They were putting their group together last month and now here it is. I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again: If this is all about doing unto our neighbor that which we would have them do unto us, why do we have borders? What kind of bizarre Christian principle provides that we should be good Samaritans to the people who broke the law in coming here but not to the people just across the border who desperately want to come? Give me chapter and verse where Jesus says, “Okay, that’s enough charity towards strangers. We really can’t afford any more.” If you can’t, then what’s the limiting principle on this?

“A significant part of our churches and denominations are part of the immigrant community so we have a very close connection and a very great interest,” Leith Anderson, president of the influential lobbying group National Evangelical Association, said Wednesday, ” … but our interest is really rooted in what the bible teaches how we treat people and how we treat particularly people who are aliens or strangers in the land.”

Anderson’s group last year authored a resolution in favor of reform using biblical immigrants Abraham, Joseph, Naomi, Mary and Jesus. Their examples, the group said, “reveal God’s hand in the movement of people and are illustrations of faith and God in difficult circumstances.”…

The group met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the Capitol and presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett at the White House after speaking with reporters and supporters at the Capitol Visitors Center…

The Rev. Sam Rodriguez, Jr., president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference said that a past disconnect between the pulpit and pew “diminishes in respect to rising conservative leaders,” and he reminded those leaders to think carefully about their positions.

“Without the Hispanic vote the Republican Party and the conservative movement will need to garnish, in light of my colleagues around me, a miracle of sorts in order to win in Florida, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and eventually Texas,” he said.

Kudos to Rodriguez for eschewing the piety in favor of old-fashioned political hardball and to Anderson for hinting at the churches’ interest in doing their congregants’ political bidding. I’m fascinated by the prospect of this blowing up into a running doctrinal debate among prominent Christian conservatives, with border enforcers on one side and holier-than-thou amnesty shills on the other trying to the answer the WWJD question. Except … are there any prominent Christian conservative pols who oppose a “path to citizenship”? Huckabee was for it during his presidential campaign, albeit with heavy caveats that illegals who are here need to leave and go to the back of the line to be eligible. I’m not sure where Palin stands, exactly: She alluded to a pathway to citizenship in an interview with Hannity in April, but only insofar as saying that that’s what illegals want, not that it should be granted without conditions or even granted at all. Exit question: Who among us is “un-Christian” enough to enforce the law? Besides your humble atheist correspondent, that is.