Your Mainline Christmas Sermon: Immigration and Social Justice

In a letter to members it was pointed out by Roy Beck, Executive Director of NumbersUSA Education & Research Foundation, and recipient of the first United Methodist Communicator of the Year award as Associate Editor of the United Methodist Reporter, that many religious leaders will use their microphones and pulpits to advocate for open borders and for the “rights” of illegal immigrants, “to decry the raids and to equate illegal aliens with Mary and Joseph and their newborn babe.”

It is a shame that the religious leadership would not be standing beside us and against outlaw businesses’ efforts drive down the incomes of working-class Americans and their families. But to have so many standing on the side of the economic oppressors is truly disheartening.

I completely concur with Beck’s statements. I know well of what he speaks. I earned my Masters in Theology from a highly esteemed liberal Protestant seminary not long ago. Every attempt to indoctrinate me in the ways of socialistic-style social justice failed miserably. Fortunately, I already had a strong background in traditional Christian theology, an understanding of what it means to be an American, and enough years of experience not to be easily intimidated.

Before I entered the seminary, I was somewhat politically naive. That changed rapidly as I learned that theology and politics are intimately linked. For years mainline seminaries have functioned as the religious arm of the far left progressives. Admission of any conservative political bent is literally the kiss of death. No doubt there are many closet conservative professors who would not long survive if their personal politics were known. Students hoping for plumb assignments following ordination are well-aware of which sides their daily bread is buttered.

Just as few Americans are very much aware of the growing influence of Islamofascism on American politics, even fewer Americans are aware of the Marxist trends (born of Liberation Theology) that are fast overcoming mainline denominations and informing new ministers in mainline Protestantism! Catholics and Evangelicals are not immune to this growing trend either.

Read Roy Beck’s response printed in the liberal protestant (pro-amnesty) Christian Century Magazine.

Here’s an excerpt:

But Mr. Ufford-Chase’s approach to handling the illegal immigration problem in this country displays the huge blind-side that most mainline church national leaders have on the immigration issue by promoting the idea that illegal immigration is a victimless crime. While focusing on poor people in other countries who wish to break the law to get into this one, he ignores poor people and lower-middle-class people in this country for whom immigration laws are most clearly designed. The Supreme Court in the past has ruled that the chief reason for our immigration laws is to protect workers. Mr. Ufford-Chase does mention the issue of job displacement and quickly dismisses it. And then he brings up the issue of wage depression and speaks admiringly of Fed Chairman Greenspan’s suggestion that we should have high immigration in order to hold down wages. I frankly am amazed to see Mr. Ufford-Chase think that is a worthy aim. . .

In covering and commenting on the immigration issue, you should at the least consider that in the last public act of her illustrious life of public service, Barbara Jordan led a bi-partisan national commission that concluded that illegal immigration should be eliminated to the extent possible and that legal immigration should be dramatically reduced in numbers. The reason, Jordan said, was that the numerical level of immigration is so high that it serves as a tool of economic injustice against the most vulnerable members of our community. (bold emphasis added)

Beck gives us all some good advice. Don’t let this kind of sermon go unchallenged! Speak to your minister, or if you feel too shy to speak directly, “write a short note and drop it in the offering plate or comments basket in the foyer.”

Bring it up as a discussion issue in Sunday school class!

If you are deeply concerned about illegal immigration, join NumbersUSA

Trackbacked to:

Woman Honor Thyself, Right Truth

Why Are Many Liberals Willing Pawns for Islamic Terrorism?

That’s the burning question many American bloggers are asking today. In the coming weeks, many bloggers may unite to concentrate on the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CA–IR) and their liberal American apologists. Here are some blogs devoted to the issue of Islamic terrorism today:

CA-IR BearS, Dems & the FBI
“More than 1,000 people turned out on Saturday at the Council on American-Is–lamic Relations (CA–IR) banquet in Arlington, Va., to hear addresses by several elected officials, including Keith Elli-son, the first Mus–lim in Congress. . . .”

Read more at Woman Honor Thyself
Trackback:
http://www.womanhonorthyself.com/?p=1898

Spoon Fed Hatred, Morning, Noon and Night
“These are disturbing to say the least and I suggest you watch the full video… many watch a couple minutes and then see Glenn Beck start to talk and think the clips are over, they are not. The disturbing ones are after he speaks…One example is of a little girl screaming as she is being prepped for surgery so that her eyes could be stolen by the “Jews”. In another it shows a three yr old child being taught hatred to the Jewish people, calling them dogs and pigs and such, over and over… at THREE YEARS old. . . .”

Read more at Wake Up America
Trackback: http://wwwwakeupamericans-spree.blogspot.com/2006/11/spoon-fed-hatred-morning-noon-and.html#links

Here’s a non-link to the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
http://www(dot)cair-net(dot)org/

Why should this blog up their Google ratings?

See Also:

Anti-Cair: In Defense of the Constitution

Jihad Watch

A Progressive God Responds to the War on Christmas

Yesterday I was forwarded a rather long e-mail letter from God, so I thought you just might be interested. If you are reading this, then you will most likely receive it too. I was really disappointed, however, that I wasn’t on God’s initial list of friends, but I guess I should be thankful that the e-mail finally made it into my inbox.

The letter starts out . . .

