Continuing the age old debate about whether someone is a crook or an idiot, Jim Wallis' Sojourners organization is sending out an email to their mailing list urging people to contact Congress in support of a massive illegal alien amnesty. A purported copy is here: tgdarkly.com/blog/?p=542

Wallis has a blog at beliefnet.com/blogs/godspolitics, and I urge everyone to leave comments there designed to help his parishioners understand all the ways he's wrong. Here are excerpts from the email; note that the language used is like a patchwork quilt of speeches from president Bush, Howard Dean and others.

With Congress on the verge of rewriting our nation's immigration laws, too many of the loudest voices on the issue are politicians and pundits who seek to scapegoat immigrant workers, falsely blaming them for many of our nation's social and economic problems.

As Christians called by scripture to welcome and care for the strangers among us, we must seize this moment and raise our voices in a debate that is too often tainted by prejudice and fear.

Tell your representative to fix our broken immigration system with reform that is fair and compassionate.

...Specifically, we must demand that any immigration legislation includes:

Border enforcement and protection initiatives that are consistent with humanitarian values;

Reforms in our family-based immigration system that help to safely reunite separated families;

An opportunity for all immigrant workers and their families already in the U.S. to come out of the shadows to pursue an earned legal status, leading up to citizenship; and

A viable guest worker program that creates avenues for workers and their families to enter our country and work in a safe, legal, and orderly manner.

...With so many immigrant families living in poverty, we must acknowledge that discussion of immigration cannot be separated from our understanding of poverty - and is thus central to achieving the vision for overcoming poverty found in Sojourners/Call to Renewal's Covenant for a New America.

UPDATE: Jim Wallis is also involved with the Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform