I almost fell off my chair when I heard this discussed on MSNBC, so I went and did some digging. It turns out that earlier this week:
Leaders from a wide-ranging group of evangelical organizations -- from Focus on the Family to the Southern Baptist Convention to the National Latino Evangelical Association -- came together in Washington to push for a revamped immigration system that provides a path to citizenship for some of the country's 11 million illegal immigrants.
(snip)
The evangelical leaders acknowledged that there is little they can do to convince Congress to take up immigration legislation so close to the November elections. Instead, they said they would focus on electing candidates to Congress who share their views.
"This is a ground game," said Noel Castellanos, CEO of the Christian Community Development Association.
The groups are starting out by focusing person-to-person outreach and media buys in Colorado and Florida -- two states they believe are critical to the November election, and have large numbers of evangelicals.
Evangelicals push Congress for immigration changes
And the response to today's announcement:
JIM Wallis, who leads a social justice group called Sojourners, called the Friday announcement from Obama “very good news for 1 million young people who have a dream of staying in the country whey they have lived most of their lives.”
“As evangelicals we love the ‘good news’ of the gospel, and today we affirm this good news that gives hope and a future for young immigrants who are an important part of both the church and this country,” Wallis said.
White House receives political cover on immigration from religious groups
This article also states that the White House consulted with religious leaders before making the immigration announcement on Friday.
This is wonderful news! I have a friend who is an Evangelical Christian who supports President Obama and gets a lot of grief from others in her church for her truly Christian beliefs. It's nice to see these positive voices being heard above the anger and hate that it often tied to the right-wing and some Evangelical Christians.