“Dear Children,

It has come to my attention that many of you are upset that folks are taking My name out of the season. Maybe you’ve forgotten that I wasn’t actually born during this time of the year and that it was some of you’re predecessors who decided to celebrate My birthday on what was actually a time of pagan festival. Although Ido appreciate being remembered anytime.

How I personally feel about this celebration can probably be most easily understood by those of you who have been blessed with children of your own. I don’t care what you call the day. If you want to celebrate My birth just, GET ALONG AND LOVEONE ANOTHER. . . .”

The letter goes on to suggest that we all stop worrying about the War on Christmas, and start acting like real Christians by performing acts of Christian love and charity etc. Now who can argue with that? And more to the point, who would dare argue with God???

Well, for starters, how can I be sure that God actually wrote this e-mail? I did notice that there were a few grammatical errors, but perhaps God doesn’t really care much about grammar either or perhaps His secretary was off for the day?

The next question I had was that if God really did write this e-mail, which person of the Trinity was actually involved in the writing? The implication is that it must be Jesus because God is talking about “MY birthday.” We Christians all know that God the Father “Is, Was, and Always Will Be.” God the Father never had a birth date. If Jesus is writing about “My name” and “My birthday”, why didn’t He even once mention His name??? He could have at least signed the letter but HE didn’t.

Perhaps God was avoiding any mention of Jesus in order to keep Christians and Non-Christians alike from Christmas-time divisiveness? But that doesn’t ring true. It’s really hard to imagine a God “who sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him” (John 4:19), not even wanting to mention that fact on his only son’s birthday.

But this letter is hard to figure out, kind of like trying to figure out God. So I’m just not sure. Isn’t it funny that God would remind folks to read John 15: 1 – 8 (“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. . .), tell folks to pray, and to send money to missionaries who would spread his name, but fail to spread His name in this very letter???

And why wouldn’t God want folks to heed Jesus’ own words?

“And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.” (John 14:13)

God made several good suggestions in his e-mail but I was struck by the fact that God had little interest in keeping alive the Christian tradition of Christmas. I would assume from reading this e-mail from God that He’s not at all opposed to secularizing the day.

“Stop worrying about the fact that people are calling the tree a holiday tree, instead of a Christmas tree. It was I who made all trees.”

That got me to thinking about the importance of tradition – to humans at least. Why should protecting our cherished religious traditions be important to all Americans regardless of our differing faith perspectives?

Oddly enough I found the answer from an Australian – Professor Mark Cooray. Dr. Cooray was once a socialist/progressive activist but he turned from socialism because, “I have come to believe that socialism and progressivism are in practice, as far as human development is concerned, retrogressive philosophies.”

Here’s a quote from a very interesting chapter on Tradition from the book, The Australian Achievement: From Bondage To Freedom by Dr. Mark Cooray.

“The Internationale contains a line “No more tradition’s chains shall bind us.” This is one of the fundamental ideas of socialist/progressivist thinking. Man must be freed from tradition. Reason is to be the guiding light. The devil can cite scripture for his purposes. Reason can often be used to support any position. If men and women are freed from tradition, the experiences of history and the family environment, they can be manipulated and used by ideological and religious leaders, eccentrics and maniacs. If tradition declines, ideologues can mould and influence individuals.”
Source: http://ourcivilisation.com/cooray/btof/chap11.htm

Note: The Internationale is the international song of both Marxist and non-Marxist socialist parties. It was written in French by Eugene Pottier, a woodworker from Lille, after the fall of the Paris Commune of 1871, and set to music by P. Degeyter.
Source: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/INTERNAT.html

Now it’s just possible, even plausible, that perhaps God didn’t really write this e-mail letter. And if the devil can cite scripture for his purposes, then who is to say who really wrote the letter? That got me to thinking about “inversion” – the turning of faith or any philosophy inside out.

Now anyone can be susceptible to ideologues who would manipulate faith, and those who are only too willing to overthrow tradition for political correctness are often the most susceptible. The clever part about the inversion of faith is that it is often very subtle. The primary rule of inversion is that the big lie is usually hidden amid much truth. And that big lie is often hidden through the process of expanding definitions and redefining commonly accepted theological truths. We usually call it “revisionism”.

I don’t know who wrote the letter and most likely it was written by someone who has the best of Christian humanistic intentions. I do know that the letter was forwarded to me from one of my liberal/ progressive friends who is a member of a very liberal/progressive Christian denomination. I won’t mention the particular denomination’s name but you can usually tell which Christian denominations have a liberal/progressive bias. They are the denominations with well known old names that are rapidly losing membership due in no small part to the fact that they subtly promote moral equivalency with any faith perspective, and they avoid, at all costs, the mention of sin. The easiest way to spot them is that they quote every Biblical verse devoted to Love but recoil from any passage having to do with the cost of sin. And if you read any of their literature you will find that they have quite neutered the language by never referring to God as “He”. The most extreme of the progressives refer to God as “He/She”.

My friend sent the e-mail on to all of her many church friends and to me because she was afraid that we Americans are “politicizing our God.” But somehow this letter from God feels just like a politicized message especially when God tells us to pray for George.

I do not doubt the sincerity and devout faith of my friend and of most liberal/progressive Christians. But what I do know is that, as Dr. Cooray aptly pointed out concerning the progressives, “they can be manipulated and used by ideological and religious leaders, eccentrics and maniacs.”

If anyone would like me to send them the entire e-mail from “God”, please e-mail me.