Anti Immigration Group Slams Southern Baptists

The theologians at the Center for Immigration Studies are not happy with the Southern Baptists . I suspect they realize that is because of the real threat this is.

See Baptists Call for Amnesty We learn among other things that sharing the Gospel with illegals is a "private matter" and that Southern Baptist are not applying "Biblical principles"

I have said this all week that the actions of the Southern Baptist Convention on endorsing some pathway to legal status was huge.

Catholics that have relied on the fact for too long that individuals in Southern Baptist congregations would not aggressively go after "illegals" better wake up. Times are changing. The Southern Baptist Church is making a major push toward "minorities and Hispanics and that includes familes of mixed legal status.

Now this is not really to get "more people in the pews" and shore up declining numbers. It is because the laity that works in Mission work (sadly far more than do Catholic lay folks) have caught up with most of their clergy on the issue of immigration reform. That is the status quo we have creates real life problems for these folks and society. This is truly a Christ centered response in my view. There is nothing cynical about it.

Regardless of the fact that the Catholic Church is going to have to redouble it's efforts among Hispanics as a whole and indeed as to those living in the shadows as a result of this new "competition" , this is a welcome game changer for all of us in the immigration reform movement . That includes Catholic Bishops and the laity.

Thus the Center for Immigration Studies has every reason to go bonkers over this. I have a feeling though Baptists, like most Catholics ,will not understand how to deal with CIS.

CIS has as it ethos a belief in population control. That is the United States MUST reduce it's population in order to survive. For many a population of 150 million is ideal. This is a quite radical agenda in my view. It is not so much CIS is anti illegal immigrant but pretty much anti IMMIGRATION period till we get these population numbers down to their "ideal" number.

A new front is opening up as to the immigration reform wars and it will be interesting to see how the Baptist leadership reacts too it as well as CIS and related groups.