•Churches: Worshippers in hiding
Churches: Worshippers in hiding
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74
By Carla Hinton
Published: October 30, 2007
When the Rev. Leonel Blanco looks out into the pews of his south Oklahoma City church on Sundays, he sees only half the number of his predominantly Hispanic congregation.
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‘A higher law' cited
The Rev. Anthony Taylor, pastor of Sacred Heart Catholic Church, 2706 S Shartel, said he considers the reform law to be sinful because it proposes to take away what he considers a God-given right of human dignity.
"People have a right to immigrate where circumstances so require. They do so as their God-given right,” he said.
Obeying the law is tantamount to sin, since "there's a higher law than civil law. We need to treat everyone with human dignity.”
The Rev. Michael Chapman, pastor of Holy Angels Catholic Church, 317 N Blackwelder, expressed similar sentiments.
"Illegality is not as important as the dignity of that (immigrant) family — you have the right to migrate to feed your family,” he said.
Blanco said some Hispanic immigrants believe they are losing the right to move freely because of an increase in racial profiling by the police.
"They are not terrorists,” Blanco said. "This discriminates. It seems to me like it's bringing the Ku Klux Klan again.”
Blanco and Chapman said most undocumented immigrants are hardworking and don't deserve to be shoved out of Oklahoma. Many, they said, want to work to feed their families and often send money back to their native land to support relatives.
"You don't see Latinos on the streets asking for money. They are working,” said Blanco. "We are demonstrating that we have a lot of dignity.”
Rex Friend, a Quaker and immigration law attorney, said according to his religious doctrine, HB1804 represents "harsh and cruel punishment of our brothers who had the happenstance to be born somewhere else.”
Terrill said the religious leaders don't understand the law.
"They dangerously confuse the concept of personhood and citizenship,” he said.
"I'm a conservative pro-life Republican. I believe you are a person at conception. While personhood comes with basic rights — the biggest is right to life — I believe that is an entirely different concept than being a U.S. citizen which occurs when you are born in the U.S. and with that citizenship, comes certain rights. There is no constitutional right for an unlawfully present foreign national to receive anything at taxpayer expense.”
Obeying whose authority?
By the clergymen's interpretation of the law, they will run the risk of becoming felons should they come to the aid of an illegal immigrant. However, each of them said the legislation will not change the way they serve their congregations.
"There's a higher law than civil law,” said Taylor, who leads the largest predominantly Hispanic congregation in the Oklahoma City Archdiocese.
He said based on this divine premise, the law may be met with civil disobedience akin to the 1960s civil rights movement.
"When it's a matter of justice, there's no question about it,” he said. "We're solidly on the side of the people whose rights are being violated.”
Chapman said the archdiocese's council of priests placed its support behind a "pledge of resistance” as a way to civilly express opposition to the law. The pledge, written by Friend and the Rev. Lance Schmitz, minister of social justice at Oklahoma City First Church of the Nazarene, was presented to Gov. Brad Henry's office Friday on behalf of Archbishop Eusebius Beltran and the priests' council.
Chapman said immigration reform is so emotionally charged that the priests who signed the pledge hoped it would cause everyone to consider all the law's implications.
"Making a statement at this time is a way for us to stand up and kind of like they are doing in California, putting water on the fire and calming people down,” he said.
Blanco, whose congregation at 2141 SW 25 has gone from about 300 to 125, said he has told immigrants not to leave the state out of fear. He said the doors of his church remain open and he will continue to help those in need.
Terrill said he thinks the religious leaders are well-intentioned in their concerns. He said to break the law, a person would have to knowingly transport, hire, harbor, house or conceal illegal immigrants and demonstrate reckless disregard for the law with some underlying commercial or financial gain at stake.
"If there's something that is purely religious, educational, charitable in nature or other humanitarian purpose, then that would not be included.”
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other buisness.and looking at the track record,possibly, in 10-20 years we will be hearing about sex abuse lawsuits.
God's people have never been a popular or powerful force. Jesus describes their lot in life: "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it" (Matthew 7:13-14, NRSV).
Yes, only a few are willing to follow all the teachings of Jesus Christ once they hear and understand them. Jesus comforted His disciples, "Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Luke 12:32).
God reveals that His people will be a little flock in this age. He is calling only a few to be the living examples of His way of life to the rest of world.
Jesus says to His true disciples, "You are the light of the world . . . Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:14-16).
God commissioned the Church to set the example of His way
of life to the world. God is exposing humanity to His ways through the Church. Peter exhorts the members of the Church: "Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that, though they malign you as evildoers, they may see your honorable deeds and glorify God when he comes to judge" (1Peter 2:12, NRSV).
1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year. http://tinyurl.com/zob77
2. $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens. http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html
3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens. http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html
4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English! http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.0.html
5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare & social services by the American taxpayers.
http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.html
9. $200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
10. The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that's two and a half times that of white non-illegal aliens. In particular, their children, are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the UShttp://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/12/ldt.01.html
11. During the year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our Southern Border also, as many as 19,500 illegal aliens from Terrorist Countries. Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth, heroine and marijuana, crossed into the U.S.from the Southern border. Homeland Security Report: http://tinyurl.com/t9sht
12. The National Policy Institute, 'estimated that the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period.'
http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/pdf/deportation.pdf
13. In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin.
http://www.rense.com/general75/niht.htm
14. 'The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One Million Sex Crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United States '.http://www.drdsk.com/articleshtmlThe total cost is a whooping $338.3 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR
If this doesn't bother you then just delete the message, but on the other hand, if it does raise the hair on the back of your neck, then forward it to every human in the country including every representative in Washington, DC four time a week for a month.
Become an Activist, Take part in your Government, VOTE!
As far as breaking the law to feed one's family is concerned, I understand but I do not understand someone in the church hierarchy supporting illegal measures as a moral choice.
The right to life as a "person" does not include the right to do as one pleases, especially when others are paying for those rights. If one wants to live or work in the US or even become a citizen, they should do it the way everyone else has, work for it. It seems perhaps these "hardworking" people are not as ready to actually put forth the effort to obtain what they want but rather take it as if it were a sacrament. With the church supporting them (emotionally, not financially), it becomes one.
One final thought, since the church wants to be involved in politics, it should be taxed just like any other business.
The Pope is NOT GOD, no matter what the Vatican says.
The God of the Bible split the people of the world into language groups, which became nations (Genesis 11:1-9). Nowhere in the Bible does God grant anyone the right to unlawfully enter a country not their own.
A mass invasion is an act of war.
You "religious leaders" are lying to your people in the name of God!!! Do you think He will not call you to account?
Then the LORD said to me, "The prophets are prophesying falsehood in My name. I have neither sent them nor commanded them nor spoken to them; they are prophesying to you a false vision, divination, futility and the deception of their own minds." (Jeremiah 14:14)
"'But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die." (Deuteronomy 18:20)