Posted: 1/21/05

Immigration and churches

By Ferrell Foster

Texas Baptist Communications

AUSTIN–Immigration is not just a political issue to Texas Baptists; it's about churches and ministry, said Suzii Paynter, director of citizenship and public policy for the Baptist General Convention of Texas' Christian Life Commission.

"So many of our Baptist churches have members who are in need of some kind of adjustment status" in regard to their residency in the United States, Paynter said. "It's a very large issue in our churches, and it's been brought to us by pastors."

People coming to the United States from Central American countries, where the Catholic Church is dominant, are used to turning to the church for help.

"Traditionally, the point of contact for an immigrant seeking information in a safe environment is the church," Paynter said. "They have a tradition of going to the priest."

In Central America, people consider the church a "point of sanctuary," and the church sees its efforts to help people as a "redemptive mission–the mission of helping people find their way to solve their problems," she said.

The Catholic Church in the United States has established immigration centers in their churches and invested more than $300 million is providing immigration services, Paynter said. “The Catholic Church was ready to help its members.”

Hispanic Baptist churches minister in that same cultural environment, but efforts to provide immigration services have been limited.

These Baptist churches want to respond to their members, their families and their communities, Paynter said. "They are asking for the BGCT to help support citizen training classes" and other efforts to assist immigrants with residency issues.

"If (immigrants) can't turn to us, they will turn to other churches and other traditions that will help them," she said.

In other words, immigration ministries are related to evangelism and church-starting efforts among this ever-growing segment of the Texas population, Paynter said.

Additional Resources on Immigration:
• Proposed federal Legislation to Legalize Undocumented Farm Workers: The Agricultural Jobs, Opportunity, Benefits, and Security Act of 2003

• Undocumented Immigrants: Fact and Figures from the Urban Institute Immigration Studies Program, 2004

• The Border Security and immigration Reform Act of 2003, section by section summary

(PDF files will open with the free Adobe Reader available here.)

Posted: 1/21/05

Congress expected to address immigration issues

By Ferrell Foster

Texas Baptist Communications

AUSTIN–Expect to see change in United States immigration policy during this congressional session, said Suzii Paynter, director of citizenship and public policy for the Baptist General Convention of Texas' Christian Life Commission.

“Our system is very broken, and the president has made it a priority” to fix the situation, Paynter said.

Three types of legislation are being considered in Congress–an agriculture jobs bill, new guestworker legislation and the Dream Act that would help non-citizen students fund a college education.

The Ag Jobs Act is the “most likely to be acted upon,” Paynter said. It would provide short-term relief for undocumented agricultural workers, granting them legal status when there is a shortage of legal, documented workers.

The act also would provide long-term relief through a change in visa status.

New guestworker legislation would change the rules by which non-citizens are allowed to work legally in the United States.

Several bills have been introduced, including one by Sen. John Cornyn of Texas. The Cornyn bill basically is a “shell” that supports President Bush's immigration priorities, but which still is far from being in final form.

The Dream Act would adjust the legal status of previously undocumented students who graduate from high school in the United States. This would enable them to attend a state university without paying out-of-country tuition.

Immigration is on the political agenda now, because “frankly, our economy depends on the work of guestworkers in our country,” Paynter said. But current law does not provide an adequate framework for legal

participation by those workers.

Non-citizen workers must wait an “inordinately” long period for legal documents, and “immigration law changes almost daily because of the policies and procedures,” Paynter said.

There also are inequities. Federal and state governments are spending a large amount of time and money in dealing with illegal immigrants, but they are “not holding employers accountable for illegalities” in regard to hiring those workers.

Also, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, changed everything. “All of our remedies were created before we had a security need,” she said.

Today, there is a “common perception that we're not defending our borders,” Paynter said.

That leads to the “assumption that we need to put a wall up and completely defend our borders.”

As a result of the varied issues, “there is a convergence of concern, … need … and the human reality,” she said. “Other countries all over the world live in cooperation with their neighbors,” but in the United States “a set of beliefs has developed based on prejudice.”

That prejudice is against immigrants from Central and South America, Paynter said. “If you talk about immigration from any other group, you don't get the same level of resistance.”

