Posted on 03/18/2006 9:19:19 AM PST by sanormal
In a tiny house on the West Side, two nuns provide a daily break for Mexican immigrant mothers struggling to raise families in a foreign culture.
The nuns teach English, computer skills and arts and crafts. They celebrate birthdays and invite residents to the local Catholic church for Masses. If requested, they give advice on applying for citizenship.
It's free. No questions asked. Not about religion. Not about legal status.
But the work of the 7-month-old Presentation Ministry Center and similar organizations could be in jeopardy, according to opponents of a bill approved by the U.S. House in December.
As part of a proposed overhaul of immigration law, the House wants to make it a crime for any individual or group to knowingly assist the nation's estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants.
Whether Catholic, Protestant, Jewish or Islamic, religious leaders say critical social services to the undocumented potentially could be reduced — if not stopped — should that part of the bill become law.
It could force them into a moral quandary: Obey civil law or God's mandate to show compassion to the poor.
Many religious leaders already have made their choice.
"If they want to put a bunch of priests and ministers in jail, then we're going to have to face the consequences," said Father Jim Loiacono, pastor of Our Lady of Refuge Catholic Church in Eagle Pass, four blocks from the Texas-Mexico border. "It's heartless because these are people who are so desperate there's no way we can turn them away."
(Excerpt) Read more at mysanantonio.com ...
"Illegal aliens are breaking the law. The moment they use any aspect of the infrastructure, they are thieves.
You are advocating treating thieves well."
Answer me this: If ever priest and nun reported every illegal alien they know about, how many of those illegals do you think would get deported? Let the enforcers of the law start enforcing the law. Then we can begin bothering about a bunch of nuns feeding people and teaching them English.
Don't expect priests and nuns to do law enforcement's job. You know, as well as I do, that these nuns could report these illegals every day, and none of them would be deported.
Who would clean the mayor's house? Who'd do the police chief's gardening. Who'd bus the District Attorney's table at the country club?
Congratulations on the STUPIDEST question ever posted on FR, troll.
Being inside the borders of the United States of America without proper authorization constitutes illegal entry. A person being so is an illegal alien.
Only a complete and total MORON would spout the DU talking point "no person is illegal" which we see from signs held by INVADERS FROM ANOTHER COUNTRY who have the INCREDIBLE AFFRONTERY to DEMAND "rights" for lawbreakers.
Go back to DU, troll.
Aparently you don't really wish to engage what the bible is saying about the subject without imposing a predetermined outcome to it. You point to minor distinctions which have no bearing on God's stated motives, warnings are the fact that the posistion of aliens is one all Christians are supposed to identify with in this world. The larger theological trends as well as the specfic words don't support a "throw them out" attitude.
I can understand an illegal act, however I cannot understand an illegal human. You might stop and think about my question before you kneejerk.
And when you do, explain why one person crossing a border is considered legal while another is not. What is the criteria?
This isn't about hiding persecuted people who might otherwise be murdered by a gov't so the moral position of these religious folks is undermined except for rendering necessary services like providing food to the starving or basic medical check-ups, etc. We *CAN* find a balance between these two things.
I don' t know why this is a concern, however, since SCOTUS already made it clear public schools must teach illegals which is no different (worse, even) than the English instruction the nun in this article is offering.
You didn't read my post. I admit that enforcement is behind. I also said it was all part of a fabric and this is part of that fabric. This is not linear -- if A happens then B -- but systemic.
Don't expect priests and nuns to do law enforcement's job. You know, as well as I do, that these nuns could report these illegals every day, and none of them would be deported.
A repeat of yout 1st pph. Nuns and priests are citizens and legally and morally bound to report criminals. What happens after that is irrelevant to their duty.
Who would clean the mayor's house? Who'd do the police chief's gardening. Who'd bus the District Attorney's table at the country club?
Legal residents authorized to work in the USA.
I served as vice-president of one of the largest pro-life organizations in the country, and you are wrong to equate abortion with illegal immigration. The Lord in both the Old and New Testaments has provided provided property rights for individuals and nations. You remind me of the liberal who wants to help others with other people's money, but will not give your own. You do not have the right to give to others that which is not your's.
You are dead wrong. The sojourner is fully subject to the laws of the nation in which he sojourns, and if he breaks those laws, then he forfits his rights. That clearly is the Biblcial position.
Are you obtuse on purpose? No one can be so stupid as to post the things you are posting -- not even Will Pitt!
*sigh*
To enter a country AND STAY AND WORK there legally, one must go through a process known as obtaining a permit or visa. You apply with the authorities of that country, pay the appropriate fee and wait for proper authorization and associated visa.
This is true throughout the world.
My wife had to come here with a K1 Visa. And she agrees with me.
Your opening statement shows you to be a flaming liberal. Your idea that "one person crossing the border is legal and another isn't" shows you are an open borders traitor.
I hope you can sleep with the deaths you are responsible for.
Traitor!
"Who would clean the mayor's house? Who'd do the police chief's gardening. Who'd bus the District Attorney's table at the country club?
Legal residents authorized to work in the USA."
Notice those nice passages apply to aliens, not illegal aliens. This country treats legal aliens better than any country on earth. Law-breakers are another matter.
Fine. Let the market decide. The LEGAL market.
This is one of the HUGE downsides of illegals -- artifically supressing wages.
We already know that the diffrerence between legal weged lettuce pickers and illegals is a nickel a head. Compared to the aggregate drain on the economy, Illegal aliens are a NET MINUS to the tune of BILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year.
Better in so many ways to pay it all up front in wages. Anyone who can't see this is blind, deaf and stupid.
As long as those Nuns help people stay here, they are part of the problem. And they are resonsible for the deaths of people who died en route past closed hospitals.
Illegal immigration policy has no bearing to any of the scriptural passages used to support your position. It's not cruel, inhuman, or unjust to ask aliens to abide by the laws of the land they've chosen to invade. The question here is advocating that they be beaten, starved, killed, et c.,. They're just being escorted back to their country of birth. Mexico happens to be the 5th richest nation on earth. Sending them back is not cruel.
If they look at everything God has to say about thieves, it can be applied to illegals, too. Different picture, then. Especially when one realizes that not all illegals are mexicans. The arabs come to steal, kill, and destroy.
"As long as those Nuns help people stay here, they are part of the problem. And they are resonsible for the deaths of people who died en route past closed hospitals."
Yea, First God was for taking care of aliens in a foreign land, now he is not.
Don't agree with you on much else, but sometimes your out of context Bible quotations happen to make sense.
We are to love the sojourners (aliens), with God's love, they do not have special privileges over those who are obeying the laws.
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