What about Immigrant Evangelicals?

By Rev. Gabriel Salguero - Washington Post, On Faith
Tuesday, August 19, 2008 - Web Link
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August 19, 2008

I sat and watched attentively for the two hours the networks televised the Presidential Forum at the Saddleback Church. By and large I thought the forum showed a lot of promise. The tenor of civility that I am hoping for in U.S. political dialogue I think was there. Moreover, I appreciate when the U.S. public can hear from both candidates in the same venue and the same set of questions. I called all my friends, family, and colleagues in ministry so that they too could hear the candidates in their own words. I too believe that everyone brings their worldview into the public sphere, Christians are no exception. In a democracy each voice should get an equal hearing; Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Atheists, etc. In that way our faith (worldview) is always informing our politics. Faith and politics are intrinsically related even if Church and state have very different functions.

Still, for me it is not enough to recognize that faith or worldview has and impact on our politics. The fundamental question is, "How does our faith or worldview inform or form our politics or policies?" Pastor Rick Warren, who I consider someone doing great work in many areas, promised to ask the "hard" questions that go to the core values and beliefs of both candidates. Pastor Warren asked questions that are on the radar for many evangelicals and people of faith concerning education, Darfur, slavery (human-trafficking), orphans, etc., For a large portion (certainly not all) of these issues there is consensus among many U.S. evangelicals. All of these issues are critically important. Moreover, everyone has an opinion as to how the questions should have been framed for a nationally-televised audience. The format and questions will be debated for some time.

For the most part, I believe Pastor Warren did an adequate job. Still, one question remained glaringly missing for me as a Christian evangelical. In many ways this is a conversation from one Christian pastor to another. Pastor Warren is a pastor in California of a very large congregation around 20,000 people. California has some of the highest (if not the highest rate) of undocumented immigrants particularly of Asian and Hispanic descent. As a Pastor in California this is one question I was sure would be part of Warren's faith, politics, and core values list. Pastor Warren who admirably has been on the forefront of issues like AIDS/HIV relief in Africa, speaking against human trafficking and the genocide in Darfur has said very little publicly on immigration reform. Certainly, the easy answer may be that immigration is not a values issue, I strongly disagree. I recognize that this issue has been one that many prominent evangelical leaders have not put on their short list of priorities. If Pastors of large evangelical congregations in states with large undocumented populations do not speak on this issue then what do we do with the "love thy neighbor" command? I admire and strongly support the international commitment to much of Warren's PEACE project, but what about the neighbor in California, Texas, Arizona, and all over the United States. So here are some questions I've been desperately waiting to here from Pastor Warren and other influential evangelicals to ask candidates running for elected office.