The “New Sanctuary Movement” in mainline Protestant churches
First of all, can we change the misleading term “mainline Protestant” denominations? They’re not really that “mainline” anymore. They built ugly churches and began regarding the Bible as optional, and as a result they’re dwindling away like the Church of England. I like “sideline Protestants”, but I’m open to suggestions.
Anyway, the latest inspiration for the sideline Protestants is their new Magdalene, Elvira Arellano. Today the Washington Times has published a report on this “New Sanctuary Movement” that Arellano inspired.
I’ll let you read the whole irritating thing, but let me draw your attention to this detail at the end: the whole movement hinges on a single legal loophole, one that could quite easily be closed by an interested Congress:
Although sheltering illegal immigrants is a felony, sanctuary organizers said in interviews that they had found a loophole in the law: They inform the local ICE office about an immigrant’s presence, thereby evading any charge of secretly harboring fugitives.
Shouldn’t openly harboring fugitives be a crime as well?
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{Post by See-Dubya}
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Categories: Asylum, Open Borders Lobby, Sanctuary Cities
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So if I call the police and tell them I going to be speeding on I80 I am absolved of all penalties and consequences? What a country!!!
I am so sick of these law breakers and their sympathizers/enablers!
My 8 year old daughter, who has a congenital heart defect BTW, is being tested for TB.
We live in the Houston area.
I am so ticked off and frightened right now I can hardly breathe.
Prayers for a negative test would be appreciated.
Now I’m off to write another politically incorrect letter to Kay Bailey…as ineffective as it is.
Yes, but just like many other laws on the books – the issue is with enforcing of the law. I’d personally like to do away with secretly and openly. Harboring a fugitive is a crime. No aiding or abetting. Period. You do so… it’s slammer time.
.
And as congregations seem to put more emphasis on themes such as shamnesty and glowbull warming than what should be their primary goal, and tending to substitute entertainment and 5-minute PC soundbites in place of meaningful teaching – maybe the term should be “Sideshow Protestants”
you’ll be happy to know it is, in fact against the law, CW
http://definitions.uslegal.com/h/harboring-a-fugitive/
i guess it depends on the state law, but the burden for proof is displayed on the link. a google search for harboring fugitive laws by state would be more detailed.
why these people arent arrested, and those harboring them not dealt with, is beyond me. i know none of us could brazenly break the law and then expect no repercussions from it.
PP, You got it. Prayers all around.
Well, if this is the case churches can let any felon in? How many drug dealers, murders, etc. get a haven at a church if they inform the cops the felons are there? Those people can stay as long as I’m sure illegals intend to stay. I don’t think our dear gov. will close this loop-hole. They haven’t done squat so far. Is there some thing the IRS can do about the tax exempt state of these churches?
L
Certainly not the first time that people have used religion to their advantage. There’s a reason that one of the more powerful combatants on a chess board is a bishop…
Does that make it right? Of course not.
Can we do anything to stop it? Eventually.
We’re probably going to need a new political party, since the current Republican party is such an abject failure. There’s not a chance that our congress of losers will do anything about this.
Let’s send as many illegals their way as possible. Maybe they’ll start losing money as fast as the NY Times. They may call it sanctuary, but we can call it detention or home confinement. Either way, tax payers don’t have to support it with tax money, and we can deport them if they leave the sanctuary.
Good one see-dub.
I think Protestant in Name Only (PINO)would work well (or maybe PINKO?). Whether they’re Christian or not is out of my jurisdiction.
The NT is real clear that God appoints leaders over us and that we need to follow the laws of the land. Breaking the law to harbor a lawbreaker under the guise of social justice seems a little outside the lines.
I am a UCC brat and some (a few) of the UCC churches have remained faithful to the gospel. The small town mainline churches that forsake the gospel for social justice have largely become empty tombs. They’ve given up saving souls for political action and do poorly at both.
if their solution to breaking the law is to notify the authorities, why not designate a team to follow up on these calls post haste?
This is what you get when you do enforce the law and allow churches to over-ride national law.
do should be do not. sorry
PP, Yes prayers for your daughter. TB is getting to be a problem down here in S TX also.
L
i prefer a more casual name for these ‘religious’ types “half-assed-when-it-suits-me Christians”
Hey, Michelle,
How ’bout Protestant Lite?
I do believe a new party is needed! A law and order party. I’m opposed to law breakers no matter what their ethnicity. Justice is supposed to be blind to race, color, creed, etc, she is NOT supposed to be blind to law breakers!!!
how about deceivers? I wouldn’t call them christians by any stretch.
actually it is. we’re supposed to judge within the church. just like we don’t call mormons ‘christians’ why call a bunch of left-wing wackos who don’t believe in the deity of christ, the resurrection, etc?