That resistance is, in part, based on fear that millions of people from south of the border will overwhelm the United States with huge numbers of immigrants, she said.

Rather than letting such fears determine the legal remedies, immigration policy should be based on good economics and accurate information, Paynter said. “We have to base our solutions on reality and not on perception or myth.”

Additional Resources on Immigration:
• Proposed federal Legislation to Legalize Undocumented Farm Workers: The Agricultural Jobs, Opportunity, Benefits, and Security Act of 2003

• Undocumented Immigrants: Fact and Figures from the Urban Institute Immigration Studies Program, 2004

• The Border Security and immigration Reform Act of 2003, section by section summary

(PDF files will open with the free Adobe Reader available here.)

Posted: 1/21/05

How can churches help
undocumented immigrants?

Based on information provided by the Baptist General Convention of Texas immigration task force. For more information, contact Jim Young, director of the BGCT Missions Equipping Center, at (888) 311-3900.

See Related Stories: • 'We are here illegally': Texas Baptist family describes life as undocumented aliens • Pastor sees BUA as 'God-sent' opportunity for undocumented student • Pastor helps immigrants gain legal status • Austin woman believes citizens can shape immigration policy • Immigration and churches • Congress expected to address immigration issues • FAQs: How can churches help undocumented immigrants? • Hispanic but multi-ethnic • By The Numbers: Ministering to Immigrants • Student develops resource to help churches grasp immigration issues

Q. Can a church get in trouble for helping an undocumented immigrant?

A. It depends on the kind of help offered.

Q. What kind of assistance is permitted?

A. A church is free to provide basic benevolence services–food, clothing, shelter and medical help–to anyone.

Q. Is a church obligated to ask about anyone's immigration status?

A. Normally, the only time a church needs to ask is before hiring someone.

Q. Is there ever a time when a church would be required to determine someone's immigration status before providing basic benevolence?

A. If a church receives government funds for its community benevolence program, the government might require recipients to present legal identification.

Q. Is a pastor or church leader under any legal obligation to report an undocumented immigrant?

A. No.

Q. Can a church get in trouble for employing an undocumented immigrant?

A. Yes. And employment extends beyond church staff positions. If a church provides benevolence ministry to an undocumented immigrant and he or she offers to mow the yard, paint a room or perform some other service for the church in gratitude, that can present a legal problem.

Q. Can a church help people fill out forms and help them with immigration issues?

A. Yes, but it is advisable to obtain expert advice from an attorney who specializes in immigration law.

Additional Resources on Immigration:
• Proposed federal Legislation to Legalize Undocumented Farm Workers: The Agricultural Jobs, Opportunity, Benefits, and Security Act of 2003

• Undocumented Immigrants: Fact and Figures from the Urban Institute Immigration Studies Program, 2004

• The Border Security and immigration Reform Act of 2003, section by section summary

(PDF files will open with the free Adobe Reader available here.)

Posted: 1/21/05

Hispanic but multi-ethnic

By Sarah Farris

Special to the Baptist Standard

Just because a Texas Baptist church calls itself “Hispanic” doesn't mean its members are all Mexican-American. Just ask Rolando Lopez, pastor of Northwest Hispanic Baptist Church in San Antonio, who says his congregation has anywhere from seven to nine nationalities represented.

“Each country has a different way of doing church–different idiosyncrasies, but we can all worship together,” he said.

Fredy Pavez, pastor of Iglesia Bautista Fuenta Viva in Amarillo, leads a church made up of people from Chile, Mexico, Cuba and Honduras.

Pavez explained that in each nationality, subtle variations in the Spanish language can at first make communication tense. Differences in each culture also can cause well-intentioned communication to be taken the wrong way.

“It took years for (church members) to understand each other,” he said. Now that they do, they have a strong community where they know each other and spend time together.

Because an individual's immigration status and documentation is considered private, it is not a point of separation within the church, the pastors said.

“We don't ask anyone if they are documented,” Lopez commented. “That is not what we're here for. We minister to people, no matter who they might be.”

A ministry at Iglesia Bautista Fuenta Viva that provides free advice from immigration lawyers to church members and the community halts tension before it starts by offering help to anyone who wants it, Pavez said.

