Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform a Sojourners supported project hosted a dialogue in March with 40 Latino and Anglo evangelical pastors at Iglesia El Calvario, a 5,000-member Latino Pentecostal church in Orlando, Florida. Restoration Christian Center Pastor Tommy Moya and Joel Hunter, leader of 12,000-member Northland evangelical church, gave testimonies on how the church should respond to immigration issues, including the biblical teachings of welcome, challenging opinions that are shaped more by political views than religious ones, and addressing the ignorance in many Anglo churches about the experiences of Latino pastors and congregations.
“We have undocumented brethren in our congregations. We mingle daily with housekeepers, construction workers, elderly caregivers, and maintenance and agricultural workers who, other than for their lack of immigration documents, are law-abiding, tax-paying, loving family members,” Rosa C. Prieto told Sojourners. Prieto is from Esperanza USA, the largest Latino faith-based community development corporation in the country. “I hope that this marriage of Christians across language and creed will continue and reach the media to start turning around public perception and opinion.” Bishop Thomas Wenski, the Catholic bishop of Orlando, also attended.
Click Here for a video from CCIR on churches and immigration.
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