Thread: When goodwill bypasses illegal immigrants

When goodwill bypasses illegal immigrants

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 12/23/07

****CHRISTMASTIME GOOP****

The politics of the Grand Old Party's ultra-conservative religionists produce the oddest cognitive dissonance. This campaign season has illuminated the jarring contrast between the public piety of conservative Christians — a significant faction in the Republican Party — and their intense anger toward illegal immigrants.

That hostility is all the more jarring at Christmastime, when Christians around the world commemorate the birth of Christ. You'd think that the season would bring forth an outpouring of compassion, mercy and generosity. After all, the Bible, which conservative Christians hold out as the inerrant word of God, includes several admonitions to practice kindness toward "strangers."

But kindness doesn't seem to be much in the minds of Bible-thumping conservatives. Sadie Fields, head of the Georgia Christian Alliance, has long criticized public benefits such as health care for the children of illegal immigrants. "We're against illegal immigrants because we must uphold the rule of law," she has said. "We are a nation of law. Our biblical worldview mandates that we be a people of law."

According to polls, immigration is a much more important issue among Republican voters than among Democrats. That's especially true in early voting states such as Iowa and South Carolina, where sizable pockets of illegal immigrants have settled only in the last decade or so.

The intensity of the resentment has come as a surprise to Mike Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister. As an abortion-detesting, evolution-denying homophobe, Huckabee is fast winning the devotion of his party's Christianists, who seem to confuse the office of president with that of preacher or priest. But Huckabee has one glaring flaw in an otherwise perfect doctrinal suite: He has shown compassion toward illegal immigrants.

As governor of Arkansas, Huckabee supported legislation that would have made undocumented college students eligible for college scholarships and in-state tuition prices. Besides the imminent practicality of the proposition — Arkansas, like its Southern neighbors, needs more college graduates — Huckabee says he wouldn't "hold children responsible for something their parents did" — crossing the border illegally.

For that modest bit of pragmatism, Huckabee is being hammered by Mitt Romney, who wants his Iowa lead back. Though he was relatively moderate on immigration as governor of Massachusetts, he now presents himself in an ad as the leader who bravely "stood up and vetoed in-state tuition for illegal aliens, opposed driver's licenses for illegals."

Polls notwithstanding, Huckabee's position seems more biblically correct. "We welcome the stranger because the Savior himself was not welcomed in mainstream society," said Robert Parham, executive director of the Baptist Center for Ethics. "The whole teaching of 'no room at the inn' was about someone poor and marginalized and pushed off to a stable."

For Republicans less comfortable with mixing the Bible and ballots, there are worldly reasons to be wary of the deep-seated resentment of illegal immigrants among a significant GOP constituency. As President Bush has warned, Republicans risk permanent minority status if they alienate Latinos, the fastest-growing and largest ethnic group, accounting for about 15 percent of the population.

Indeed, a recent poll by the Pew Hispanic Center shows the last several months of shrill nativism have already proved costly. About 57 percent of Hispanic registered voters now lean toward the Democratic Party, while only 23 percent lean toward the GOP — a gap of 34 percentage points, the poll showed. Just a year ago, the gap was just 21 percentage points.

Still, the steady drumbeat of anti-immigrant demagoguery continues on the Republican campaign trail, even as the candidates try to hype their Biblical bona fides. It's a strange spectacle in a season ostensibly dedicated to peace on Earth and goodwill toward all humankind.

http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opin ... _1223.html

Couldn't read all this.

What has always struck me as odd is how people who call themselves Christians, can rationalize taking a stand to allow people to break the law to come here, lie to take from Americans, break the law and harm Americans, and I know some who somehow make it OK with themselves to work illegals -

How does the Christian tenets of honesty go with promoting lawbreaking and with making a profit from it?

Originally Posted by nntrixie

Couldn't read all this.

What has always struck me as odd is how people who call themselves Christians, can rationalize taking a stand to allow people to break the law to come here, lie to take from Americans, break the law and harm Americans, and I know some who somehow make it OK with themselves to work illegals -

How does the Christian tenets of honesty go with promoting lawbreaking and with making a profit from it?

Like the temple of Jerusalem, the churches have become "dens of theives". Their true god is the almighty dollar.

Cynthia Tucker has ALWAYS been an IA symp, and the AJC (Al Jazeera Central) a fishwrap rag of a newspaper.

I can't believe I'm actually APPLAUDING the 9th Circus...

Ditto....it is scary isn't it?

Originally Posted by cayla99

I can't believe I'm actually APPLAUDING the 9th Circus...

Ditto....it is scary isn't it?

Quite, actually...

This is more of the Calderon--Mexican Consulate's propoganda machine in action. They are attacking Christians who oppose illegal immigration as being 'Unchristian' and want Christians as enablers and accessories to their crimes.

No where does the Bible tell Christians to be doormats--it tells us to fight evil. That is the desire of pro illegal immigration groups--let the illegals walk all over us and our laws.

The pro illegal immigrant groups and the illegals are breaking 3 commandments:
8. You shall not steal. They steal our homeland, our laws, our tax-money, our tranditions, our official language, our way of life, our rights as citizens
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Calling us racists, calling us unchristian, filing lawsuits over 'rights' to which they are not entitled to, excusing all criminal acts on 'discrimination' or 'racial profiling'
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s." They covet our country, our land, our money, our education systems, our way of life

"All that is required for evil to triumph is for a few good men to do nothing."
Edmund Burke

As President Bush has warned, Republicans risk permanent minority status if they alienate Latinos, the fastest-growing and largest ethnic group, accounting for about 15 percent of the population.

This amounts to a threat and Bush enabled this to happen.

I found this quote on a site and can't find the source.
"If the American people ever find out what we've done, they'd chase us down the road and lynch us."
~ Bush No. 41, crime family patriarch

Polls notwithstanding, Huckabee's position seems more biblically correct. "We welcome the stranger because the Savior himself was not welcomed in mainstream society," said Robert Parham, executive director of the Baptist Center for Ethics. "The whole teaching of 'no room at the inn' was about someone poor and marginalized and pushed off to a stable."

HHmm... I've spent an awful lot of time (many years -- more than 2 decades) reading the Bible. Never once did I take the stable story and see it as an allegory to poor people being shoved out of society. That takes quite a bit of twisting, and is inherently WRONG. The length these morons go to make lawlessness seem okay ... they might try actually READING the Bible before trying to interpret it.

abortion-detesting, evolution-denying homophobe

shrill nativism

steady drumbeat of anti-immigrant demagoguery

hype their Biblical bona fides

season ostensibly dedicated

I was reading parts of this article out loud to my teenager this morning and we were both laughing at the language. She does have quite the way with words. Tucker reminds me of someone who thinks they are better than the rest of us. People like her try to prove this by using flowery language and big words to prove their self importance and rightousness.
The more she yells and tells us to accept illegal immigration the more determined I am to fight back.