He cautions Hispanic churches to not measure growth by the number of people who come for aid, but by the number of people who become active members of the church.

“People will be there for the programs, but maybe only one family will join the church,” Pavez said.

He advises pastors who are new to working with immigrants to attend a BGCT immigration seminar and to use multimedia to advertise the church and its programs.

“We have people who live near the church that have no idea about our services because they are scared to leave their house,” he said. “But they do watch TV and listen to the radio.”

Additional Resources on Immigration:
• Proposed federal Legislation to Legalize Undocumented Farm Workers: The Agricultural Jobs, Opportunity, Benefits, and Security Act of 2003

• Undocumented Immigrants: Fact and Figures from the Urban Institute Immigration Studies Program, 2004

• The Border Security and immigration Reform Act of 2003, section by section summary

(PDF files will open with the free Adobe Reader available here.)

Posted: 1/21/05

Texas has 1.1 million legal resident immigrants.

(2002 estimate from the U.S. Homeland Security Department)

Texas has close to 1.1 million undocumented immigrants.

(Urban Institute estimate, based on the 2000 census and March 2002 current population survey)

An additional 914,000 foreign-born Texas
residents are naturalized citizens.

(2000 census)

Number and percentage of Texas population Based on total Texas population of 20,851,820 (2000 census)				One out of every seven Texans was not born in the United States. —Clay Price, manager of Baptist General Convention of Texas Research & Information Services
All Foreign Born 2, 899,642 13. 9% Mexico 1, 879,369 9. 0% Vietnam 107, 027 0. 5% El Salvador 101, 259 0. 5% India 78, 388 0. 4%	China 69, 654 0. 3% Philippines 45, 907 0. 2% Caribbean 41, 777 0. 2% Germany 39, 249 0. 2% Canada 36, 802 0. 2%	United Kingdom 36, 176 0. 2% Korea 35, 986 0. 2% Honduras 33, 655 0. 2% Pakistan 26, 981 0. 1% Guatemala 26, 130 0. 1%	Colombia 22, 073 0. 1% Nigeria 20, 927 0. 1% Cuba 16, 011 0. 1% Iran 15, 581 0. 1% Japan 13, 070 0. 1%

See Related Stories: • 'We are here illegally': Texas Baptist family describes life as undocumented aliens • Pastor sees BUA as 'God-sent' opportunity for undocumented student • Pastor helps immigrants gain legal status • Austin woman believes citizens can shape immigration policy • Immigration and churches • Congress expected to address immigration issues • FAQs: How can churches help undocumented immigrants? • Hispanic but multi-ethnic • By The Numbers: Ministering to Immigrants • Student develops resource to help churches grasp immigration issues Additional Resources on Immigration: • Proposed federal Legislation to Legalize Undocumented Farm Workers: The Agricultural Jobs, Opportunity, Benefits, and Security Act of 2003 • Undocumented Immigrants: Fact and Figures from the Urban Institute Immigration Studies Program, 2004 • The Border Security and immigration Reform Act of 2003, section by section summary (PDF files will open with the free Adobe Reader available here.)

Posted: 1/21/05

Texas Baptist family describes life as undocumented aliens

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

AUSTIN–Ernesto serves as a deacon at a Hispanic Baptist church in Austin. His wife, Maria, works in various ministries at the church. And like 1.1 million other people in Texas and more than 9.3 million in the United States, they are in this country illegally.

Ernesto–who asked that his last name not be revealed–first left his home in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas more than seven years ago.

He and Maria could have scraped by on his 1,800-pesos-a-month pension, but their daughter dreamed of attending university in Monterrey and studying to become an orthodontist.

To make that dream a reality, he entered the United States on a tourist visa and started working in construction, lawn service–any job he could find where an employer demanded hard manual labor but didn't ask questions about legal residency.

"I needed to work," he said through an interpreter. "I thank the Lord he has given me the strength to do any kind of work."

Initially, he was able to travel readily back and forth between Texas and Mexico. But in 2000, his tourist visa was cancelled when authorities discovered he had a Texas driver's license.

To cross back into Texas, he enlisted the service of "coyotes"–smugglers who illegally transport undocumented aliens into the United States.

