Church Leaders Don’t Speak for Rank and File

             
            Amnesty advocates have worked hard to enlist organized religion in their campaign to reward foreigners who break our immigration laws. Although lawlessness is not exactly a Christian virtue, their aim is to give the impression that God is on the side of amnesty. Unfortunately, quite a number of high level ecclesiastical bureaucrats have signed up.

            The Catholic Conference of Bishops and leaders of mainline Protestant denominations have encouraged their memberships to send Congress post cards in support of amnesty. And last October the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), which claims to represent most conservative Protestant churches, came out for amnesty.  (Interestingly, however, only 13 of the NAE’s 42 member denominations actually signed the statement.)

            The amnesty lobby would have us believe that what these religious leaders think is representative of what the millions of rank and file church members think. The lobby hopes to send the message to congressmen that plenty of good Christian voters will endorse them for re-election if they pass an amnesty bill.

            But these amnesty advocates are peddling a very false impression—as shown by a recent Zogby poll, a survey of 42,026 adults, one of the largest polls on immigration ever done. The poll asked members of different religious groups what policy should be applied toward illegal immigrants: tighten law enforcement to encourage them to go home, or grant them a conditional pathway to citizenship (amnesty).

            The results were as follows: Sixty-four percent of Catholics favored enforcement; 23 percent were for amnesty. Among mainline Protestants, 64 percent were for enforcement; 24 percent for amnesty. Seventy-six percent of evangelical Protestants backed enforcement, and 12 percent supported amnesty. The poll also surveyed Jewish attitudes. Forty-three percent of Jews supported enforcement; 40 percent were for amnesty.

Another question asked if immigration in general is too high. Sixty-nine percent of Catholics said it was too high; four percent too low; and 14 percent just right. Seventy-two percent of mainline Protestants said it was too high; two percent too low; and 11 percent just right. Seventy-eight percent of evangelicals said too high; two percent said too low; and nine percent just right. Among Jews the percentages were: 50 percent too high; five percent too low; and 22 percent just right.

When religious leaders speak for amnesty in particular and mass immigration in general, it’s clear that they are speaking pretty much for themselves. They aren’t speaking for most of the people in their congregations, and they make a very poor case that they speak for God.