Contact: Jeff Walton, 202-682-4131, Institute on Religion and Democracy, jwalton@TheIRD.org

WASHINGTON, March 19 /Christian Newswire/ -- Joining with groups like ACORN, a wide coalition of religious left groups will march in Washington, D.C. on March 21 on behalf of eventual amnesty and largely open borders under the banner of Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR). The National Council of Churches (NCC) is hailing CIR as a divine mandate and a patriotic act.

"We hope to show the moral urgency of repairing America’s broken immigration system," explained an immigration spokesman for the National Council of Churches and its relief arm, Church World Service. "It will be demonstrated in a dramatic display of unity among supporters of comprehensive immigration reform -- people of faith, immigrant rights groups, labor groups, and others from all across the United States."

United Methodist, Episcopal, and Presbyterian agencies, the National Council of Churches, Sojourners, the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), and left-wing Catholic orders are endorsing the march.

"The event is expected to draw a crowd of 100,000 or more, including many evangelicals who have been inspired by the NAE's resolution on immigration," the NAE said through its website.

The event, titled "March For America: Change Takes Courage and Faith," is co-sponsored by the group Reform Immigration for America, whose members include ACORN, CodePink, National Council of LaRaza, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and People for the American Way, among others, including labor groups like the AFL-CIO.

IRD President Mark Tooley commented:

"Once again, the religious left is exploiting 'faith' to advance and echo the secular left's hard core agenda. Its activists will gather on the U.S. Capitol's West Lawn to insist that God opposes well regulated borders for the U.S.

"The NCC and other supportive groups are unclear, or unconcerned, about how liberalized immigration and eventual amnesty will affect America's unemployed, legal immigrants, law enforcement, or how a virtually open border only undermines attempts at economic and political reforms south of America's borders.

"Neither traditional Christian nor Jewish teaching specifically offers a political immigration policy.

"Divine commands for fairness and justice do not automatically equal liberalized immigration, any more than they equate to socialized medicine, global warming alarmism, or American disarmament.

"The religious left, uncomfortable with the theology and moral teachings of its own traditions, prefers the supposed clarity and liberation of left-wing activism."

www.TheIRD.org