After paying a fee, the smuggler gave Ernesto the phone number of a contact whom he called when he reached Diaz Ordaz, across the border from Mission. That person helped him and several other people cross the Rio Grande in a large rubber raft.

Once they crossed the river, Ernesto and seven other Mexicans were led through a wooded area to a designated spot where they met their driver. He transported them an agreed-upon distance in the back of an 18-wheel tractor-trailer rig, and then they were transferred to smaller trucks for their journey to various upstate destinations.

Migrants loaded into Groupo Beta pickups that were to transport them to bus stations after walking across the Gateway International Bridge, from Brownsville to Matamoros, Mexico.Photo by Brad Doherty

That arduous trek in 2000 marked the first of several times Ernesto entered the United States as coyotes' human cargo.

"The problem is that it's important to have money, so when you want to move, you have the money to pay someone," he said. "If you have good money, you get good coyotes."

By the same token, he added, immigrants know if they use some less-expensive coyotes, they risk being treated less humanely.

Ernesto began a regular routine–sending part of each paycheck back to Mexico to support his family and saving part to pay a smuggler so he could re-enter the United States after his next visit home.

Sometimes, the high cost of coyotes and increased security along the border after the 9/11 terrorist attacks combined to make those visits infrequent. On one occasion, Ernesto and Maria did not see each other for two years.

"You miss your partner," he said. "When I did go home, I would use the money I had saved here, and we would take a vacation at the beach."

Finally, in February last year, Maria joined Ernesto in Austin. For the last four years, he has worked with the same company on a drywall construction crew.

Many undocumented workers in Texas enter the United States from Mexico legally, but they overstay their visas. Nationally, 25 to 40 percent of illegal aliens are believed to fit that category.Photo by Brad Doherty

Ernesto said it would be "wonderful" to have papers where he could travel freely back to Mexico. He lost his pension from his former employer in Mexico because he was not there to fill out the necessary paperwork. Ernesto and Maria see their daughter only when she can afford to come visit them.

"She can come to us, but we cannot go to her," he said. But for now, he said: "I feel calm about it. We're trusting in the Lord, and we're not afraid."

When asked what he would want Texas Baptists to know about him and his family, he responded simply: "We are here illegally. If we could obtain legal residency, it would be so much better. But
we are here. And we are Texas Baptists, too."

See Related Stories: • 'We are here illegally': Texas Baptist family describes life as undocumented aliens • Pastor sees BUA as 'God-sent' opportunity for undocumented student • Pastor helps immigrants gain legal status • Austin woman believes citizens can shape immigration policy • Immigration and churches • Congress expected to address immigration issues • FAQs: How can churches help undocumented immigrants? • Hispanic but multi-ethnic • By The Numbers: Ministering to Immigrants • Student develops resource to help churches grasp immigration issues Additional Resources: • Proposed federal Legislation to Legalize Undocumented Farm Workers: The Agricultural Jobs, Opportunity, Benefits, and Security Act of 2003 • Undocumented Immigrants: Fact and Figures from the Urban Institute Immigration Studies Program, 2004 • The Border Security and immigration Reform Act of 2003, section by section summary (PDF files will open with the free Adobe Reader available here.)

Posted: 1/21/05

Student develops resource to help
churches grasp immigration issues

By Sarah Farris

Special to the Baptist Standard

WACO–A growing number of Texas Baptists in recent years have started looking for ways to minister to undocumented immigrants, particularly after both the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas passed resolutions about immigration in 2003.

In direct response, the BGCT named an immigration task force chaired by Jim Young, director of the convention's Missions Equipping Center, to coordinate ministries and services to immigrants in Texas.

And a Baylor University graduate student, Leigh Jackson, stepped forward to help develop a congregational education project, seeing it as an opportunity to integrate her interest in public policy and passion for service to people in need.

Leigh Jackson, a graduate student at Baylor University's Truett Theological Seminary, created curriculum to help churches teach members about immigration issues.(Photo by Sarah Farris)

As part of her master of divinity and social work program at Truett Thelogical Seminary and Baylor University, Jackson developed church education materials aimed at teaching church members about immigration issues. She worked closely with the Suzii Paynter, director of public policy and Christian citizenship for the BGCT's Christian Life Commission in Austin.

