A great post by Gabriel Salguero over on God’s Politics:
In the months leading up to the election, the topic of immigration reform has disappeared from the presidential candidates’ conversations. Ironically, during Hispanic Heritage month, Senators Obama and McCain spoke very little on the immigration crisis. Latino Protestants, which are a part of the voting block that will decide elections in states like Florida and New Mexico, say that the position of the candidates on immigration is of extreme importance. The challenge is for both parties, Democrats and Republicans. According to a national survey released by several faith organizations this week, A National Survey on Latino Protestants: Immigration and the 2008 Election, 43.4 percent of Latino Protestants associate negative rhetoric against immigrants with both political parties. The reality and the voices of millions of men, women, and children cannot be ignored. A growing number of Latino evangelicals seek to move beyond the labels of liberal or progressive, Republican or Democratic. This group invites all the political parties to speak in comprehensive and ethical ways to the challenges and realities of the U.S. Latino diversity. In this electoral just over 70 percent of Latino Protestants consider immigration reform one of those essential moral issues and challenges.
Christians everywhere, Latinos, Asians, blacks, whites, West Indians, etc., are looking for a way forward on immigration. Pastor Rich Nathan has challenged Christians to look at this issue not from a right or left perspective, but from a Biblical perspective. As Christians we are challenged to seek in the words of St. Augustine, the summa bonum (the highest good). The issue here is not to advocate for breaking of the laws en masse, we understand Romans 13 very well. Nevertheless, Romans 12 provides a helpful context which reminds us that Christians are not to conform to the “patterns of this world.” In so much as governments conform to these patterns, we should advocate for laws to be changed and amended when they are shown to be broken, inefficacious, or worse yet, depriving anyone of their human dignity.
