Alabama Bishops Litigate Over Immigration Law
"Perhaps these bishops' moral case would be stronger if they explained what legal efforts against illegal immigration are acceptable." -- Mark Tooley, IRD President
WASHINGTON, August 22, 2011 /Christian Newswire/ -- Four Alabama bishops are litigating against the state's new law against facilitating illegal immigration. In the only lawsuit of its kind from religious officials, bishops from the Episcopal, United Methodist and Roman Catholic churches are aligning themselves with similar lawsuits from the Obama Administration and the American Civil Liberties Union. The groups dispute the rights of states to act against illegal immigration, asserting that it is exclusively the purview of federal authorities.
Alabama is the only state where church prelates have gone to court against enforcement of immigration law. The New York Times noted the politics in Alabama are "unusual, with those opposed to the law, mostly coming from the left, arguing that the statute falls short of biblical principles, and the law's supporters, mostly from the right, arguing that secular laws and biblical law cannot always run on the same track."
Alabama's new law, which the Times described as "popular," allows police to ask about immigration status during traffic violations. It also prohibits transporting, harboring, making contracts with, or renting property to illegals.
IRD President Mark Tooley commented:
"Just as the Religious Left demands an unlimited federal Welfare and Entitlement State with a cornucopia of benefits for all U.S. persons, so they largely insist these fathomless benefits also must be open to any global person who can reach U.S. shores.
"The Episcopal Church's House of Bishops, along with the United Methodist Church's Council of Bishops, has virtually called for unrestricted immigration as a Christian mandate.
"Perhaps these bishops' moral case would be stronger if they explained what legal efforts against illegal immigration are acceptable.
"Anxious for a pretext to oppose, the litigating church officials and their allies protest that the law will criminalize their ministry of offering meals, counseling or rides to all. As the Times fairly noted, the law's defenders say it aims at human traffickers and employers, not at church soup kitchens, or Sunday school teachers driving to the doctor's office."
The Institute on Religion & Democracy works to reaffirm the church's biblical and historical teachings, strengthen and reform its role in public life, protect religious freedom, and renew democracy at home and abroad.
Christian Minister and Activist to Lead Demonstration and Public Witness in Front of the White House During President Obama's Vacation
WASHINGTON, /Christian Newswire/ -- Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney to remind President Obama to remember the poor and needy while he is on his $50,000 a week vacation. The name of the event is called "The Matthew 25 Project" and is based on Christ's words in Matthew 25:40 where he says, "Inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me."
Rev. Mahoney calls it a "disgrace" for President Obama to take such a lavish vacation while so many people are hurting and struggling. He plans to bring sleeping bags, old newspapers, blankets and garbage cans as part of his prophetic witness for the poor. Mahoney has an over 30 year history of standing for the poor and has slept in a garbage dumpster to establish shelters for the homeless, established food pantries and soup kitchens around the country, help found medical clinics for the poor and needy and started a community outreach which now houses a church for the homeless in Fredericksburg, Va.
Rev. Mahoney, Director of the Washington, D.C. based Christian Defense Coalition, states,
"Christ teaches us in the gospels to reach out to the most broken, poor and needy within our communities. In fact, in Matthew 25, he tells us when we have reached out with compassion and mercy to the least in our society we have done it unto Christ himself.
"We must always be a loud and prophetic voice for the struggling and wounded in our society. We must also speak 'truth to power' when we see injustice and indifference. That is what 'The Matthew 25 Project' is about."
"We are going to the front of the White House calling on President Obama to respect and reach out to the poor. Sadly, the President has not done this and recent national reports stated that 20% of America's children are living in poverty.
"It is a national disgrace that President Obama is taking, according to U.S. News and World Report, a $50,000 a week vacation while so many are hurting in these difficult economic times.
"While the President is relaxing in luxurious and plush surroundings dining on the best foods, millions of Americans are living in the streets and wondering where their next meal will come from.
"President Obama's lavish and elite vacation is sending a clear signal that he has contempt for America's poor and no respect for the 'least of these' in our society. "Mr. President we don't begrudge you time way with your family. However, in these very difficult times it is important that you send a clear message that you care and have compassion for the poor."
For more information or interviews call: Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney at: 540.538.4741 202.547.1735
PRI President: Biden 'Fully Understands' China Policy Because I Explained it to Him
FRONT ROYAL, Va., /Christian Newswire/ -- The Vice President has run into a buzzsaw of criticism for seeming to condone Chinese-style population control. His defenders argue that in saying that while he "fully understands" the one-child-per-family policy and is not "second-guessing" it, he was not endorsing it. Others believe that Biden is simply ignorant of the way that the one-child policy relies upon forced abortions, forced sterilizations, and other coercive measures.
Steven Mosher, an eyewitness to forced abortions in China, disagrees. "While serving as a Commissioner of the U.S. Commission on Broadcasting to China, I briefed then-Senator Biden on population control, Chinese style."
Mosher, who serves as PRI's President, continued, "I know that Joe Biden 'fully understands' how women are arrested for the 'crime' of being pregnant, how they are incarcerated and browbeaten for this 'crime,' and how they are forced to undergo abortions and sterilizations. I know because I told him so."
"The Vice President was clearly pandering to his Chinese hosts," said Mosher. "This wasn't ignorance and it wasn't a gaffe. Biden wanted China's communist leaders to know that he and the President he serves are more than willing to turn a blind eye to the atrocities committed in the name of the one-child policy. In other words, Joe Biden has perfected the kowtow."
Biden now says that he finds the policy "repugnant." So we have to ask, did he misspeak now or before or before that. Only Joe knows...
| 
