Evangelicals sitting on sidelines in immigration debate

Posted: 2/17/06

Evangelicals sitting on sidelines in immigration debate

By G. Jeffrey MacDonald

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Advocates at World Relief, the humanitarian arm of the National Association of Evangelicals, usually can expect a warm greeting from large evangelical groups wielding clout in the halls of Congress.

But this year, they’re getting a downright chilly reception to one of their priority agenda items—immigration reform.

As Congress grapples with legislation regarding an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants, the nation’s most powerful conservative Christian organizations have been watching from the sidelines. This occurs despite decades of evangelical initiative to make America a hospitable haven for religious and political refugees.

The search to explain the silence leads through several layers of reasoning.

For starters, the Christian Right says it has other issues at the moment, such as the confirmation of conservative judges and the battle against same-sex marriage. Beyond that, some suspect evangelicals don’t want to appear soft on lawbreakers of any kind. And on a level that plumbs the depths of what it means to bear Christian witness, evangelicals confide they still are struggling as a community to determine the right thing to do.

Among Southern Baptists, for instance, “there’s no consensus about what to do about the (illegal immigrants) who are already here or about how we would allow legal immigration,” said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. Southern Baptists “see a basic distinction between people who are refugees, who are in fear of losing their life and home … and those who are coming over primarily for economic reasons and are not abiding by the immigration laws.”

Because mass deportation “isn’t realistic,” Land said, the denomination needs to wrestle longer with what to do.

Amber Hildebrand, a spokesperson for the Washington-based Family Research Council, explains: “It’s not that we don’t think (immigration policy) is important. There have just been other issues the FRC has chosen to focus on.”

Colorado-based Focus on the Family spokesperson Gwen Stein gives the same reason for her group’s reticence to take a stand.

The National Association of Evangelicals hasn’t taken a position on immigration since 1985. At that time, as President Reagan was ushering in what was in effect an amnesty program for illegal aliens, the NAE pledged “to eliminate the spirit of racism in any of our responses” and “show personal and corporate hospitality to those who seek a new life in our nation.”

Led by evangelical organizers at World Relief, 42 national religious groups and 69 local ones signed a statement in October calling for a process to let undocumented immigrants apply for legal status. Signatories ranged from the Union for Reform Judaism to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

In Congress, debate hinges largely on whether immigrants who pay a fine and other penalties should be able to then seek legal status. A bill proposed by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., would allow for such a process. President Bush’s guest worker proposal would require the undocumented to leave after a designated period. Whether family members should be separated or kept together also looms large as an issue up for grabs.

Evangelical groups, if determined to appear tough on illegal immigration, could endorse the House-approved bill, which provides for a fence along 700 miles of the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexican border, although it doesn’t address the question of what to do with undocumented immigrants.

But evangelicals who appear unsympathetic toward immigrants run other political risks. They could alienate business interests—political allies in industries known to employ thousands of undocumented workers.

They also could run afoul of a growing foreign-born constituency, said Manuel Vasquez, associate professor of religion at the University of Florida and an expert on religion and immigration.

“In many ways, conservatives see immigrants from Latin America are bringing values that they would like to regain—values of family, gender roles that are very well defined, an ethic of hard work,” Vasquez said.

“Immigrants have values that can convert America and return America to the values of thrift and hard work.”

Faced with the specter of political costs no matter where they come down on immigration, leading evangelical groups are opting not to get involved.