“The issue of immigration is a sensitive subject,” Jackson said. “People have a lot of unanswered questions, especially regarding undocumented immigrants.

Education may be one of the best ways to overcome the hurdles that prevent churches from ministering effectively.

The three-hour program she developed, “Showing Hospitality to the Least of These,” was designed to be taught during three Sunday school classes or as a three-hour seminar. “Immigration is a big issue right now,” Jackson said, adding many Christians are reluctant to talk about public policy because it is controversial and they wonder what those kind of issues have to do with everyday Christian living.

The curriculum is split into three parts–the tension between love and justice, biblical views of immigration and public policy education.

Jackson described the tension between love and justice as seeing a homeless drug addict on the street and not giving him money because of the fear that he would spend it on drugs. Loving like Jesus, Jackson said, is to love the way he commanded in Matthew 25, which means to give to everyone who asks. Jackson defined justice as “putting parameters on love.”

Jackson contends that to overcome this tension, Christians must see themselves foremost as citizens of God's kingdom.

“Thinking this way causes us to look outside of ourselves,” she said.

The curriculum explores the lives of biblical immigrants, including Abraham, the people of Israel and even Jesus, Mary and Joseph, who fled to Egypt to escape King Herod.

Using these stories and recent accounts of immigrants to the United States, Jackson looks at how Christians should approach immigration.

“There is something holy about hospitality,” she said. “Entertaining a stranger in the Old Testament is linked to the holy.”

Jackson's look at immigration policy ranges from vocabulary to understanding current policies and bills in Congress. This knowledge lets people be better-educated members of their community and better equipped to engage in ongoing immigration dialogue.

“This does not end with resolution but a changed way to look at things,” she said. The curriculum leads people to look at their church and how it practices hospitality.

The most difficult part of the project was finding churches to participate, she noted. “Many churches I talked to said that they believed the project sounded like a good idea, but they were not in a place where they were ready to engage the topic,” she said.

Two churches participated in the curriculum. Jackson said the reception was good, even though many of the participants were highly educated and already aware of social justice concepts as they apply to immigration.

Jackson now is director of community ministries at First Baptist Church of Waco, where she is jointly employed by the church and by Buckner Baptist Benevolences.

The church is in a transitional neighborhood, and the immigration project is not necessarily an aspect of her job there, but she says the premise of seeing the world as a Christian citizen influences her as she works in her community.

“Our faith goes beyond our small area,” she said. “We don't want to turn off our faith, … especially when it comes to the policy arena.”

Jackson has presented her curriculum to several churches across Texas, and she hopes it will continue to benefit Texas Baptists.

Through her seminary and social work training, Jackson said: “I was challenged to think about the big questions surrounding God and our society. However, I was also challenged to apply my thinking to practical ministry. This is where the hard work began.”

For more information about immigration issues, contact Jim Young in Dallas at (888) 311-3900 or jim.young@bgct.org or Suzii Paynter in Austin at (512) 473-2288 or suzii.paynter@bgct.org.

Additional Resources on Immigration:
• Proposed federal Legislation to Legalize Undocumented Farm Workers: The Agricultural Jobs, Opportunity, Benefits, and Security Act of 2003

• Undocumented Immigrants: Fact and Figures from the Urban Institute Immigration Studies Program, 2004

• The Border Security and immigration Reform Act of 2003, section by section summary

(PDF files will open with the free Adobe Reader available here.)

Posted: 1/21/05

Louisiana College trustees elect new president

By Greg Warner

Associated Baptist Press

PINEVILLE, La. (ABP)–Joe Aguillard, 47, was elected president of Louisiana College Jan. 17 after a marathon trustee meeting that included protesters and a last-minute alternate nominee.

Aguillard, assistant professor and chair of the education division at the Louisiana Baptist school, was the favorite of the trustee board's conservative majority. But interim president John Traylor, 76, also was nominated by moderate-leaning trustees and interviewed by the board.

As trustees met for more than four hours, mostly behind closed doors, about 250 students and others marched on the campus with signs opposing Aguillard. Meanwhile, a smaller group wore yellow tags supporting him. Earlier, the faculty voted 53-12 to oppose Aguillard.

