Local group announces support for national Evangelical Immigration Table
::
06/26/12
Will Stoller-Lee, director of Fuller Seminary’s Colorado regional campus, led a June 20 press conference in Colorado Springs on evangelical support for immigration reform. Assistant Professor of Intercultural Studies Wilmer Villacorta was also part of the group of seven faith leaders at the event, which included representatives from the Navigators and other local ministries and churches.
The group announced its support for the Evangelical Immigration Table, an ecumenical nationwide coalition calling for “a reasonable, lawful and humane approach to a policy that has become overburdened with out-of-control political rhetoric.” The coalition, which includes more than 150 signatories from across the U.S., recently gathered in Washington DC to present a set of guiding principles for immigration reform.
“The biblical mandate to welcome the stranger is the starting point for Evangelicals” when addressing immigration, said Stoller-Lee at the Colorado Springs press conference. “On this issue the Bible balances the rule of law with the role of compassion.”
Dr. Villacorta shared his own story of immigrating to the U.S. from Peru, and of being part of an immigrant church in Colorado Springs that was recently helped by a local, non-immigrant “sister church.” The partnership of the two churches “has revitalized our sense of mission for our city,” he said. “God reminded us that we are one family called to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with God.”
“These are our brothers and sisters in faith,” Stoller-Lee said of immigrants. "The majority of Americans want reform, want the rule of law upheld, but want some path toward citizenship for a good number of these people."
Articles about the Colorado Springs press conference ran in the
Colorado Springs Independent and
Colorado Springs Gazette.