(CNSNews.com) - As Thanksgiving approaches, a coalition of religious activists is asking Christians and "people of good will" in America to reject hate speech aimed at immigrants and to remember the needs of "the least of these" in our nation, many of whom are undocumented immigrants.

"We call on people of faith to stand with immigrants as fellow human beings deserving of God's love," said James Winkler, general secretary of the United Methodist Church, in a news release issued by the group Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CCIR).

Faith leaders should "advocate for effective immigration policies consistent with our history as a nation that respects the rule of law but welcomes immigrants who come in search of a better life," Winkler added.

"It is time for reasonable Americans and the faith community to rise up and clearly state that while we all desire to protect our borders and apply the rule of law, we will not embrace the nativist and discriminatory rhetoric articulated under the guise of border protection," said Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.

"We can stop illegal immigration, protect our borders, protect our values and simultaneously protect the American dream only if we work within the framework of Judeo-Christian heritage," Rodriguez said.

The CCIR also released a report, "A House Divided: Why Americans of Faith Are Concerned About Undocumented Immigrants," which the news release said "documents the increasing prevalence of the un-Christian treatment of immigrants."

"Our values are being undermined and our communities divided in this increasingly bitter debate," the report states. "Like it or not, a battle for the soul of America has begun over the place of undocumented immigrants in our society, and people of good will cannot wish it away just because it is ugly or controversial."

The CCIR noted that their report "focuses on three areas of humanitarian and moral concern." The first of these is that "the tone of the national debate over immigration is being set by organizations deeply rooted in hate."

"Too many people, from the media to community leaders, have stood aside as pro-eugenics and other hateful sources have updated the tactics of Jim Crow for the more sophisticated media environment of the 21st century," the report reads.

"The result is a movement able to flood Congress with phone calls and a notable growth in hate groups nationally that is attributable to anti-immigrant sentiment," the document notes.

Second, "this hateful debate is not only playing out in Washington D.C., but at the state and local levels, communities are being ripped apart." Bloggers discuss "ridiculous accusations linking immigrants to scourges from leprosy to pedophilia, and counties pass stringently anti-immigrant ordinances."

Finally, as a result of this controversy, "we are witnessing the endangerment of Christian and American values of compassion and respect for the human dignity of every person as immigrant families are ripped apart and individual, undocumented immigrants are treated as less than human."

However, "the religious community is uniquely positioned to serve as a bridge across our differences on immigration and a source of healing and reconciliation," the group noted. "We as Christians are pledging to do more to unite our communities and restore the fabric of our society that this growing hate threatens to tear apart."

'Christian utopianism'

As Cybercast News Service previously reported, CCIR was formed last May to promote a "compassionate" approach to immigration policies.

But on Thursday, Roy Beck, founder and president of the anti-illegal immigration group NumbersUSA, said that he considers CCIR's proposals an example of "Christian utopianism."

"They seem to be saying that immigration laws are unchristian," Beck told Cybercast News Service. "It's unchristian to draw the line, to set limits, to say that some people can come in and some can't. We should have a world without borders."

"There's no question that the gospel is pretty radical, but that's just not the way the world works," he said. "Whenever we've had peaks of high immigration, the most vulnerable in our society have been the ones to suffer."

Jim Edwards, an adjunct fellow with the Hudson Institute, agreed, calling any comparison of illegal immigration with Jim Crow and the civil rights movement "strained" and "out of sync with American history."

"A more appropriate comparison would be between illegal immigration and an invasion," Edwards told Cybercast News Service.

Regarding CCIR, he said that "these people are advocates for mass amnesty and open borders, and they're off-base biblically if they're making any kind of claim that those should be the 'Christian' response to illegal immigration."

Instead, they should recall Isaiah's words: "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil," he said.

"The 'least of these among us' in the United States are the poorest Americans, the high school dropouts, those who are disabled, veterans, legal immigrants and our own high school and college kids who can't find summer jobs because they're being displaced by the foreigners coming into our country," he noted.

That group also includes "our own people who are being displaced from lower-skill jobs by immigrants - especially illegals - who are driving down our wages," Edwards said.

In the end, "what these open border people are advocating is the demise of the American dream for Americans," he added.

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