Thread: Religious communities at odds on immigration

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2 ... htm?csp=34

By G. Jeffrey MacDonald, Special for USA TODAY
With bishops speaking out, clergy marching in the streets and parishes frequently acting as local organizing headquarters, the immigrant rights movement appears to have the full support of the USA's Christian communities.
But appearances can be deceiving. And in this case, they are.

Although Roman Catholic and mainline Protestant leaders are voicing strong support for undocumented immigrants, recent survey data suggest that their flocks are increasingly uneasy about immigration trends. And evangelicals are proving to be divided along ethnic lines.

"That Bush coalition of religious conservatives has some qualms" about establishing pathways to citizenship because they want stiff punishments for lawbreakers, says Luis Lugo, director of the non-partisan Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life in Washington, D.C. "But these folks are also being cross-pressured. There is in all of these religious traditions strong emphasis on care of the immigrant. ... That's why people are conflicted."

In a March survey by Pew:

• 64% of white evangelicals agreed with the statement "Immigrants today are a burden on our country because they take our jobs, housing and health care." That's up from 49% in December 2004.

• 56% of white Catholics agreed with the same statement, up from 44% in December 2004.

• 51% of white mainline Protestants agreed that "The growing number of newcomers from other countries threatens traditional American customs and values." In December 2004, 41% agreed.

Some prominent religious conservatives have stayed silent on immigration this year. Lobbying groups with clout in Washington, such as Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council, have said the issue lies beyond the scope of their agendas.

Those who have weighed in, such as Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, take a less charitable view toward immigrants who came to work than those who fled political or religious persecution.

"Romans 13 says that God ordained the civil magistrate to punish those who do wrong and to reward those who do that which is right," Land says. To let border crossing and other violations go unpunished "subverts the reason that God gave us government in the first place."

Land says he told President Bush at a meeting in March that he and other Baptists would support a guest-worker program, along with a legalization process that includes penalties, only if the federal government first "commits the resources necessary to control and secure our borders."

Meanwhile, the leader of a group serving the nation's approximately 15 million Hispanic evangelicals says he's "perplexed" by white evangelicals' lack of solidarity.

The Rev. Sam Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, notes that Hispanics provide key support for such favorite evangelical causes as defending traditional marriage and opposing abortion. Now Hispanics expect reciprocation, he says.

At stake in immigration policy, Rodriguez says, are the fates of about 12 million families whose undocumented relatives migrated so they could survive.

"What if you have no means of feeding your family?" he asks. "How long do you wait (to immigrate legally)? Do you wait until after your second child dies? How violated do we have to be" to justify crossing borders without papers?

Roman Catholic clergy has trumpeted the immigrants' cause as a moral mission. From pulpits and in Catholic media, pastors have expanded on the message of Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles, who vowed to disobey a House-passed bill that would make it a crime to feed, clothe or otherwise aid an undocumented person.

The clout of Catholic leaders has given the movement legitimacy, according to Ali Noorani, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy Coalition.

Mahony's stand "showed the immigrant community the Catholic Church would stand up for them," Noorani said. "It's one thing (for politicians) to go after the immigrants. But to go after the Catholic Church — that's a different dynamic."

Catholics were prominently visible at Boston's recent rally, as they have been at protests across the country. In Boston, for example, parishioners from two Catholic parishes in suburban Framingham marched with banner-carrying supporters from Catholic Charities of Massachusetts and Temple de Dios, a Pentecostal church in Waltham. Priests in collars cheered as the march morphed into a rally in front of Trinity Church in the City of Boston, an Episcopal church. There Roman Catholic Cardinal Sean O'Malley encouraged the fight for "dignity and justice."

"The church is an essential way of disseminating information," says Brazilian immigrant Ilma Paixao. "It's where people go for information they can trust. For immigrants, that's the first community."

Under pressure from both their Roman Catholic and Hispanic evangelical allies, other evangelicals are shading their positions. Land, for instance, said this month that he would resist House efforts to criminalize charity toward undocumented residents and to charge them with a felony.

Land's position is significant. The 16-million-member Southern Baptist Convention was virtually all white 35 years ago, and now it counts ethnic minorities as 20% of its members.

In light of such trends, evangelicals may be calculating whether they can afford to alienate millions of Christians who tend to share their concerns for traditional values, says Manuel Vasquez, associate professor of religion at the University of Florida and an expert on religion and immigration.

"In many ways, conservatives see immigrants from Latin America bringing values that they would like to regain: values of family, gender roles that are very well-defined, an ethic of hard work," Vasquez says. "So they see a kind of an ally in this kind of immigration."

What hipocresy and double standard! Mahoney instead of being the "Cheerleader" for all these illegals, he should cooperate to bring to justice the so called "priests" or childmolesters hiding behind his church.