Louisiana College has been in turmoil for more than a year, since conservatives gained control of the trustee board. After a dispute over textbook and faculty-election policies, the college's president, chief academic administrator and trustee chair resigned.

In December, SACS placed the college on probation–one step short of withdrawing accreditation–for violating the association's standards for academic freedom and proper governance.

Now the school faces a lawsuit over Aguillard's nomination and election.

The alumni and former faculty members who filed a lawsuit claim the new president's election violates the school's bylaws because he was not nominated by the original search committee. Trustees appointed a special committee Jan. 6 to bring Aguillard's name before the board for a vote.

The original search committee was replaced after its first choice, seminary professor Malcolm Yarnell of Fort Worth, turned down the job two months after accepting it.

The committee offered its second choice, New Orleans seminary professor Stan Norman, but was rebuffed by other trustees, who appointed a new committee.

Before electing Aguillard, trustees voted 19-8 to affirm the new search committee. Aguillard assumed the presidency immediately, trustees said.

Aguillard, a Louisiana native, received a bachelor's degree from Louisiana College, two master's degrees from McNeese State University in Lake Charles, La., and a doctorate of education from Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

He held a number of administrative positions with the Beauregard Parish School Board between 1984 and 2000, rising to superintendent, before taking a teaching position at Louisiana College.

Louisiana College has been in turmoil for more than a year after conservatives gained control of the trustee board. After a dispute over textbook and faculty-election policies, the college's president, chief academic administrator and trustee chair resigned.

In December SACS placed the college on probation—one step short of withdrawing accreditation—for violating the association's standards for academic freedom and proper governance.

Posted: 1/21/05

Southern Baptists plan
alternative to Baptist World Alliance

By Robert Marus & Greg Warner

Associated Baptist Press

WASHINGTON (ABP)—Southern Baptist Convention leaders will meet with international Baptists leaders in July to create an alternative to the Baptist World Alliance, a Southern Baptist agency head announced.

Richard Land, president of the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, told a Washington audience, “I am going to a meeting with other Southern Baptist leaders and with Baptist leaders from around the world in Warsaw, Poland, this July to form a new alternative to the Baptist World Alliance.”

Land, addressing a Jan. 18 panel discussion on an unrelated subject, defended the SBC’s decision last year to withdraw from the worldwide umbrella group for Baptists.

Southern Baptist leaders, who recommended the SBC withdraw from the Baptist World Alliance over an alleged “liberal drift,” have said they want to create a new alternative for “like-minded” Baptists, but they have not announced any details.

A July meeting would compete with the Baptist World Congress July 27-31 in Birmingham, England, when BWA will celebrate its 100th anniversary.

Morris Chapman, the SBC’s chief executive, confirmed the July meeting in Poland will take place, but added: “To call the meeting with some of the European Baptist leaders an ‘organizational’ meeting would be a mischaracterization. Over the next several years we hope to travel to several continents meeting with like-minded Baptist leaders with the thought of developing a network or fellowship.”

Meanwhile, Denton Lotz, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, said he was “shocked” SBC leaders would attempt to form an alternative body to the BWA.

“I would hope that the SBC and its people would not further divide the Baptists of the world by trying to start a competitive organization to the Baptist World Alliance,” he said. “It goes against everything they’ve told us in meetings that we’ve had—that they would not start another world organization.”

Land’s statement came in a question-and-answer session during a panel discussion on the role of religion in public and political life. Leslie Tune, Washington news director for the National Council of Churches and a Baptist minister, asked Land how the decision to withdraw from BWA squared with Land’s assertion that Southern Baptist leaders are happy to work with people of differing views of faith and public discourse.

Tune said the BWA decision seemed like it would cause the SBC to become “more of a cocoon unto itself in terms of working with other people of faith who are Christians. … How are the conversations going to happen if the Southern Baptist Convention is pulling out of the table where the conversation could happen?”

Land responded that the feeling among Southern Baptists “was that the Baptist World Alliance was moving in a liberal theological direction by and large, and it was not serving a lot of the needs of a lot of the Second- and Third-World countries. We have the same phenomenon in Baptist life that you have, for instance, in Anglican life, where Anglicans in the Second and Third World are somewhat appalled by the liberalism of Anglicans in Northern Europe and North America.

