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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — For some believers and church leaders,
opposing Alabama’s toughest-in-the-nation law against illegal
immigration is a chance for Bible Belt redemption.
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During the civil rights movement of the 1950s and `60s, many state
churches didn’t join the fight to end Jim Crow laws and racial
segregation. Some cross-burning Ku Klux Klan members took off their
hoods and sat in the pews with everyone else on Sunday mornings,
and relatively few white congregations actively opposed
segregation. Some black churches were hesitant to get involved for
fear of white backlash.
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Now that Alabama has passed what’s widely considered the nation’s
most restrictive state law against illegal immigration, mainstream
churches, faith-based organizations and individual members are
leading opposition to the act. Some see their involvement as a way
to avoid repeating mistakes of the past.
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“I think what happened in the `60s may be a stimulus for the action
that you have seen many of the churches taking on this,” said
Chriss H. Doss, an attorney and ordained Southern Baptist
minister.
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Matt Lacey, pastor of a United Methodist church once attended by
Birmingham’s infamous segregationist police commissioner Eugene
“Bull” Connor, said there are all sorts of reasons Alabama
Christians are opposed to the law. Making amends for the past
inaction of religious groups is among them, he said.
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“For me, as pastor of a church that was engaged in that battle, it
is very important,” said Lacey. “If we take redemption very
seriously, then it not only covers our sins but our past actions as
a church. I think for some, there is a tendency to want to be on
the side of right on this issue. … I would like to think the
church just wants to do what’s right.”
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At 56, the Rev. Al Garrett is old enough to recall some faith
communities sitting on the sidelines during the civil rights
movement. Garrett, who helped organize a prayer rally that drew a
few hundred people Sunday night in Huntsville, said the difference
now is uplifting.
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“I’ve thanked God that I’ve been here to see the way people of
faith are taking a stand on this,” he said.
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After a prayer for wisdom, members of the Birmingham City Council
recently passed a unanimous resolution calling for the repeal of
the law. That same day, ministers and lay people gathered to
discuss opposition to the law in the same church where, more than
50 years ago, white segregationists gathered to form a group to
oppose white and black children going to school
together.
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Urged to come to a rally and candlelight march sponsored by
churches and faith-based groups, a diverse crowd estimated around
2,000 marched quietly through downtown streets on a recent Saturday
night near where police dogs snapped at black demonstrators two
generations ago.
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An interfaith prayer walk planned for July 30 in Montgomery will
pass Martin Luther King Jr.’s first church on the way to the steps
of Alabama’s Capitol. And more than 100 United Methodist ministers
– many of them moderate to liberal, but some also on the
conservative side – signed an open letter to the governor
criticizing the law.
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Believers are doing more than praying and protesting. The
ecumenical Greater Birmingham Ministries, a Montgomery-area church
member who works with Hispanics and two ministers were among the
groups and individuals who filed a federal lawsuit last week
attempting to have the law declared unconstitutional.
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Doss is struck by the differences between 2011 and 1963, when the
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his “Letter from a Birmingham
Jail” to seven white moderate ministers and a rabbi who were
publicly urging him to go slower with the campaign to end legalized
segregation. Many black churches also were slow initially to
embrace the cause of civil rights in Birmingham, where Klan night
riders roamed with bombs for years.
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“There were a number of black ministers who took a more
conservative position, that they were not going to get involved
publicly. Their involvement greatly increased through the years,”
said Wayne Coleman, head of archives at the Birmingham Civil Rights
Institute.
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Churches had little to say about the bill as it moved through the
Alabama Legislature, but that could be because they were
overwhelmed for weeks providing food and other assistance to
victims of the deadly tornadoes that swept across the state on
April 27, killing more than 240 people.
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In contrast, denominational leaders were outspoken at the Georgia
General Assembly as a similarly tough law moved toward final
passage in Atlanta. Religious leaders have been less vocal in
Georgia since legislators passed the law, but a federal judge
blocked key provisions of that act this week.
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Now in Alabama, leaders among the state’s fast-growing Hispanic
community hope the involvement of churches will help lead to a
repeal of the law, signed earlier this month by Republican Gov.
Robert Bentley, a Southern Baptist deacon and Sunday school
teacher.
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“It’s huge to have the faith community come together and speak out
in such great numbers against this new law,” said Isabel Rubio,
executive director of the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama.
“Because we’re in the middle of the Bible Belt, we certainly expect
that the faith communities’ influence … will land on folks’ ears
who are willing to listen.”
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Religious opposition to the new law – which has included not just
Christian churches but Jewish and Muslim congregations – is
two-fold.
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Some Christians see the issue in faith terms when they compare
biblical instructions to welcome strangers and love others with the
law’s ban on helping illegal immigrants secure a place to live, a
job, health care other than for emergencies and even a ride to the
store. Under the law, police can check anyone’s immigration status
during a traffic stop or other encounter and jail people without
bond if they don’t have proper documents.
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Fernando del Castillo, pastor of a Spanish-speaking congregation of
about 300 people in metro Birmingham, is particularly worried about
a provision requiring that schools check the immigration status of
students and report the information to the state. He fears some
immigrant parents will be afraid to send their children to school
when classes resume in August.
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“Will they keep them at home? I don’t know,” del Castillo
said.
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Others are worried the law could criminalize mission work with
illegal immigrants.
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“They wonder if this is the beginning of infringing on freedoms
that the church has considered its bailiwick,” Doss
said.
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Leaders of the United Methodist Church, the Episcopal Church, the
Lutheran Church and the Roman Catholic Church all have criticized
the law as running counter to biblical teachings about caring for
neighbors, helping visitors and showing hospitality to
strangers.
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The state’s largest denomination, the Alabama Baptist Convention,
hasn’t taken a position publicly and likely won’t since it doesn’t
speak for individual churches. Convention president Mike Shaw,
pastor of a church in suburban Birmingham, said the law “is the
toughest in the nation and personally I think all laws need to be
enforced.”
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“I am concerned about the language concerning giving a ride in an
automobile to an illegal immigrant or allowing children of illegal
immigrant parents to ride on a church bus to Sunday school,
vacation Bible school, or church camp,” he said in a statement.
“Should we ignore people who are injured or have broken down on the
side of a busy interstate highway and have small children in
sweltering heat with no family or friends to help them?”
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—
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Associated Press Writer Kate Brumback in Atlanta contributed to
this report.
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