Rev. Dr. Chuck Currie

Religious leaders call for 'comprehensive reform' as Congress debates immigration laws

Interfaith religious leaders spoke out on immigration this week.  The National Council of Churches reports:

Washington, March 2, 2006 -- As Congress prepares to debate changing immigration laws, prominent religious leaders, including National Council of Churches' General Secretary Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar, gathered Wednesday in Simmons Chapel at the United Methodist Building on Capitol Hill to call for comprehensive immigration reform.

The religious leaders, representing the Catholic, Evangelical Christian, Protestant and Jewish communities, expressed their concern for the current system as well as pending legislation that would bring undue harm to legal immigrants, asylum-seekers, and refugees in this country.

The leaders said they would support legislation to legalize illegal workers, institute a program for temporary workers and reunite families separated by immigration laws. The religious leaders said they were opposing a bill, H.R. 4437, the Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Act of 2005, that would stiffen enforcement and restrict immigration.

According to Edgar, the U.S. must develop immigration policies that uphold the dignity of all people and demonstrate justice to those who seek a home and a better way of life in our country.

"Throughout history, politicians have tried to convince themselves and others that the biblical call to love, the ministry of hospitality and the Sermon on the Mount are naive, impractical and irrelevant to our complex world," said Edgar. "But one cannot -- dare not -- suspend biblical principles simply to advance a political agenda. It comes from an authority higher than Congress, higher than Immigration and Naturalization Services, higher than the President of the United States, and it cannot be ignored," he said.

Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, the Archbishop of Washington, Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, Jr., President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, and Rabbi Scott Sperling, Director of the Union for Reform Judaism's Mid-Atlantic Council, also participated in the interfaith press event.

You can bet that immigration will be one of the top topics in the 2006 mid-term elections.  It is good to see Protestant and Roman Catholic leaders - along with our interfaith partners - on the same page. 

Related Post:  "The Gospel vs. H.R. 4437"

Related Post:  The Minutemen Project: White Supremacists Gather In Arizona

Oversight

I've been reading Faithful Progressive, well, forever and somehow never put the site on my blog roll.  That's a mistake I'll correct tonight. 

Bad News For The UCC

From United Church News:

End-of-the-year remittances to the UCC’s national setting came up nearly $500,000 short in 2005, once again prompting concerns that the church’s national ministries may undergo significant, painful alterations.

William Morgan, the UCC’s chief financial officer, reports that the UCC’s 39 Conferences remitted $10,040,149 to Our Church’s Wider Mission (OCWM) for national basic support in 2005, down from the $10.5-million figure budgeted.

Since the $10.5-million benchmark was also used to build current-year budgets for the UCC’s four Covenanted Ministries, Morgan alerted church leaders that a weakened financial goal of $9.46 million should be anticipated for 2006.

The revised projection is down by more than $1 million from the $10,704,803 actualized in 2004, and it represents a whopping 25 percent drop — or $3 million — from the $12.5 million realized just five years ago.

Anyone have an extra half million?

Click here to donate.

Theocrats Take Aim At Missouri

American Theocrats - that brand of Religious Right Republican bent on overturning centuries of Constitutional government in favor of a system ruled by their own warped brand of Christianity - are taking the fight to Missouri. 

The St. Louis-Dispatch reports:

Some religious leaders on Friday blasted a proposed Missouri House resolution that supports prayer in schools and recognizes a "Christian God," saying legislators are pushing Christianity as a state religion.

"It's an atrocity," said the Rev. Timothy L. Carson, senior minister at Webster Groves Christian Church. "Thomas Jefferson would be rolling in his grave. It's indicative of a movement within one segment of activist Christianity that wants to dominate the rest with their views...."

The Rev. David M. Greenhaw, president of Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis, said he found the resolution "offensive as a Christian. I don't want the state defining my Christianity."

Some non-Christians also reacted strongly. Batya Abramson-Goldstein, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council, said the fact that the resolution made it out of a committee was significant.

"It's not that this is one individual's opinion," she said. "Other legislators have voted on this already, so it takes on a legitimacy that makes it more than a resolution. It's painful for faith communities outside the Christian community."

The three people quoted in this segment of the article are all people I am familiar with and respect deeply from my time at Eden Theological Seminary.  Missouri is fortunate to have many religious leaders committed to religious pluralism and the Constitutional protection of the freedom to worship.

Who is in favor of the law?

The Rev. Mark Friz, senior pastor at St. Paul's Evangelical Church in St. Louis, said he was "100 percent behind this resolution."

