{"id":1617,"date":"2011-08-21T10:51:36","date_gmt":"2011-08-21T14:51:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/08\/alabama-bishops-criticize-alecs-immigration-law.html"},"modified":"2011-08-21T10:51:36","modified_gmt":"2011-08-21T14:51:36","slug":"alabama-bishops-criticize-alecs-immigration-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/08\/alabama-bishops-criticize-alecs-immigration-law.html","title":{"rendered":"Alabama bishops criticize ALEC’s immigration law"},"content":{"rendered":"Some churches actually speak in public on what they profess to believe.\n

\nCampbell Robertson wrote for the New York Times 13 August 2011,\n\nBishops Criticize Tough Alabama Immigration Law<\/a>\n

\n
\n\n<\/a>\n
\n\nJosh Anderson for the New York Times\n<\/small>\n<\/td><\/tr><\/table>\nCULLMAN, Ala. —On a sofa in the hallway of his office here,\n\nMitchell Williams, the pastor of First United Methodist Church,<\/a>\nannounced that he was going to\nbreak the law. He is not the only church leader making such a declaration\nthese days.\n

\nSince June, when Gov. Robert Bentley, a Republican, signed an immigration\nenforcement law called the toughest in the country by critics and\nsupporters alike, the opposition has been vocal and unceasing.\n

\nThousands of protesters have marched. Anxious farmers\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

\nand contractors have\npersonally confronted their lawmakers. The American Civil Liberties Union\nand other civil rights groups have sued, and have been backed by a list\nof groups including teachers’ unions and 16 foreign countries. Several\ncounty sheriffs, who will have to enforce parts of the new law, have\nfiled affidavits supporting the legal challenges.\n

\nOn Aug. 1, the Justice Department joined the fray, contending, as in a\nsimilar suit in Arizona, that the state law pre-empts federal authority\nto administer and enforce immigration laws.\n

\nAnd on that same day, four bishops sued.\n

\nAn Episcopal bishop, a Methodist bishop and a Roman Catholic archbishop\nand bishop, all based in Alabama, sued on the basis that the new statute\nviolated their right to free exercise of religion, arguing that it would\n“make it a crime to follow God’s command to be Good Samaritans.”\n<\/blockquote>\nAre there any churches in Georgia that have the courage of their convictions?\n

\nHow about any churches in Lowndes County brave enough to oppose\na CCA private prison in Lowndes County?\nWouldn’t that tax money be better spent rehabilitating former prisoners\nand educating our children?\n

\n-jsq\n

PS: Owed to Jane Osborn.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some churches actually speak in public on what they profess to believe. Campbell Robertson wrote for the New York Times 13 August 2011, Bishops Criticize Tough Alabama Immigration Law Josh Anderson for the New York Times CULLMAN, Ala. —On a sofa in the hallway of his office here, Mitchell Williams, the pastor of First United […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97,140,1113,48,40,15,1381,72,1908,178],"tags":[8759,8744,3920,8817,3918,8705,8701,3917,8730,2475,7,3919,2712,8846,8749],"class_list":["post-1617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-alec","category-cca","category-code-enforcement","category-community","category-education","category-immigration","category-incarceration","category-religion","category-vlcia","tag-alabama","tag-alec","tag-catholic","tag-cca","tag-cullman","tag-education","tag-georgia","tag-good-samaritan","tag-incarceration","tag-lawsuit","tag-lowndes-county","tag-methodist","tag-rehabilitation","tag-religion","tag-vlcia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-q5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1617\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}