and enjoy the house I have worked all my life for.

The illegal immigrant on welfare lives in the cash economy and has no documentation worries. He gets only benefits.

52 posted on 05/09/2013 3:48:13 PM PDT by The_Media_never_lie (Actually, they lie when it suits them! The crooked MS media must be defeated any way it can be done!)
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To: SeekAndFind

How you treat your family also counts as how you treat Christ, and our American family is getting a bum deal from multicultural immigration policies. We can better help the people of Mexico, 51 percent of our illegal immigration, by encouraging good and fair business policies in Mexico. Same goes for the 24 percent coming from other Central and South American countries. Why is it all those rich countries can’t manage to provide for their own people? Would these preachers who preach their convoluted values agree to allow any alien who wants to come into their home, live out of their refrigerator, and take charge of their couch and remote control? Hell no! But they have no objections to hanging 6 trillion dollars of debt around the necks of American citizens, while allowing unskilled, uneducated, disease carrying immigrants to come into our house, and to steal the future of our country. I might ask the same preachers what the bible says about the treatment of thieves breaking into homes.


53 posted on 05/09/2013 3:56:03 PM PDT by pallis
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To: Sergio
I hate the “we’re all immigrants” meme.

When the English sailed up the James River to establish Jamestown, I had forebears on the ships, and forebears in the woods watching them arrive.

54 posted on 05/09/2013 4:48:03 PM PDT by EternalVigilance (Life, liberty, property, family, RKBA, sovereignty, security, borders, independence, the oath.)
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To: cradle of freedom

Officially it’s non-denominational evangelical. It has a strong Southern Baptist background. Billy Graham, Greg Laurie, Joyce Meyer and Coral Ridge Ministries are “contributors”.

I’d guess they’re like wealthy people everywhere: They want cheap help and want someone else to absorb the cost.


55 posted on 05/09/2013 5:30:32 PM PDT by jjotto ("Ya could look it up!")
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To: montag813
Sometimes - like now - I wonder at the agenda of The Christian Post. Indeed,and they post here endlessly, pimping for clicks.

I do not see many from CP, and they are one of the few major evangelical type news sites.

Nor is it evangelicals which use FR as a publicity organ for Roman Catholicism with multiple news items daily on Catholic news or the latest speech by the pope.

56 posted on 05/09/2013 5:34:21 PM PDT by daniel1212 (Come to the Lord Jesus as a contrite damned+destitute sinner, trust Him to save you, then live 4 Him)
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To: SeekAndFind; All

The headline is notable only evangelicals are the most conservative group, however, “support among white Evangelicals for allowing unauthorized immigrants to stay in the U.S. legally is lower than that of the overall public (71%) and other religious groups.” And support for immigrants is marginally higher among W. Catholics - http://www.pewresearch.org/daily-number/majority-of-white-evangelicals-back-way-for-unauthorized-immigrants-to-stay-in-u-s/

And the Lord taught compassion, but not a policy of equal rights without responsibility and loyalty.

And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life. (Revelation 21:27)

And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said unto the centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned? When the centurion heard that, he went and told the chief captain, saying, Take heed what thou doest: for this man is a Roman. Then the chief captain came, and said unto him, Tell me, art thou a Roman? He said, Yea. And the chief captain answered, With a great sum obtained I this freedom. And Paul said, But I was free born. Then straightway they departed from him which should have examined him: and the chief captain also was afraid, after he knew that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him. (Acts 22:25-29)


57 posted on 05/09/2013 5:39:00 PM PDT by daniel1212 (Come to the Lord Jesus as a contrite damned+destitute sinner, trust Him to save you, then live 4 Him)
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To: SeekAndFind

No real Christian supports illegal Alien Amnesty

Its not OK to take what is not rightfully yours.


58 posted on 05/09/2013 5:40:27 PM PDT by SeminoleCounty (GOP - Greenlighting Obama's Programs)
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To: SeekAndFind

If the USA is struck militarily, should we turn the other cheek?


59 posted on 05/09/2013 5:45:13 PM PDT by allmendream (Tea Party did not send GOP to D.C. to negotiate the terms of our surrender to socialism)
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To: SeekAndFind

I'm just a lonely boy
Lonely and blue...
60 posted on 05/09/2013 5:46:20 PM PDT by Blogatron (Death to islaam)
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