If you read The Rev. Dr. John Dorhauer's series of columns at Talk to Action about how groups like the Republican Party aligned - Institute on Religion and Democracy and their affiliate Biblical Witness Fellowship are seeking to undermine United Church of Christ congregations you'll remember that Friz "speaks across the Mid-West to UCC churches, teaching them tactically how to complete a takeover of their church, and speaking also about why he feels it is necessary and appropriate for them to do so."

The Missouri legislature is keeping bad company and undermining democratic values.

Rep. David Sater, R-Cassville and Rep. Barney Joe Fisher, R-Richards are the co-sponsors of the resolution.  Feel free to send them a polite message affirming your respect for the Constitution and opposition to their resolution.   

Roland X has more on Street Prophets.

Rabbi Michael Lerner In Portland (And On State of Belief)

While the rest of America was gathered around their television sets to watch The Oscars a few hundred of us in Portland, Oregon met at First Congregational United Church of Christ to hear Rabbi Michael Lerner discuss his new book The Left Hand of God.  Rabbi Lerner spoke for an hour and a half and then stayed to answer questions and sign books. 

Since I haven't yet read this book I cannot offer a review.  But what I will say is that he spoke with great strength tonight about the need for progressive religious people to work with secular progressive groups on issues of common concern.  I fully agreed with Rabbi Lerner that there are many in the political left who would feel religious people and religion itself should have no place at table. 

So check out the book and visit the website of his new group:  Network of Spiritual Progressives.

As always, Rabbi Lerner is doing good and important work.   

He was also a guest today on State of Belief - Air America's religion program.  You can hear the podcast tomorrow from their web site or via iTunes. 

I'll write a more lengthily review of the book after I've read it.

Anyone tape The Oscars?  How'd Jon Stewart do?

"The Gospel vs. H.R. 4437"

How Christians respond to issues centered on immigration - particularly those operating social service programs - is an important issue.

Cardinal Roger Mahony of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles said this week he would call on his followers to commit civil disobedience if H.R. 4437 passes.

The New York Times said in an editorial (thanks to WWP for sending it along):

It has been a long time since this country heard a call to organized lawbreaking on this big a scale. Cardinal Roger Mahony of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the nation's largest, urged parishioners on Ash Wednesday to devote the 40 days of Lent to fasting, prayer and reflection on the need for humane reform of immigration laws. If current efforts in Congress make it a felony to shield or offer support to illegal immigrants, Cardinal Mahony said, he will instruct his priests -- and faithful lay Catholics -- to defy the law.

The cardinal's focus of concern is H.R. 4437, a bill sponsored by James Sensenbrenner Jr. of Wisconsin and Peter King of New York. This grab bag legislation, which was recently passed by the House, would expand the definition of "alien smuggling" in a way that could theoretically include working in a soup kitchen, driving a friend to a bus stop or caring for a neighbor's baby. Similar language appears in legislation being considered by the Senate this week.

The enormous influx of illegal immigrants and the lack of a coherent federal policy to handle it have prompted a jumble of responses by state and local governments, stirred the passions of the nativist fringe, and reinforced anxieties since 9/11. Cardinal Mahony's defiance adds a moral dimension to what has largely been a debate about politics and economics. "As his disciples, we are called to attend to the last, littlest, lowest and least in society and in the church," he said.

The cardinal is right to argue that the government has no place criminalizing the charitable impulses of private institutions like his, whose mission is to help people with no questions asked. The Los Angeles Archdiocese, like other religious organizations across the country, runs a vast network of social service programs offering food and emergency shelter, child care, aid to immigrants and refugees, counseling services, and computer and job training. Through Catholic Charities and local parishes, the church is frequently the help of last resort for illegal immigrants in need. It should not be made an arm of the immigration police as well.

Church World Service and other Protestant groups have also spoken out against the legislation. 

Click here to send a message to your representative that you oppose this bill.

Read the Cardinal's Lenten message.

Related Link:  Welcoming The Stranger

Guest Post from The Rev. Carlton W. Veazey: "Tooley's Rant Insults Us All"

This guest post was written by The Rev. Carlton W. Veazey in response to an article written by Mark Tooley of the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) in the National Review.  IRD is an organization funded by secular activists aligned with far right political groups.

By Rev. Carlton W. Veazey
President and CEO, Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice

A bizarrely titled article on the National Review website, "Aborting Churches/Unholy death warrants," makes a number of inaccurate and misleading statements that must be corrected. Typically RCRC does not comment on writings by the author of this article, a former CIA agent named Mark Tooley who now works for an organization called the Institute for Religion and Democracy, but this time he's gone too far.

