Obama Gains Evangelical Allies on Immigration

Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times has a story up on the growing number of evangelicals who support Comprehensive Immigration Reform.

The article notes that this coalition presents significant problem's for conservative politicians who do not want to pass comprehensive immigration reform. Evangelicals, are typically on the opposite side of many issues that President Obama champions. However on Immigration, there is much agreement.

“I am a Christian and I am a conservative and I am a Republican, in that order,” said Matthew D. Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, a conservative religious law firm. “There is very little I agree with regarding President Barack Obama. On the other hand, I’m not going to let politicized rhetoric or party affiliation trump my values, and if he’s right on this issue, I will support him on this issue.”

Evangelical's also see the importance and value of Hispanics to the continued prosperity of the country;

“Hispanics are religious, family-oriented, pro-life, entrepreneurial,” said the Rev. Richard D. Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, the Southern Baptist Convention’s public policy arm. “They are hard-wired social conservatives, unless they’re driven away.

They also, have a message for the Republican party:

“My message to Republican leaders,” said the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, the president of the evangelical National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and one of the leaders who engaged his non-Hispanic peers, “is if you’re anti-immigration reform, you’re anti-Latino, and if you’re anti-Latino, you are anti-Christian church in America, and you are anti-evangelical.”

About 70 percent of Hispanics in the United States are Catholic, but some 15 percent are evangelicals, and they are far more likely than the Catholics to identify themselves as conservative and Republican.

The full article can be read here.