Health Care, Immigrants, and the Character of our Country - Jim Wallis and Allison Johnson
With an issue like health, deeply personal, but of great public concern, the faith community has a unique and important role to play — to define and raise the moral issues beneath the policy debate. One major moral issue that has surfaced is how we treat the immigrant in our society as we discuss and debate health-care reform.
‘Loving Thy Neighbor’: People of Faith Speak Out against Unjust Immigration Laws
A recent Center for American Progress report, “Loving Thy Neighbor: Immigration Reform and Communities of Faith,” revealed to the progressive political community what many in the faith community have known for quite some time: a social movement is emerging, led by people of faith, in support of compassionate and humane immigration reform.
Prayer Vigil at the Detention Center - Danny Carroll
I am a seminary professor. Activism is not something that comes naturally to me, but I am learning!
Even though I am half-Guatemalan and lived in Central America for 15 years before coming to Denver Seminary, attend a Hispanic church and started a Hispanic program at the seminary, and have written on immigration and speak regularly on the topic, getting involved in community action is new. Last evening was one of my first steps into that world. People I know and care about have been picked up unjustly, so I felt the need to move outside my comfort zone.
The Truth About Immigrants and Health-Care Reform
As town hall meetings continue to dominate the national news, I am increasingly frustrated when I hear how “illegal aliens” are draining our health-care resources.
When Local Police Do Immigration Enforcement, the Community Suffers - Julie Peeples
Two contrasting images recently brought into focus a growing chasm: a forty-something man in jeans and T-shirt squeezing the microphone at a community forum on immigration, face tight with anger as he invokes the words repeated so often these days, “What part of ‘illegal’ do you people not understand?!
Mr. Obama, Our Immigration Enforcement Policy Perpetuates Racial Profiling-- by Allison Johnson
While watching Barack Obama’s health care press conference last night, I wasn’t surprised when he took a question regarding the arrest and subsequent media uproar surrounding his good friend, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. An esteemed African-American studies professor at Harvard, Gates was arrested by Cambridge, MA, police after a neighbor called to report a supposed break-in by two black males. Turns out, Gates was struggling with a sticky lock on his own front door.
President Obama called the actions of the police officer "stupid" for arresting Gates in his own home. On racial profiling, he said the following:
"…I think we know separate and apart from this incident that there’s a long history in this country of African Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That’s just a fact."
Tags: African-American, arrest, Black, christians for comprehensive immigration reform, criminals, Department of Homeland Security, deportation, Diversity, henry louis gates, henry louis gates jr, immigration, immigration law, Latino, Latinos, Law Enforcement, leadership, police officer, President, President Obama, Race, racial, racial profiling
Let the Little Children Come: Scripture and the DREAM Act - by Matt Soerens
photo credit (c) ryan rodrick beiler
Throughout the Old Testament, we find God’s repeated command to care and look out for immigrants. As an immigrant people themselves, the people of Israel were mandated to remember their history and thus love the immigrant as themselves (Leviticus 19:33-34, Exodus 23:9). In the New Testament, Jesus talked about another vulnerable group who he vehemently insisted should be welcomed and protected: kids. “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me,” Jesus says (Mark 9:37), adding a harsh warning for anyone who would mess with kids: “If anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin,” he warned, “it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck” (Mark 9:42). Followers of Christ know that we need to watch out for children, guide them the best that we can, and learn from them how to follow our Lord.
Remarks by the President at the Esperanza National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast
Official White House Photographer Samantha Appleton.)
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Buenos días.
AUDIENCE: Buenos días.
Immigration Reform: The Time has Come -by Jim Wallis
The time has come for comprehensive immigration reform. After several failed attempts in past years, the president has promised it and the White House is showing a clear commitment to it. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said that it is one of his top three priorities for this year. Next week, the president will meet at the White House with congressional leadership on immigration reform. The debate on reform is moving and will only intensify.
New Hope in the Movement for Immigrant Rights - by Jimmy McCarty
This past Friday, May 1, 2009, I joined with thousands of others across the country in marching for immigrant and worker’s rights. I was part of the march that began in Echo Park in Los Angeles, went down Sunset Boulevard, and concluded in front of Our Lady of Queen Angeles Church near historic Olvera Street near downtown.
