Points of agreement

Imagine my surprise to read a press release by the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE)...and find that I agreed with it!

The resolution was put together by the association, which comprises about 40 evangelical denominations, and calls for comprehensive immigration reform where ways are found to allow immigrants already in our country to move toward citizenship rather than toward deportation, ala Arizona's new law.  In the full-page ad they will soon run, the NAE recognizes that our biblical foreparents were often strangers in strange lands, and that God frequently reminds Israel to treat the aliens among them with care.

I appreciate this move toward a constructive process rather than using the immigration debate as cynical political theater. For many, the anti-immigrant stance is all about fear and ignorance, and the perception that somehow immigrants are "getting it over" on "real" Americans. When the economy was booming, there was little discussion of immigration reform; now that jobs may be tougher to find, it's easy to scapegoat people who are often willing to take jobs most of us would find too hard to stomach.

The anti-immigrant mood for some is also about hatred of the "other," hence the ridiculous move also being made in Arizona to get rid of ethnic studies. The law is meant to engender fear of those not perceived to be real Americans, and uses language of government overthrow for courses designed to simply help people understand the history of an ethnic group. Using their logic, any classes that seek to help people understand another culture are anti-American, as though "American" is one, static ethnic group.

Let's keep this conversation going.