So if a child molester is in sunday school, then they call the cops and then it’s okay too?
hope someone has a case of TB and will need the church closed down..
Uh-huh, the Republican party is responsible for mainline protestant churches harboring illegal aliens …. so we need a new party. Because the Republican party is doing nothing to stop churches from harboring illegal aliens.
Gotcha.
The above article is why I don’t give to churches. They aren’t about Jesus anymore, its about money and power.
Take away the tax exempt status of the Church for breaking laws and playing politics. That should end their law breaking.
Oh yes while i’m at it, are these tax-exempt facilities going to pay for the person they are trying to smuggle in??
Right4 – I’m not going to jack the thread, but discernment differs from judgement and my point was judging whether they are in Christ. Since I was speaking about the broad membership of mainline demoninations, it would be prejudicial to conlcude all are unsaved. Only God knows.
its very sad. I was watching ‘mystery diagnosis’ on discovery health yesterday, and they had a case of an orthodox jewish boy having seizures. he had a spot in his brain that turned out to be a trichinosis tape worm, that you could only get from eating pork. but he never ate pork. turned out his family hired a ‘central american’ (probably illegal) alien to be their maid, and she had worms, and passed it by not washing her hands.
In this case they deserved it. but not in yours, may God have mercy on your daughter….
PP …
Your entire family is in my prayers … Hope things get better for your daughter …
Pulchritudinous Patriot our prayers as well that your daughter is shielded from another medical complication putting her at further risk. Besides the other crimes illegal invaders and those that provide aid and comfort to them we are now being subjected to diseases that have all, but been eradicated in this country courtesy until the presence of these unwelcome criminal invaders. These Protestant churches openly breaking the laws of this country deserve to have their tax free status revoked.
Sounds like a good first step.
The SA Express-Lib had a two part front page pander to these enablers of illegal aliens.this past weekend, lavishing praise on them for openly breaking the law.
wise_man,
Do you read the original posts, or just troll around the comments?
The issue here is less one about religion than it is about an insane interpretation of a federal law. If we had any leadership in the republican party, they’d close the absurd loophole that this whole charade is based upon.
I can type slower, if you’d like…
Hmmm…. running into a church and claiming sanctuary . Didn’t I read about this before? Oh yeah, in Victor Hugo’s book “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”.
Are we living in the middle ages?? Does the church sanctuary law apply to ALL criminals (like bank robbers, kidnappers, etc.)??
When you see Rev. Samuel Rodriguez Jr, (President, National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference) in bed with the democrats. What else can you say? Whores for the left wing? Nothing Reverend about that!
Either you are following Christ or you are following a political party agenda to get more illegals in your church? Which one is it NHCLC?
John Ansell, there’s the nail on the head.
If you break the law, you get arrested.
If you are a governor or mayor etc., and you break the law, arrest them.
Anyone who attempts to interfere arrest them.
If they try to do so violently, beat the hell out of them, and/or tase them, and arrest them.
If you insist on sanctuary cities and the like, you arrest those officials, and you take away that city/state’s federal funding.
As John said, if it’s a church or other such organization, and you wish to interfere in the state’s business and ability to inforce it’s laws, take away their tax advantages and arrest their officials.
Enough is enough. If we continue to allow this , it will get exponentially worse, and eventually will end only one way- with blood in the streets.
Booyah. My thoughts exactly.
I would say the ones harboring the fugitives…send them on a visit to the country in which the lawbreakers hail from, for 90 days. Bet that would solve a few problems. If the issue is bad, let them start a church there…and stay there.
You could be less of an annoying jerk. If you please.
Again, the republican party is not responsible for this. Using this as an another excuse to claim that the republican party should be scraped for some new party should and will be meet with an appropriate reply. In your case, my previous comments will do just fine.
I suspect many of these churches don’t have occupancy permits for lodging or guest houses. Check your local building and zoning departments, they aren’t as flexible in ignoring violations.
“The New Sanctuary Movement, putting the Protest in Protestant.”
Once AGAIN, folks, this ain’t 13th century France, and the concept of “Church Sanctuary” from the laws of the United States is null and void. Nab them all, including the preachers – who should be charged with harboring a fugitive felon.
How about “Wingnut Protestants”?
love2rumba I hear you! Any church that is politically active for the left is not a church for Christ. Their heart is where their treasure is as the Bible says. Power and Money is what is evident in these churches and not preaching the Word.
