This is listed under "news" but Bud Kennedy only writes opinion pieces as far as I know. He is such a twit -- Jaded

Fri, Jun. 29, 2007

Church scores victory in immigration fight

By BUD KENNEDY
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

Methodists and a Minuteman tangled over immigration last week.
This time, the Methodists won.

About 30 worshippers from a United Methodist church in north Dallas confronted an anti-illegal-immigration group that had rented a church classroom for a meeting.

After several shouts on both sides and one very loud f-word in the church, the Methodists broke up the meeting by standing and loudly singing Amazing Grace.

The bitterness about immigration reform is not far away in Washington. It's as close as Preston Road, where the Northhaven United Methodist Church, which supports "mercy and justice" for illegal immigrants, opened its doors on June 21 to a monthly meeting of Citizens for Immigration Reform, a group demanding hard-line enforcement.

After Oklahoma state Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore, explained how his state plans to chase off illegal immigrant workers and punish their employers, the anti-immigration group seemed far less interested when a church member used the question-and-answer session to talk about the church's mission trip experience in Guatemala.

Suddenly, the church member was interrupted by Brian Burns of Farmers Branch, a director of the Dallas-based activist group and a member of the Latino-bashing Texas Minutemen, based in Wise County.

I couldn't hear what the church member said when Burns got in his face.

But I did hear what Burns shouted back in a high-pitched voice:

"I'm on the board of directors! Now sit down!"

The church member reached out as if to push him back. Mr. Minuteman slapped the hand away with a loud pop that resounded down the church hallway.

"Take your [action verb] hand off me!" Burns yelled.

That's a word folks usually don't say in a church.

Not even to Methodists.

As if on cue, church members who filled about half the room sprang to their feet and began singing "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that sav'd a wretch like me. ..."

Before the choir could get to the second stanza, the Citizens for Immigration Reform meeting broke up. Some members started migrating toward Preston Road.

Burns later declined to comment.

The group's vice president said Thursday that he is looking for a different location for the next meeting.

"Those people were sincere but misguided," said Ray Currey of Dallas. He had opened the meeting by welcoming the church members, saying, "It is neither un-Christian nor un-American to ask for our laws to be enforced."

Before the meeting, some worshippers had greeted the activists with copies of the church's local position statement, which describes illegal immigration as "a humanitarian crisis, a civil rights issue" and a "cheap labor" issue. It's on the church Web site at www.northaven.org.

The Rev. Eric Folkerth, senior pastor and husband of a state district judge, stood quietly in back all night. He declined Thursday to identify the church member on the receiving end of the Minuteman's mano a mano ministry.

"Immigration is a very passionate issue for some people in our church, on both sides," Folkerth said by phone. "It's ironic that the group chose to meet at our place."

Lawmaker Terrill said it was the church that was "intolerant" and that worshippers committed "subterfuge."

"My understanding is that they agreed to have the meeting there because they thought they might be able to sway the point of view," Terrill said by phone Thursday, calling the rental a "setup deal."

"The people who came to protest -- the people who say we should be more tolerant -- they were the ones who interrupted the meeting and prevented a free discourse," he said. "People didn't come to hear about Guatemala."

I guess not.

I guess they didn't come to hear any message involving church.


http://www.star-telegram.com/metro_n...ry/152921.html