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March 21, 2008
 Easter Question: Which Church Is The Top Treason Lobbyist?
By Joe
Guzzardi
No matter which church you may attend on
Easter Sunday, you stand a high probability of hearing
a plea for "justice
for immigrants" —that’s a given. And you’ll also be
called upon from the pulpit to, against all logic, embrace more
immigration.
Accordingly, earlier this week I set out to determine which
major religious denomination, pound for pound, has the worst
pro-immigration record—members of the Treason Lobby, as we call
it here at VDARE.COM. I limited my search to
Roman Catholic as well as the
Lutheran and
Methodist Churches.
My secondary task was to find an official who represents one of
those religions but who is
also an immigration realist.
For pro-alien lobbying, the Catholic church (in which
I was raised) is by far the most the most
visible and notorious of the three. And well it should be,
with a flock of 68 million members. That total represents nearly
25 percent of the
world’s Catholic population.
From the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic,
Catholic immigration pandering has been non-stop for years.
Even the
relatively recent pedophilia scandals have barely slowed
down
Catholic immigration enthusiasm.
Over the last five years, Catholic
Cardinals—most prominently
Roger Cardinal Mahony, the Archbishop of Los Angeles—have
urged support for amnesty and have argued passionately against
immigration enforcement legislation.
Going one-step further to prove that no statement or action
endorsing immigration is too outrageous,
Mahony advocates
violating federal law when and if enforcement measures are
ever passed.
VDARE.COM writers have criticized Mahony with increasing disgust
as his advocacy for illegal immigrants has intensified and his
involvement in the pedophilia cover-ups have become more
obvious.
But Mahony is far from the only Catholic Cardinal voice for
aliens.
On the opposite coast,
New York’s Cardinal Edward M Egan was out front and center
(speaking
Spanish, no less) at the
Immigrant Workers’ Freedom Ride, an even orchestrated five
years ago and organized by dozens of open borders subversives
who predicted—100
percent incorrectly—that it would pressure Congress into
passing an amnesty.
Other urgent issues like the New York diocese’s financial crisis
have not distracted Egan, 75, from his illegal alien
fanaticism.[
At 75, A Battle Tested but Unwavering Cardinal, By
Michael Powell, New York Times, April 23, 2007]
Numbering about 15 million, about a quarter of the Catholic
flock, they’re fewer but equally determined.
In 2006, VDARE.COM contributor W. James Antle, III
exposed the Methodists and their "Open
Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors" policy, a transparent,
feel-good slogan that can be condensed to "Open Borders."
Including their "Global
Ministries", "Justice
for Our Neighbors" and "Hope
for Newcomers" programs, the Methodists’ commitment to
mass immigration is impressive to many—but not to us.
They don’t have as much muscle (only 8 million members) as
either the Catholics or the Methodists, but they’re tireless
fighters, especially on behalf of “refugees”. Our
Thomas Allen has written extensively about the refugee
racket
here.
The Lutherans always have a new wrinkle. The latest is its
New Sanctuary Movement described as "a national
immigrants' rights initiative by conscientious congregations
responding to unjust deportations…" and a force that "…addresses
the legal liabilities of providing sanctuary to undocumented
immigrants."
"Troubling" state and local laws aimed at immigration
enforcement concern the
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. To
assist in law breaking, the LIRS has prepared a
backgrounder, acknowledging and thanking "the
National Immigration Forum, the Mexican American Legal Defense
and Educational Fund, the National Council of La Raza, the
American Civil Liberties Union, and the National Immigration Law
Center for sharing their resources."
I got a close look at the
LIRS’s influence when I researched
my column on the Somali Bantu invasion of tiny Cayce, South
Carolina.
The local Lutheran coordinator for the Somalis, Rev. Richard
Robinson, called the Bantus’ arrival "a blessing," even
though few
Cayce non-Lutherans agreed with him.
How much of a "blessing" LIRS-sponsored immigration may
be depends on who you ask.
In 2004,
James Fulford in
his column linked the Lutherans, claiming to be "glorifying
God’s name" and that "the love of God is in our hearts,"
to slavery and rape .[James
Fulford writes: The actual acts of slavery and rape were,
of course, committed by
Albanian Gypsies—Lutherans
aren't into that sort of thing.]
Comparing their relatively small numbers versus their influence
on immigration policy in general and refugees in particular, I
therefore announce my "pound for pound" top Treason
Lobbyist...
The
Lutherans!
Battling individuals and organizations that
allegedly follow the Bible’s word while doing "God’s work"
is challenging. They purport to be on the high road while we the
"nativists,"
according
to them, reject the Lord’s message.
But the Catholics,
Methodists and Lutherans have distorted the truth to serve
their own specific agenda—mainly
money and
more people in the pews.
The religious arguments center on how people of faith should
treat the "sojourner," the catchall word they incorrectly
use to represent today’s immigrants.
To learn more about their imprecise use of
the Bible and its language—"the sojourner"—to
beat back immigration reform patriots, I contacted Ed Childress,
an ordained United Methodist elder and director of the
Homeless Programs of Fauquier County, Virginia. I had worked
with Childress when he was Deputy Director of
NumbersUSA.
Childress (e-mail
him) told me:
"I
would emphasize
again and again that ‘sojourner’ was a specific word for
temporary wanderer, not meant to include immigrants. And the
context of Biblical times, when ‘sojourner’ was used, was very
different than today’s context. It’s appropriate that the
citizens of a nation exercise oversight and stewardship of their
national resources—and that includes their border."
Several years ago, Childress wrote an article for the
Social Contract that included a five-point program on
how to faithfully follow the Bible’s "true prescriptions"
as they may relate to immigration. [The
Sojourner Argument—Churches and Immigration, By Ed
Childress, Social Contract, Spring 2001]
They are:
-
Foreigners in this country should be accorded the respect and
decency we owe to all people.
-
People who are genuine refugees and cannot be cared for
in proximity to their homes might be
temporarily relocated to other countries. The U.S. would
accept its fair share until they can safely return. Their
temporary stay makes it possible for other refugees to "sojourn"
here when necessary.
The willingness—even eagerness—of the major religions to twist
the Bible’s meaning shows that they, and not we, are the true
immigration extremists.
Joe Guzzardi [e-mail
him] is the Editor of VDARE.COM Letters to the Editor.
In addition, he is an English teacher at the Lodi Adult School and has
been writing
a weekly newspaper column since 1988. This column is exclusive
to
VDARE.COM. |
