At the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast, President Obama compared illegal aliens to Israelites in bondage to Pharaoh.
-- From "Obama at Hispanic Prayer Breakfast: Immigration reform a ‘moral imperative’" by Elizabeth Tenety, Washington Post 5/12/11
Quoting the Book of Deuteronomy to the gathered group of pastors and activists, Obama called on Americans to see themselves and their ancestors in the face of present-day [illegal] immigrants. “Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt,” Obama said.
America, the president said, “is a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws,” and he acknowledged that simply enforcing the law of the land when it comes to immigration “may mean inflicting pain on families.”
Obama asked the group to “keep preaching, keep persuading” their communities to build “a widespread movement for reform.”
When it comes to building consensus within the country’s Hispanic population, faith-based groups are good place to start.
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From "Illegals in the US" Posted at The Irish Times 5/12/11
On Tuesday in El Paso in a major speech [President Obama] also insisted that the overwhelming majority of these folks are just trying to earn a living and provide for their families and contribute positively to the US economy. It is a sympathetic although controversial line, one that will, however, certainly endear him to a large Hispanic voting bloc which was critical to his election in 2008 and will be again in 2012.
But in relaunching at six events over two weeks his welcome campaign for immigration reform – a “moral imperative” – a bid to regularise the position of 11 million undocumented without legal status Obama has returned to a cause that has frustrated him repeatedly since his election.
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From "Obama at Hispanic Prayer Breakfast Cites Biblical Scripture to Make Case That ‘Immigration Reform Is A Moral Imperative’" by Edwin Mora, CNSNews.com 5/13/11
Obama called on the [church leader] attendees to “keep praying” and “to keep preaching and persuading your congregations and communities” to build a “widespread movement for reform.”
A 2007 study by the Pew Hispanic Center and Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found that “More than two-thirds (68 percent) of Hispanics are Roman Catholics. The next largest category, at 15 percent, is made up of born-again or evangelical Protestants.”
“That sense of connection, that sense of empathy, that moral compass, that conviction of what is right is what led the National Association of Evangelicals to shoot short films to help people grasp the challenges facing immigrants,” said Obama. “It’s what led the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to launch a Justice for Immigrants campaign, and the Interfaith Immigration Coalition to advocate across religious lines.”
“Ultimately, that’s how change will come,” he continued, later adding, “It was in our Episcopal churches of Boston that our earliest patriots planned our Revolution. It was in the Baptist churches of Montgomery and Selma that the civil rights movement was born.”
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Also read Obama Equates Passover to Arab Uprising
