gpeterson's blog

On April 23, 2009 students from the Latin American Student Association (LASA) at Azusa Pacific University held a prayer vigil to bring attention to the situation of some immigrants to the United States.

Dr. Joel C. Hunter, senior pastor at Northland, A Church Distributed near Orlando, Florida testified on the impact of the current immigration system on people of faith and called for reformed or the broken system so that people could come out of the shadows.

Some highlights:

In my faith tradition we all start as strangers and aliens, outsiders to the commonwealth of God.

I enjoyed a quick trip downtown on Friday afternoon to catch some of the marchers arriving at Placita Olvera. I parked free near the Chinatown Goldline station and took that to Union Station.

There were a wide variety of marchers and messages that afternoon. There seemed to be a lot of hope from the people that I talked to and saw.

Oración para el inmigrante

Dios de las culturas, oramos por los millones de inmigrantes quienes viven alrededor del mundo en países extranjeros y hostiles. Enséñanos a ver mas allá de las fronteras de nuestra nación y de la cuidad en la que vivimos.

Dios de los pobres, oramos por las familias inmigrantes y en especial por los niños que tienen acceso restringido a un hogar, comida, cuidado medico y educación, que cesen de ser marginados por los sistemas en los que viven y que puedan vivir en dignidad.

. . . Roberto Lovato calls for the debate on immigration to regain its moral compass.

Los Angeles Archbishop Roger Mahoney rightly says, “Immigrants must be brought out of the shadows so they can fully contribute to our nation’s future economic and social well-being.”

We have exchanged moral outrage for the practical, political consensus building of working for advocacy toward legislation. You can read more of Mr. Lovato's words here.

Advocates for immigrants and immigration reform for the 21st Century will call for prayer vigils and in-district visits to members of congress in a call to prioritize immigration reform in the 111th congress in 2009.

Just a few months ago Christian advocates of immigration reform believed that the political environment in the country would make it very difficult to make the legislative changes necessary to provide relief to out-of-status immigrants to the US. These changes to the law would be required to give even the most hard working and conscientiously law-abiding immigrants an opportunity to seek legal status. Some have said that significant progress can and will be made by Thanksgiving 2009.