By Allan Wall
06/08/2013
As an Evangelical, I’ve criticized the "Evangelical Immigration Table" — a self-appointed group of pro-amnesty Protestant churchmen — repeatedly. In February, I called them a “Treason Lobby Front”.
Recently, Mike Flynn on Breitbart.com revealed that this is true in the most literal sense
The Evangelical Immigration Table, a coalition supporting immigration reform, has launched a six-figure ad campaign pushing Congress to enact immigration legislation. The ads, urging evangelicals to "pray" for a path to citizenship, include the disclaimer that they were "paid for" by the Table. This is odd, because the group doesn’t legally exist. It is a highly misleading claim.
Breitbart News confirmed on Monday that the actual purchase of the ads was made by the National Immigration Forum (NIF).
Evangelicals Mislead on Funding of Immigration Ads, June 3 2013
Flynn goes on to explain that National Immigration Forum has received a lot of money from George Soros — as has the “Evangelical Immigration Table” itself. [National Immigration Forum Funded by Soros and the Left, by Matthew Boyle, Breitbart.com, June 3 2013] The Forum has also received a lot of money from hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer, a big GOP donor.
During the past few months, unusually, several positive Main Stream Media articles about evangelicals have appeared, celebrating the (supposed) support of Evangelical Christians for Amnesty. For example:
It’s about the quarter-million dollar media push by the Evangelical Immigration Table, mentioned above. To be fair, this article does present another point of view and quotes NumbersUSA’s Roy Beck. But it fails ask the question “Where is the $250,000 coming from?”
Subtitled “Pragmatic mega-church leaders are savvy about demographic shifts.” Yeah.
Two years ago, national evangelical leaders began to speak out in favor of legislation to give legal status to immigrants in the United States illegally. Now, as Congress is about to start a debate on overhauling the immigration system, conservative Christians, once inclined to take a hard line on immigrants they viewed as lawbreakers, are consulting their Bibles and coming around to the pastors’ view.”
Yeah again. But to Julia Preston’s credit, she points out that
In a poll released in March by the Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution, white evangelical Protestants were the least likely of the religious groups surveyed to support a path to citizenship for immigrants here illegally, with 56 percent of them favoring that approach. Among Hispanic Catholics, the group expressing the most support, 74 percent said they would allow those immigrants to become citizens. Only 41 percent of white evangelicals who identify with the Tea Party supported a path to citizenship, according to the survey.
Miriam Jordan, who has always done pro-immigration reporting, is now doing pro-evangelical reporting.
After decades of sitting on the sidelines of the debate, evangelical Christians are prodding Republican lawmakers to support a path to U.S. citizenship for the nation’s illegal immigrants, based on their reading of Bible teachings. Evangelical pastors from pulpits across the U.S. cite Scriptures about welcoming strangers. Some compare illegal immigrants with modern-day lepers, who should be treated with compassion by Christians.
Hmm. Sorry to break this to you, Miriam, but some of them actually are modern-day lepers.
“Evangelical Christians in the United States are raising their voices in support of immigration overhaul. Church leaders were largely mute during the earlier contentious debates over how to fix the nation’s immigration laws, but now they are speaking out, telling conservative Christians and their friends in Congress that it’s OK to embrace compassionate solutions.”
(Carl Ruby, whose website says he is "currently serving as a consultant for the National Immigration Forum" is an evangelical Amnesty booster who says he was inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr. to support amnesty. Yeah again, again.)
If you just went by the headlines on these articles, you might suppose that the majority of evangelicals are now gung-ho for amnesty.
But, as even some of these articles admit, the Evangelical rank and file are in fact hostile to Amnesty. The only change: support for Amnesty among certain high-profile evangelical leaders.
The glowing MSM promotion of the pro-Amnesty evangelical movement is blatantly designed to stampede support for Amnesty.
Even the recent killer tornado in the city of Moore, Oklahoma (a suburb of Oklahoma City) is a pretext: Undocumented in Moore: Why Evangelicals Want Immigration Reform by Elizabeth Dias, Time Swampland, May 30, 2013.
“Pastor Isaías Vargas leads a Latino evangelical church just a mile from Plaza Towers Elementary, the Oklahoma school that was flattened in last week’s devastating tornado. When the storm hit, Vargas immediately knew his church, Ciudad de Dios, would become a center point for Latino relief efforts. Soon he learned that nineteen Latino families in the church’s neighborhood suffered total or near total loss. But there was a catch: At least thirteen of the families were undocumented immigrants. Thirteen families may not seem like much, but it is a lot for a small church of only 50 to 75 people, especially given the enormity of their need. The basic needs of these families are the same as their documented neighbors — water, food, transportation, clothes — but their resources are far more limited. You need a social security number to get FEMA assistance. Applications demand your address, contact numbers and insurance information. In other words, going to FEMA means telling the government you are in the country illegally, and that’s a risk many families are not willing to take.”
So illegal aliens may be hindered in accessing federal aid? What an injustice!
I guess we’re supposed to feel guilty about this and support Amnesty.
I live in Oklahoma. In 1893, my great-grandfather barely escaped death in an Oklahoma tornado. And that’s a good thing, or I wouldn’t exist and I couldn’t be writing this article.
But somehow, having illegal aliens suffer in a tornado is just a lot worse than Americans suffering.
My view: if illegal aliens’ homes are destroyed, then what better time to deport them back to Mexico — where tornadoes are very rare!
Besides, these illegal aliens received help from various private organizations anyway. And, of course, they weren’t deported, almost an impossibility these days.
But the Evangelical Amnestiacs want to use the tornado as a pretext.
Note that NALEC [National Latino Evangelical Coalition] got involved in relief efforts in Moore. So what’s the problem?
Well, Gabriel Salguero, president of NALEC, wasn’t satisfied:
“In our Oklahoma disaster relief efforts we saw firsthand how a lack of immigration reform can leave so many with little or no humane recourse. As a nation, we can and must do better.”
In other words, if illegal aliens don’t get federal funds, it’s a major injustice.
That’s an Evangelical point of view?
Time’s Elizabeth Dias laments this horrible situation:
“This story of these thirteen families is yet another reason why evangelical leaders across America continue to fight for immigration reform. Increasingly, immigrant families, documented and undocumented are in their pews.”
So if we find tax cheats, shoplifters or felons in our churches, is that ok too?
Such “reasoning” is neither logical nor Biblical.
These “evangelical” amnesty boosters seek to guilt-trip Christians into supporting amnesty. As an Evangelical Christian, I say we shouldn’t put up for this.
If your local minister is pro-amnesty, you need to educate him. Don’t let him get away with quoting slogans at you — show him how harmful amnesty is. If your denomination supports amnesty, start educating your denomination’s leaders.
I refer interested readers to some of my previous articles on the topic:
When you encounter pro-amnesty evangelical arguments, be prepared for a blitzkrieg of propaganda and misinformation, covered over with a thin veneer of pious slogans. But remember these key principles:
Evangelical leaders who campaign for amnesty are promoting a hypocritical and harmful policy. Don’t follow them.
American citizen Allan Wall recently moved back to the U.S.A. after many years residing in Mexico. Allan’s wife is Mexican, and their two sons are bilingual. In 2005, Allan served a tour of duty in Iraq with the Texas Army National Guard. His VDARE.COM articles are archived here; his Mexidata.info articles are archived here; his News With Views columns are archived here; and his website is here.
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.