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From the President’s Desk Lutherans Lead the Way in Addressing the Defining Issue of Our Time Since the collapse last year of efforts in Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform, the debate over immigration has gotten uglier. In the Republican primaries, the candidates—with the notable exception of John McCain—seem to be outdoing each other with negative comments about immigrants, legal or illegal. The Democratic candidates just try to dodge the issue. States such as Arizona and Oklahoma are passing laws making it illegal on the state level to hire undocumented workers. The result is that people of color who appear to be foreigners, especially those who are Hispanic, whether they have legal status or not, are living in fear and increasingly moving away. “Enforcement by attrition”—the goal of the anti-immigrant groups—is underway. Families, congregations and communities are being torn apart. Yet however controversial the immigration issue in the broader society, it’s not so among Lutherans. The Lutheran churches in the United States base their service and advocacy about immigration on solid biblical and theological foundations, on their heritage as immigrant churches in an immigrant country, and on recent history when at the close of World War II one out of every six Lutherans in the world was a refugee or a displaced person. As Bishop Stephen Bouman, executive director for Evangelical Outreach and Congregational Ministries for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, has put it, “To be Lutheran is to be pro-immigrant. It’s in our DNA.” If the defining issue of the American Revolution was liberty; if the defining issue of the Civil War was slavery; if the defining issue of early 20th century was women’s suffrage; if the defining issue of the 1960s was civil rights; then the defining issue for today is how we treat immigrants. Will our nation in this era continue to struggle, as we have in the past, to overcome our prejudices, our racism and our fears and instead to reach out and offer a secure and dignified place in our country to those who are already among us? Will America once again expand our understanding of who is included in “We the People”? Because of our favorable disposition toward immigrants, Lutherans are specially placed to offer leadership for America as we struggle with the immigration issue and call our country to its better nature. We can do that by reaching out a hand and standing with those who are the victims of our ugly, broken immigration system, those who are living in fear. We do this through legal and social service, through telling the story, through advocacy for justice and for comprehensive immigration reform, and through prayer. May God bless all people on this earth, and especially those people who have come to our communities to accompany us. May we see the face of Christ as we welcome the stranger. May God bless us and our churches as we respond to the needs of the neighbor and work for justice. Amen.
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