President Invokes Immigration at National Latino Prayer Breakfast
President Obama seems to be on an immigration bender.
Three weeks ago he met with Latino thought leaders to discuss immigration. One week later he convened Latino top-tier entertainers for more immigration chatter. A week after that he did the same thing, only this time with Latino legislators. Then he went to El Paso, to talk immigration in what was billed as a major speech on the topic. And most recently he met with Latino clergy at the Hispanic Prayer Breakfast where he asked for people to pray for passage of an immigration reform.
A report in the Washington Post says that the President quoted scripture and called immigration reform a “moral imperative.”
So if its not a bender, its a pretty good game plan; he’s covered all the bases. The prayer breakfast stop was an especially smart thing to do. Latinos are a religious group of people. According to a Pew Hispanic Center study, “Changing Faiths: Latios and the Transformation of American Religion,”
“More than two-thirds (68 percent) of Hispanics are Roman Catholics. The next largest category, at 15 percent, is made up of born-again or evangelical Protestants,” the survey found.
Add to that the general belief that church going people are more likely to be organized and to vote, and you have a ready-made group of active partisans.
There really is nothing strange about a President of the United States attending a prayer breakfast; it’s a staple of politics and public relations and a less cynical person might say it’s the sincere gesture of a believer. There is no way of measuring the depth of anyone’s faith. Politics, on the other hand, is easily quantified. Among Latino faithful
The survey also noted that “two-thirds of Hispanics say that their religious beliefs are an important influence on their political thinking,” and found a “three-to-one advantage among Latino Catholics who are eligible to vote” for the Democratic party: 48 percent Democratic vs. 17 percent for Republicans.
Follow Victor Landa on Twitter: @vlanda
[Photo by Zeigen_was]