In case readers are not acquainted with IRD, it is a non-elected, non-representative group of individuals funded by big right-wing donors. Despite its noble title, IRD aims to effect a fundamentalist takeover of the mainline Protestant denominations, using abortion and other sensitive matters as wedge issues to stir up discord. Tooley has repeatedly and unsuccessfully tried to force the denominations to leave the Coalition by mischaracterizing our views, as he continues to do in this article:

Tooley says that RCRC is "absolutist" in rejecting restrictions on abortion. Actually, RCRC is a 33-year-old interfaith coalition of religious and religiously affiliated organizations from 15 denominations and traditions with diverse views on abortion. Our members agree on two foundational principles: 1) reproductive choice is consistent with the traditions and beliefs of each member group and 2) in a pluralistic society such as ours, government has the responsibility to protect diverse religious views, not impose laws based on any one belief. Along with most religions, the Coalition communicates the grave moral nature of abortion. Rather than condemn those who contemplate abortion, we offer information and resources to help individuals and families who struggle with complex moral issues. 

Tooley is confused about RCRC's views on two specific issues. First, he says that laws mandating parental notification and consent are merely "sensible restrictions." Many authorities have pointed out that these laws have been harmful to the most vulnerable teens, including those who became pregnant because of incest and rape and those with abusive families. Accordingly, RCRC opposes mandating family communications while at the same time actively encouraging parents and teens to discuss sexuality issues openly and voluntarily, to prevent an unintended pregnancy and the possible need for an abortion. Second, he is correct that the Coalition has opposed bans on specific abortion procedures but fails to say that we do so because we do not want politicians making medical decisions and we know that "partial-birth abortion ban" legislation is a precursor to outlawing all abortions. Regarding late-term abortion, our Board of Directors passed a policy position in March 1982 advising that this issue should be left to the individual member groups.

Tooley's final and presumably most damning accusation--that mainline churches are declining in numbers because members have abortions--also is factually wrong and logically flawed. Women of all religions have abortions. According to data from the authoritative Guttmacher Institute, 43% of women obtaining abortions identify themselves as Protestant, and 27% identify themselves as Catholic. Ideological certitude is no excuse for failing to do your homework.

It would be naïve to think that Mark Tooley and the Institute on Religion and Democracy are concerned about pregnancy and abortion, let alone women's lives. The IRD is part of a larger movement in American politics and culture that happily uses abortion--and other personal issues--to agitate and rally people to their cause. The mainline churches have been models of compassionate, respectful, and thoughtful discernment about human reproductive issues (Tooley dismisses this as being "ambivalent") and have assiduously sought to be inclusive of the diverse views of their members. It would be tragic if that changed.   

Ave Maria: Domino's Pizza Founder Wants Taliban-style Theocracy In Flordia

The AP reports today that a new Florida town hopes to be founded on "Christian law":

If Domino's Pizza founder Thomas S. Monaghan has his way, a new town being built in Florida will be governed according to strict Roman Catholic principles, with no place to get an abortion, pornography or birth control.

The pizza magnate is bankrolling the project with at least $250 million and calls it "God's will."

Civil libertarians say the plan is unconstitutional and are threatening to sue.

The town of Ave Maria is being constructed around Ave Maria University, the first Catholic university to be built in the United States in about 40 years. Both are set to open next year about 25 miles east of Naples in southwestern Florida.

The town and the university, developed in partnership with the Barron Collier Co., an agricultural and real estate business, will be set on 5,000 acres with a European-inspired town center, a massive church and what planners call the largest crucifix in the nation, at nearly 65 feet tall. Monaghan envisions 11,000 homes and 20,000 residents.

Governor Jeb Bush attended the ground breaking for the project.  According to the AP:

Gov. Jeb Bush ... lauded the development as a new kind of town where faith and freedom will merge to create a community of like-minded citizens. Bush, a convert to Catholicism, did not speak specifically to the proposed restrictions.

You can only imagine the other laws Monaghan has planned for his experiment. 

The bottom-line:  Monaghan's town is based on fundamentally un-American values.  In Thomas Jefferson's America there is respect for pluralism and tolerance for differences.  Monaghan and his supporters are acting more like the Taliban than the heroes who built this nation.   

If Republicans like Bush are behind this effort it only reinforces a belief shared by many in this nation that the Republican Party has been hijacked by the Religious Right - a group of people opposed to basic ideals of democracy and bent on creating a theocracy here at home.    