I encourage you to find a church that is has its priorities straight. To serve the Lord and not a political party or agenda.
Wise advice amongst so much mud-slinging.
And if you want to start arresting people for harboring illegal aliens you could take out the entire government in San Francisco in one fell swoop (along with countless other “sanctuary cities”). I’d actually pay to see that. Anyone who harbors a fugitive is subject to the penalties for it, but when you have local, state, and even national government contradicting itself on it’s own laws and how to enforce them nothing is ever going to get done.
That’s fine- they notified ICE, which is in keeping with the law. Unless they are stopping ICE from apprehending the illegal, they are doing nothing wrong.
ICE needs to go in and apprehend these people without delay; it is as simple as that.
Have you heard of Congressman Tom Tancrecdo (R-CO)?
AFAIK the law says “harboring a fugitive”, and makes no distinction of whether it be secretly or openly.
We should have stopped handling churches with kid gloves long ago. Any organization that attempts to manipulate our national policies, influence elections, protect criminals, etc. does not deserve tax exemption or any other considerations. Revoke their tax exempt status, ignore their sanctuary claims, and jail the preachers, priests, fathers, etc. who break the law or facilitate law breakers.
As pointed out, and there are other examples, we have people who could lead us.
Its getting people to follow the leaders on the other hand, that seems to be the challenge.
Bhishma,re: “Have you heard of Congressman Tom Tancrecdo (R-CO)?”
Yes I
canhave.He was the only politician I have EVER sent money to… I was really behind him, too bad he punked out.
I could forgive in 2012 if we still have a country & are still allowed to vote.
Do you all think our fore fathers would of allowed these groups to operate like this!?
NEVER!
what to do..what to do..
Call in local officials who would be happy to do the PC thing and shut down the church… but if the church is harboring ILlegal immigrants, that might be the catch-22 to make blook gush out of their eyes..
I have an idea,
OBEY THE F’ing LAW
Illegal Invaders break our laws and wave their Mexican flag in my face, and that’s o.k.. Yet if a vet flies his American Flag, he faces jail.
McCain, you need to step up or step aside.
Oops, that’s faces lawsuit, not jail. Still just as sick.
Best argument lately for removing the tax exempt status from all churches, cults and such.
No more Sanctuary Cities or Churches. Period!
This is becoming an epidemic of lawbreaking and the taxpayers take the hit for the tolerance and casual attitudes that are “policy” from folks that believe that they are above the law of the land.
No tax exempt status for churches and no more federal funds to sanctuary cities.
Either enforce all of the law for every entity and person or throw out all of the laws and let the chips fall where they may.
My religion taught me respect for law and order early on. My sense of being American taught me that a nation with no borders has no sovereignty or any hope for continued existence.
PS: Don’t give me any lectures on Human Rights. With no respect for laws there is no right to anything!
CINOs: Christians In Name Only. Jesus optional.
I would point out something i think is funny…
The picture for the blog entry says “Who would Jesus deport?”
I would answer that as:
You, and all your illegal friends. Adios, amigos!
just saying
Let’s see:
Mainlining Churches
Sideline Churches
Sidetracked Churches
Trainwreck Churches
This is fun!
My Dad was a deacon in our church when I was growing up. If our Pastor had ever tried harboring a criminal, he would have called for an exorcism. Right after he called INS of course.
How many more will it take? Does anybody have an answer to that?
For years my family attended a well-respected Epicopalian church. One day, out of the blue, a new priest asked us to contact our representatives because English as a Second Language programs were not being expanded as much as the sponsors wanted.
It was a “What would Jesus do?” moment. I did what Jesus would have done…I left and never returned to that church. I don’t think Jesus would approve of using the pulpet to push a political agenda.
I also don’t think Jesus would approve of the Church being hijacked by law breakers.
It amazes me that the pope and Catholics would lecture us about illegals and letting them cross our border, yet the Vatican would not allow them to flow over their borders and move into Michangeleo’s Chapel.
Any church that openly violates federal law should be stripped of non-profit status and treated as any other corporation. Religion is not meant to be used to subvert the law.
I swear I quit going to the Methodist Church in large part because of Elvira. Religion should not be used as a shelter from the state. . . NO RELIGION should be used as an excuse to break the law (unless you are a weed smoking Rasta – but they should change that law anyway).
ThackerAgency at 7:55 PM;
That about sums it up. I long ago tired of the catholic church and their hypocrisy. I continue to be disgusted by them today; always telling everyone how they should do things, while their own home remains a mess.
