Posted on 05/27/2010 2:13:24 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
A Phoenix-based youth pastor is worried that his ministry could face legal troubles under Arizona’s new immigration law.
“We don’t ask people for their documents to come hear about Jesus,” said Ian Danley, youth pastor at Neighborhood Ministries, during a conference call with immigration reform advocates Wednesday afternoon.
The evangelical pastor said regular ministry work, such as driving teens to worship events, could be “criminalized” under the new Arizona law if a church worker knowingly transports youths who are illegally residing in the United States.
“The local community here feels under attack,” Danley said. “Recent high school graduates in my youth group are looking at what should be a bright future with little hope.”
Danley was among a group of Christian leaders, businessman, researcher, and policy experts that spoke during the Conservatives for Comprehensive Immigration Reform conference call. The leaders updated participants on how the Arizona immigration law has affected local residents and the national public opinion about comprehensive immigration reform, and how members of Congress feel about taking up the issue.
In April, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed SB1070 – an immigration bill seeking the toughest laws against illegal immigrants in the nation.
Under the legislation, immigrants in Arizona are required to carry their alien registration documents at all times or face possible arrest. State police are given the power to interrogate, arrest and charge people suspected of illegally entering the country. And people are prohibited from knowingly transporting illegal immigrants.
Christian groups and leaders across the political and theological spectrum have strongly denounced the new Arizona law.
Earlier in May, conservative evangelical leaders – including Southern Baptist leader Richard Land, National Association of Evangelicals president Leith Anderson, and Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver – endorsed an ad published in “Roll Call” urging Congress to pass immigration reform.
Faith communities throughout the nation – soon after Arizona passed its new immigration law – held prayer vigils to call on Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform.
Presently, as many as 17 states are considering to pass Arizona-type immigration law.
“We sympathize with so many who are frustrated in Arizona. But the solution is not piecemeal enforcement that targets Latino,” said the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. “We need a better solution to make us all safe.”
To Republican lawmakers, Rodriguez said true conservatism is not preserving the white majority but propagating the ideas of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
According to a recent national survey by Public Religion Research Institute, 56 percent of the American public oppose efforts to deport illegal immigrants back to their home countries. The survey also found that three-quarters of Americans agree that, given the opportunity, illegal immigrants would work hard to earn a chance at citizenship.
They must have heard about Jesus somewhere because so many are named after him.
I heartell that Jesus exists in Mexico too. Show them the way Pastor, the direction is SOUTH.
Your analogy is flawed. No one is persecuting Mexicans. The US has a reasonable and just immigration law. It needs to be enforced. Superficial, feel-good Christians think they are being pious by helping people to break a just and reasonable law.
And Mexicans come her thinking they have a right to other people's hard earned money through welfare or just showing up at a hospital and expect others to pick up the tab. In addition there is the vast amount of crime Mexicans are committing, from petty theft to rape to murder. I think it would be getter if Mexicans began to respect the just laws of this land. And better yet if they returned to Mexico and worked to make the hell-hole they came from a better and more just place to live in.
Our immigration laws are perfectly reasonable. The illegal immigration problem has been allowed to get totally out of control due to a deliberate lack of federal enforcement. The new Arizona law that this man is so worried about is hardly draconian and as many have noted, simply mirrors federal immigration law in many respects.
If Ian Danley is working with and transporting people he knows are here illegally, he should simply stop. I suspect that Mr. Danley has chosen to minister to illegal aliens. That is his choice and I'm sure he feels morally justified in doing it. However, the Arizona law in question is hardly unjust and Danley is wrong to consistently break it based on some misplaced empathy for those that chose to enter and reside in the U.S. illegally. His concerns are misguided and based on a flawed moral premise.
And I’ve never heard of the police pulling people off the church bus and handing them over to ICE. Again, when it happens, get back to me.
Mexico is in the process of imploding. There was never a better time for churches to partner with Mexican churches and to seed and grow churches in Mexico, most especially if your town is within a couple hours of the border. Mexico has become a mission field. You probably have people in your congregation capable of being your Mexico team, or teams plural.
And when and if members of your congregation get deported, or members of their family are deported, again, this is another opportunity to use that to advantage, helping them get re-situated in their home town and then through them working to start a congregation in that area.
The law is not unjust, it is not unlike similar laws the world over.
When did men of the cloth stop being willing to go to jail for what they believe? Or could it be that these guys really don’t believe what they are doing is “the right thing to do” in spite of the law.
Oh, you mean they just don’t want to follow Saint Paul’s example and go to jail?
If you can't do the time, don't do the crime.
I don't care what costume the lawbreakers are hiding behind; if they are breaking the law, which they obviously intend to do, they need to be prosecuted.
He shouldn't have to. That little detail should have been taken care of already at the border/entry point.
That's why some people in the Bible are commended for breaking certain laws (e.g. the Egyptian midwives.)
They need to quit whining and build a church in Mexico.
Oops, I see you answered that question. Glad to see we both had the same answer!
Just think, Reverend, you’ll be able to evangelize to plenty of people in jail when you get there.
Ping!
“Under the legislation, immigrants in Arizona are required to carry their alien registration documents at all times or face possible arrest”
This ‘reporter’ needs to check 8 USC 1034(e) resident aliens are required to carry thier I-511 (green card) at all time.
Been that way since, what, 1940?
Arrest them and strip them of their tax exempt status.
The churches helping illegals break the law say they have a right to disobey the law. Christians do not have a right to disobey the law in this land. They have to right to change it if they can.
That’s what I meant. I don’t find any room for personal definition of “unjust” laws, only disobedience of laws that obviously impede obeying God, and there is certainly no commandment or example in Scripture that justifies aiding foreign invasion or the coveting and theft of another nation’s prosperity.
If the innocent go to prison, then God will repay. The innocent in Christ are more than willing to suffer indignity, because they know their justice will be 100-fold. The fact that this guy is trying to cash in while avoiding trouble is all the proof you need that he is a flim-flam.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.