Alito To Dobson: I Will Obey

US Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. in a personal thank you note to Religious Right icon James Dobson, leader of the radical group Focus on The Family:

….as long as I serve on the Supreme Court, I will keep in mind the trust that has been placed in me.."

Translation: “I will obey you, my master.”

Dobson helped organize support from Religious Right groups for President Bush’s nomination of Alito to the court.

Family Research Council: Poor People, War Not That Important

The Family Research Council’s Tom McClusky, responding to a statement issued by 55 Roman Catholic Democrats in the US House defending their faith, said in The Washington Post today:

"What is at the core of being Catholic is the life issue, and that's something the pope has never strayed from," he said. "While other issues are important -- such as helping the poor, the death penalty, views on war -- these are things that aren't tenets of the Catholic Church."

McClusky, a Roman Catholic himself, must have missed a few too many confirmation classes. The Catholic Alliance for the Common Good responded to his comments with this statement:

“Helping the poor has remained a basic principle of Catholic social ethics since the earliest days of our Church,” said Father Jim Hug, SJ, director of the Center of Concern and a Catholic Alliance participant. “Moreover, the Church’s present leadership has been unequivocal in its condemnation of the death penalty in the U.S., and has repeatedly expressed grave moral concerns over the Iraq War. It is disappointing that Mr. McClusky would use his position to suggest otherwise.” Mr. McClusky’s comments came as Pope Benedict XVI issued his message for Lent 2006, reflecting on “today’s rapidly changing world, in which our responsibility towards the poor emerges with ever greater clarity and urgency.” (MORE HERE)

“We believe that Mr. McClusky is wrong. He’s behind on 115 years of Catholic Social Teaching and 2000 years of gospel values.” said Sr. Simone Campbell SSS, National Coordinator for the Catholic social justice lobby organization NETWORK and a Catholic Alliance participant. “Obscuring the hopeful social message of the Catholic faith only serves to diminish the positive contributions our Church can make to a suffering world.”

Leave it to the Family Research Council to abandon the poor. They do it all the time.

Related Post: Roman Catholic Democrats Defend Their Faith

NCC's Bob Edgar To Visit Portland

The Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, will be in Portland this weekend. He’ll be preaching at Portland’s First United Methodist Church (1838 SW Jefferson) this Sunday at 10:30 am. On Friday, Rev. Edgar will be speaking before the Portland City Club. From their web site:

His career as politician-turned-pastor has been as diverse as his latest charge, namely leading the efforts of one of the country’s largest religious associations in areas ranging from women’s issues to the environment, from international concerns of the Muslim world to the influence of the media on the intersection of faith and politics. Join us on Mar. 3 when the Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar offers up an antidote for a nation caught up in “Fear, Fundamentalism and Fox-TV.”

Edgar is general secretary of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, an association of 35 Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, historically African-American and peace communions. An ordained elder in the United Methodist Church, Edgar came to the Council from California's Claremont School of Theology, where he was president from 1990-2000. Prior to that, Edgar served six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he was the first Democrat in more than 120 years to be elected from the heavily Republican Seventh District of Pennsylvania. His election and service demonstrated the bipartisan, ecumenical quality that has marked his whole life and ministry. Serving in Congress from 1974 to 1987, he led efforts to improve public transportation, authored the community Right to Know provisions of Super Fund legislation and co-authored the new GI bill for the all-volunteer service. Among other appointments, he served as chair of the Congressional Clearinghouse on the Future and as a member of the Select Committee on Assassinations that investigated the deaths of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and President John F. Kennedy. In 1987, true to his belief in term limits, he voluntarily stepped down from office.

An active volunteer, Edgar serves on the boards of several organizations, including Independent Sector, National Coalition for Health Care, Common Cause and National Religious Partnership for the Environment. He also serves on the board of directors of the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, an independent, nonprofit organization that is a principal resource for Congress on environmental and energy issues.

Click here for all the details.

Related Post:  Podcast Interview With Bob Edgar: The National Council Of Churches Urges An Increase in The Minimum Wage 

Related Post:  The Rev. Dr. Robert Edgar Talks About The National Council Of Churches, Iraq, and Voter Registration

Note To Paul Allen: No Way

Billionaire Paul Allen wants the city of Portland to bail out his troubled Trail Blazers. My position is the same as it was in the 1990s when Allen asked for financial help from the city to build the Rose Garden: we don’t have the public resources to help billionaires make extra billions.

Related Post: Baseball Vs Housing