Episcopal Bishops Naively Push Liberalized Immigration

Episcopal Bishops Naively Push Liberalized Immigration

“Instead of liberal political advocacy on issues like immigration for which they lack serious expertise, the bishops of the declining Episcopal Church would better look to their own troubled house.” — Mark Tooley, IRD President

WASHINGTON, Sept. 23, 2010 /Christian Newswire/ — Recently meeting in Phoenix Arizona, the Episcopal Church’s House of Bishops issued a pastoral letter urging liberalized immigration policies for the U.S., including a conditional amnesty for illegal immigrants and higher legal immigration, including work visas. The bishops implied support for virtual open borders by rejecting any criminalization of undocumented immigration, while complaining of America’s “racism and bigotry.”

The shrinking and much divided U.S. Episcopal Church is over 90 percent white and native born, with only a tiny percentage of members who are immigrants.

IRD President Mark Tooley commented:

“Christians and others of good will may disagree over the political specifics of a complicated issue like immigration. The Scriptures and Christian tradition offer no direct political guidance here. But the Episcopal Church’s bishops, so divided on Christian doctrine, exceed their mandate when they demand adherence to a rigid political agenda.

“Their seeming affirmation of unrestricted immigration as an intrinsic right seems more Utopian than rooted in Christian understandings of a fallen world.

“These bishops would better devote themselves to reviving their own troubled denomination, especially by evangelistically reaching out to America’s growing immigrant population with a robust Gospel message appealing to more than just liberal, upper middle class Anglo-Americans.”

The Institute on Religion & Democracy works to reaffirm the church’s biblical and historical teachings, strengthen and reform its role in public life, protect religious freedom, and renew democracy at home and abroad.

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