Sofar the implications of Rand Paul's words at a Republican convention in Iowa for the ongoing debate concerning immigration reform, his outreach to evangelicals and his effort to repair his Southern racist/ civil rights act 'problem' have been overlooked. Most commentators focus on the effort to reach out to minorities. And that is part of it.
But these words also draw a sharp contrast with the tea party rhetoric against illegal immigrants 'breaking the law'. He makes clear he isn't part of the 'novationist' faction inside the republican party that thinks illegal immigrants that 'broke the law' should not have a second chance. Novatianists were early Christians following Antipope Novatian, refused readmission to communion of those baptized Christians who had denied their faith or performed the formalities of a ritual sacrifice to the pagan gods. The novatianists were declared heretic by Rome.
He is taking the language of Evangelical republicans while staying true to himself. Same thing happened at the faith and freedom summit when he quoted Os Guinness: 'America's problem is not wolves at the door but termites at the floor'.
Assuming they still want to, if Marvin Olasky and D.C. Innes think they can take Rand Paul down in Iowa like they did with Ron Paul a few years ago, they will have a rude awakening. The 'we believe in redemption' approach strikes at the heart of the 'rule of law' argument used by the anti-illegal immigrant crowd (
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