Over at Undocumented.tv, Matthew Soerens laments the dilemma of being pro-life and pro-immigration reform. He writes, “I don’t claim to be a partisan of either party at this point—I cannot fully support either in good conscience—but my hope is that all Christians will join me in challenging both Republican and Democratic elected officials to cherish and protect the God-given dignity of human life by being both pro-life and pro-immigrant.”
Chapter eleven of Moral Minority–“The Limits of Electoral Politics”–locates this problem historically in the late 1960s and 1970s. In the 1960s, the Democratic Party was arguably more pro-life and pro-family than the Republican Party. But in the 1970s the Democratic Party, which increasingly gave a prominent voice to activist, pro-choice secularists, alienated pro-life progressive evangelicals. Meanwhile, the religious right attached itself to the Republican Party, which limited their pro-life logic to abortion. The evangelical left was left politically homeless. Changing party configurations decades ago continues to make life difficult for evangelical activists like Soerens.
David R. Swartz 