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  1. #1
    Senior Member Brian503a's Avatar
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    Immigration debate divides Baptists

    http://www.hendersonvillestarnews.com/a ... /604240339

    Monday, 04/24/06

    Immigration debate divides Baptists
    Members want laws obeyed; immigrants join congregations


    By ANITA WADHWANI
    Staff Writer


    At a White House meeting last month, one of the Southern Baptist Convention's top leaders told President Bush that most Southern Baptists were "offended" that the government has not done more to enforce immigration laws.

    A day later, Southern Baptists gathered in Atlanta to honor a Nashville Hispanic pastor as one of its top "missionaries of the year" for launching a record number of Tennessee Baptist churches — all of them Hispanic and many including undocumented immigrants among new Baptist converts.

    As the U.S. Senate continues to debate sweeping new immigration policies, the controversy divides not only the nation, but also the nation's largest Protestant denomination, some 16 million strong.

    Baptists want a get-tough policy to enforce the nation's borders, the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission President Richard Land said he told Bush on March 23.

    But on what to do about those who are already here — and already Baptist — there is no such agreement, he said.

    "I think there's huge consensus among Baptists that immigration is a serious issue and that the government has to get control over its borders. It offends Southern Baptists at the most basic level that the government is not doing the job. We believe in Romans 13, that God ordains civil government to punish those who break the law."

    Only when the government can convince Baptists that the borders are secure can Bush try to build consensus among Baptists and others for guest-worker programs or other policies legalizing the status of an estimated 11 million-12 million illegal immigrants here now, Land told the president.

    Meanwhile, in Nashville, Southern Baptist "church planter" Chuy Avila is working to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to those undocumented immigrants.

    Hitting the streets in Hispanic neighborhoods and stopping by construction sites, Avila approaches Hispanics with offers of help, rides to the doctor, advice on getting driver's licenses, information about English classes and a message of Jesus' love, he said.

    Most lack proper visas but are drawn to Tennessee by construction jobs and agricultural work — and by word of mouth that there is less aggressive immigration enforcement here than in border states such as California, Texas and Arizona, he said.

    Avila considers it his mission to minister to them.

    "When the Hispanic community decided to leave their country, family community and heritage, they lost everything to find a better way to live," he said. "The best way to find a better way to live is find the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is the only one who changes lives. My job is important to help them."

    At Nueva Vida — or New Life — Baptist Church in east Nashville, three people gather for Wednesday night Bible study in Spanish. It's typical of the churches that Avila has started, a one-at-a-time evangelical effort that brings in mostly former Catholics who are drawn by the more participatory experience they can find in Baptist churches.

    The church swells to 30 people on Sundays, and Avila expects it to keep growing with church members becoming disciples who will soon take the lead in bringing others into church.

    In the past five years, Avila's outreach has nearly tripled the number of Hispanic Baptist churches in Tennessee, from 23 to 72. Each church averages 70-100 people, but some have as many as 300, he said. Last month, he was recognized by the Southern Baptist Convention as one of the top five missionaries in the country for his efforts.

    Avila says there is "a lot of misunderstanding" among Southern Baptists about illegal immigration and a lot of discussion about it among the immigrants in the churches he's started. Avila says he does not publicly talk about his own feelings about the issue.

    "We have been praying about it," he said. "We pray that God will be the last decision. We pray for lawmakers and Congress. We pray for the president. As Baptists, we believe in freedom of speech, but we do not use the pulpit to do political work."

    Apart from Land, most other Southern Baptist leaders have been publicly silent on immigration. The organization issues resolutions on public policies after votes and motions from church representatives have been made. So far, there have been no such resolutions. Thousands of Southern Baptists, however, will gather in North Carolina in June for their annual meeting, where Baptists create agendas on policy issues.

    Land says that he believes that there should be a guest-worker program with strict guidelines for those here illegally.

    Immigrants who work, pay taxes and learn English should be allowed to apply for permanent legal status after a period of time, he said. Those who don't follow the rules should be deported, and their employers should face penalties as well, he said.

    Land said a caller to his radio show last week identified himself as an illegal immigrant who became a Baptist and is now a lay preacher who owns a remodeling firm that employs 18 people.

    "I think a good number would change their mind about illegal immigration" if they heard stories like this man's, Land said.

    "Yes, they break the law but they do it in order to work. Our criminals in this country break the law in order not to."

    Land said that he opposes efforts by some House representatives to criminalize charitable activities supporting illegal immigrants as an "anathema" to Baptists.

    "It would make you a felon for giving someone a cup of cold water in Jesus' name."

    So far, however, Southern Baptist clergy — who operate churches autonomously — have not weighed in publicly on the issue.

    In Nashville last month, a protest drew about 8,000 in support of immigrant rights.

    Organizers with the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition said that local clergy from the Catholic Church, Church of Christ and National Baptist Convention — a largely African-American denomination — turned out in support. But, said Stephen Fotopulos, the coalition's policy director, there was one key denomination missing.

    "The Southern Baptists are the denomination we most vitally need to reach out to and talk about immigrants to the United States. We're working on that."

    Baptist critics say that a certain uneasiness among Southern Baptists about immigration is not surprising.

    "There is a dichotomy within Baptist life between evangelizing minority groups and advocating a just society for them," said Robert Parham, director of the Baptist Center for Ethics in Nashville.
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  2. #2

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    That made the front page of the Tennessean. It is skewed...at least the divided part. The Catholics in Nashville are divided, but the Baptists are totally anti-illegal.
    <div>"You know your country is dying when you have to make a distinction between what is moral and ethical, and what is legal." -- John De Armond</div>

  3. #3
    ProudUsCitizen's Avatar
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    "When the Hispanic community decided to leave their country, family community and heritage, they lost everything to find a better way to live," he said. "The best way to find a better way to live is find the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is the only one who changes lives. My job is important to help them."
    Yes Jesus does change lives, but he would frown upon people coming here illegally. Do these people that become Christians confess their sins first before they get baptized, like they are supposed to? They have to make their lives right before God first, otherwise they are hypocrites. If they stay here illegally they do not have their lives right before God.

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