The Southern Baptist Convention’s top spokesman on public policy said he fears President Barack Obama’s decision to act unilaterally on immigration policy will do more harm than good.
Writing for Time, Russell Moore, president of the SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said the president’s action threatens what he called an emerging consensus in Congress around the need to reform the nation’s immigration system.
In a speech to the nation Nov. 20 President Obama announced executive actions in three areas:
1. Crack down on illegal immigration at the border.
2. Prioritize deporting felons and not families.
3. Require certain undocumented immigrants to pass a criminal background check and pay taxes as they register to temporarily stay in the United States without fear of deportation.
Obama said the decision follows a year-and-a-half of inaction by the House of Representatives on a bipartisan bill passed by the Senate.
Moore said regardless of the debate over whether the president has authority to take such actions unilaterally, “this is an unwise and counterproductive move” that threatens a “remarkable consensus” emerging on immigration policy, uniting the left and right in the business community, agriculture, law enforcement and religion.
“My hope is that the Republicans in Congress will not allow the president’s actions here to be a pretext for remaining in the rut of the status quo,” Moore said. “Too many people are harmed by this broken system, many of them our brothers and sisters in Christ. The lives of immigrant families, made in the image of God, are too important for political gamesmanship.”
“More importantly I pray that our churches will transcend all of this posing and maneuvering that we see in Washington,” Moore continued. “Whatever our agreements and disagreements on immigration policy, we as the Body of Christ are those who see every human life as reflecting the image of God. Immigrant communities are a great blessing not only to this country, but to our churches.”
Some faith leaders including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops applauded the president’s action.
“We’ve been on record asking the administration to do everything within its legitimate authority to bring relief and justice to our immigrant brothers and sisters,” said Bishop Eusebio Elizondo, auxiliary Catholic bishop of Seattle and chairman of the bishops’ Committee on Migration. “As pastors we welcome any efforts within these limits that protect individuals and protect and reunite families and vulnerable children.”
SBC resolution on immigration
In 2011 the Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution asking government leaders “to implement, with the borders secured, a just and compassionate path to legal status, with appropriate restitutionary measures, for those undocumented immigrants already living in our country.”
It went on to specify that “this resolution is not to be construed as support for amnesty for any undocumented immigrant.”
(BNG)
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