Southern Baptists Back a 'Clean' Version of the DREAM Act

If it's presented in a "cleaner" form, the DREAM Act -- the controversial bill that would provide illegal immigrants who were brought to America as children with a path to earn legal status -- has support from the world's largest Baptist denomination.

According to Richard Land, who serves as the president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Liberty Commission, the group could back the proposal with some conditions. To gain SBC support, the law would need to be amended to prevent the young adults benefitting from it from using their newfound status to help their relatives enter the country -- or gain legal status. Listen to Land talk about these views with FOX News' Alan Colmes:

These issues were outlined in a letter Land sent to Sen. Charles Schumer of New York and Sen. John Cornyn of Texas (both men serve on the Senate's subcommittee on immigration).

In explaining the commission's position to the subcommittee, Land wrote: "The children of undocumented immigrants who were brought here by their parents should not be forced to bear the full penalty of their presence in the nation illegally. To consign them to lives often-times bordering on poverty levels for actions in which they had no part is too severe a penalty."

The often politically conservative group earlier this month passed a resolution at its annual meeting in Phoenix advocating a path to legalization for non-criminal illegal immigrants, but it did not mention the DREAM Act specifically.

That resolution also called on the government to prioritize border security and hold businesses accountable for their hiring. And it called on Southern Baptists to minister to all people and to reject bigotry and harassment toward all people, regardless of their country of origin or immigration status.

The Associates Press contributed to this report.

(h/t The Huffington Post)