The San Antonio Express-News had a two-part story on the santuary movement this past weekend. Interestingly enough, they are NOT supported by the Archbishop which is actually from Mexico. He feels that the church should not disobey the law. Too bad some of his followers do not agree.
I don’t think the entire Methodist (or any other denomination) Church should be condemned for the actions of some of the churches.
I grew up in a small Methodist church in the country and never once remember a message that was political. All sermons were bible based and ranged from love to the hellfire-and-brimestone. Except for a few visits (weddings & funerals mostly) I haven’t attended that church since 1986 because of military commitments, but I do visit my father regularly, who still attends, and I guarantee that I would hear if that church has changed it’s practices.
I could never imagine the members of this church harboring an illegal alien or any other criminal.
That’s just the way I see it.
If these Christians wanted to make a real difference in these people’s lives, then they should try going to them in Mexico (the origin of most illegal immigrants) and witnessing to them by helping them with their needs there. The people will no longer have a reason to uproot to come here looking for opportunity, and, hopefully, will come to know the Lord that way.
Sure, give the person a sandwich, but the best thing for an illegal alien, and the citizens of this country, is for these illegal immigrants to go back home. Don’t give them a job. Don’t rent them a house. Don’t give them a home in your basement or church. Think beyond the one hour it takes you to watch American Idol. Give a mouse a cookie…
Do we have a separation of church and state in this country or don’t we? Or is it only separation of church and state for some groups but not for others (e.g., mainline Protestants and liberal Catholics who vote Dem)?
Never mind. I think I answered my own question.
And TN Dave — the problem you cite with blaming all Methodists exits in all the “mainline” denominations. There’s no doubt there are still faithful Christians among their members. But for decades those same people continued to dole out the offerings that paid for the leaders who espoused and supported values contrary to theirs. For that, I do blame them, and now, it’s probably too late for them to take back their denominations. Forty years ago, (when the Methodists were the largest Protestant denomination in the country) my dh’s family filled an entire pew at their small town UMC. Today, every single last member of his family — his parents, siblings, nieces, nephews, him — has left the UMC for more conservative denominations. I don’t know if there are enough non-leftists left in the “mainline” anymore to rescue them.
Maybe they should be called the “mainleft” denominations — because most everyone who wasn’t leftist left, and most everyone left is leftist.
How about “faux Protestants?”
“…began regarding the Bible as optional.”
Like this?
“Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt.” (Exodus 22:21)
“Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt.” (Exodus 23:9)
“Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the slave born in your household, and the alien as well, may be refreshed.” (Exodus 23:12)
“Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God.” (Leviticus 19:10)
“When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.” (Leviticus 19:33-34)
“The community is to have the same rules for you and for the alien living among you; this is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. You and the alien shall be the same before the LORD: The same laws and regulations will apply both to you and to the alien living among you.” (Numbers 15:15-16)
It seems pretty clear to me that according to God’s law, aliens are not to be treated as second-class citizens.
Of course, under God’s law there are no such things as nationalism and protectionism, because “the land is mine (God’s) and you (humanity) are but aliens and my tenants.” (Leviticus 25:23)
I think the commenters here have confused Americanism (which is of human origin) with Divine will. But God is not a puppet to be manipulated for our own self interests.
It is also explicitly clear that the greatest commandments are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul. And to love your neighbor as yourself. You appear to be confusing compassion for aliens with supporting their illegal activities which are very clearly sinful behavior.
You twist scripture rather well to push an open borders stance. When you can show me where in the Bible it says that smuggling one’s self into a another country, lying to authorities, stealing SSN’s and identities from legal citizens is not sinful behavior then you may have a point. Last I checked just the mere few examples I just pointed out of many more that I didn’t point out breaks two of the 10 commandments for lying and stealing already. I’m sure God is just thrilled that these “aliens” are sinning over and over again just put themselves first regardless of the cost to their soul or this nation’s sovereignty.
Well, Mike, if you’d like to bring the Bible into this:
Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. – (Romans 13: 1-4)
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Sounds to me like violating the laws of a nation and crossing their borders illegally falls under that.
Did anyone page Mike Huckabee on this?
Shouldn’t openly harboring fugitives be a crime as well?
Then, the president/commander-in-chief is a criminal: http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/01/07/bush.immigration/
Any church that provides such cover and insists on doing things against the laws of our nation needs to have it’s tax exempt status removed and the leaders of such movements should be brought to prosecution.
As Christians we are to follow man’s laws unless they directly conflict with us being required to deny Christ. This is not even close to that scenario.
I think churches need to be scrutinized when they begin to cross lines such as this and not be called churches any longer nor be on tax payers dime by being tax exempt. I consider them an activist group then.