Welcoming the Strangerby Jeff Carr
(excerpt)
When was the last time you heard a Catholic cardinal calling his flock to civil disobedience? That's what Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony did in his Lenten message, urging his people to make room "for the stranger in our midst, praying for the courage and strength to offer our spiritual and pastoral ministry to all who come to us." The strangers to whom he was referring are the estimated 11.5 to 12 million undocumented immigrants living on the margins of our society.
The simmering immigration debate heated up this past week, as the Senate Judiciary Committee began to discuss a bill by Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) to reform immigration laws and create a guest worker program. This comes on the heels of a bill passed in December by the House (H.R. 4437) focusing primarily on how to secure our borders from undocumented migrants, mostly from Mexico and other Latin American countries. Much of the debate up to this point has been focused on border security, the job market, and political bargaining. All that changed, however, when Mahony added the moral dimension to the debate.
He and many other religious leaders are particularly concerned about a provision in H.R. 4437 (also in Specter's bill) that would impose sanctions on anyone who assists undocumented immigrants in remaining in the U.S. If enacted into law, this bill would criminalize social service workers and others who provide compassionate or humanitarian aid to undocumented people, including churches and faith-based organizations. The crime would be a felony, potentially punishable by stiff fines and up to five years in prison. According to the Los Angeles Times, Mahony said that if Congress passes the bill, he will instruct the priests in his 288 parishes to defy the law in open civil disobedience.
(snip)
I hope Mahony would have room to welcome an evangelical Christian minister such as me to join him and his fellow priests in civil disobedience. It's time for people of faith to stand up on behalf of our immigrant brothers and sisters whom I am confident Jesus would have included when he said "I was a stranger and you welcomed me."
http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=sojomail.current_issue#4 
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