ELCA News Blog
July 11, 2006
Bishop of ELCA Rocky Mountain Synod calls for "common good" on immigration
by Melissa Ramirez Cooper, ELCA News Service
As Colorado legislators meet in a special session that started July 6 to debate immigration policy, the Rev. Allan C. Bjornberg, bishop of the Rocky Mountain Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, issued a statement calling on state legislators to "resist the urge to caricature every immigrant as a projection of our fears" and to "let decency and the common good prevail."
The statement was endorsed by 12 other denomination executives representing the Colorado Council of Churches and the Colorado chapter of The Interfaith Alliance. Bjornberg and Colorado church leaders expressed their appreciation to the Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput, Catholic archbishop of Denver, and the Most Rev. Michael J. Sheridan, Catholic bishop of Colorado Springs, for their "articulate call to higher ground in the immigration debate among Colorado legislators." Chaput and Sheridan provided a guest commentary titled "Let goodwill drive the discussion: Immigration debate in the Colorado Legislature" July 6 in the Denver Post newspaper.
The church leaders also called upon legislators to "take into account the complexity of issues, the diversity of interests, and the relative justice of laws at the same time that it counters appeals rooted in hostility, racism, prejudice, indifference and simplistic solutions." They also joined Chaput and Sheridan in the call for "common sense and good policy" which lets "decency and the common good prevail for all who have the inalienable human right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
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