“And we are not cocooning ourselves,” Land continued. “In fact, I am going to a meeting with other Southern Baptist leaders and with Baptist leaders from around the world in Warsaw, Poland, this July to form a new alternative to the Baptist World Alliance.

“We just felt like that, when the majority of the Baptist World Alliance wanted to go in one direction and we wanted to go in another and we were paying 80 percent of the bills, then we had the right to try to form something that was more in line with what our belief system is. … In no way, shape or form should this be seen as a withdrawal from a commitment to fellowship with Baptists in other countries and other continents.”

In 2004, messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention meeting adopted the recommendation of a special study committee, which included Chapman, to withdraw from the BWA. SBC leaders cited a “drift” toward liberalism and “anti-American” attitudes among BWA leadership as justifications for the split.

Land’s assertion that BWA is not responsive to the needs of the Second- and Third-World countries is a new charge.

BWA’s Lotz called that assertion “ridiculous.” He said BWA’s “work in Eastern Europe for religious freedom was known more than anything else during the Cold War and the communist period.” He also said he had never heard the charge previously in his discussions with SBC officials.

Nor had he heard about the July meeting in Poland, Lotz added. If the SBC intentionally planned a meeting to set up a competing group around the same time as the Baptist World Congress, he said, “then that would be a slap in the face to Baptists in the rest of the world.”

Before making any further comment, Lotz said, he “would like to receive an official report that this is happening.”

Phil Roberts, president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo., is in charge of arranging the trip for SBC leaders, said Chapman, president of the SBC Executive Committee in Nashville. Chapman said the meeting is open to members of the Great Commission Council, the SBC’s interagency group.

Roberts was not immediately available for comment.

Chapman said the SBC has “no desire” to compete with the Baptist World Alliance. “In fact, we hope for the BWA God’s blessings in every work they do for the Kingdom’s sake and pray for them a meaningful and fulfilling World Baptist Congress in England this summer.”

He added: “All along we have said that while the convention voted to withdraw its membership from the BWA, it by no means voted to withdraw our fellowship from Baptists around the world. If anything, we hope to have a closer relationship with our Baptist brethren by developing a more personal and cohesive fellowship with those whose primary goal coincides with ours, the evangelization of the masses.”

Posted: 1/21/05

THE BORDER SECURITY AND
IMMIGRATION REFORM ACT OF 2003

Section-by-Section Summary

Section 1. Short Title

Section 2. Definitions

Title I-Authorization for Establishment of Guestworker Programs

Section 101. Guestworker Programs

The DHS and State Secretaries shall establish a guest worker program with eligible foreign countries. Eligible countries must enter into agreements with the U.S. to develop standards of enrollment, procedures for providing health care, training of workers and monitor information regarding departure and return of workers.

Individuals may work in the U.S. on a seasonal or nonseasonal basis. Seasonal workers are authorized to stay 9 months at a time. Nonseasonal workers are authorized a full 12 months, not to exceed 36 months total. Workers are able to travel across borders while in the program and will be provided a photo ID. The Secretaries of DHS and State shall establish and maintain a computer database for entry and exit of workers. Workers are able to apply for legal permanent residence status after 3 years in the program and from their home country.

Workers who apply to the program as undocumented workers must show proof of residency in U.S. by date of enactment and employment. A worker in the program is absolved of all prior illegal behavior relating to their immigration status.

Workers are ineligible for participation in the program if under the age of 18, a convicted felon or who comes to the U.S. illegally after the date of enactment.

The DHS Secretary shall establish an evaluation system to give priority to guestworkers’ applying for LPR based on their participation in the program.

Section 102. Employer Applications and Petitions for Guest Workers

Employers seeking temporary guest workers must apply/file with Labor Department with information on jobs including nature of work, anticipated period and wages to be paid. The employer shall attest to the Labor Secretary that they are insufficient workers to perform these jobs and that hiring guestworkers will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of U.S. workers. The employer must advertise the job and pay at least the minimum wage to guestworkers.

The Labor Secretary will compile a list (by employer and job classification) of the applications filed. Once applications are reviewed and certified, the Labor Secretary will transmit a report to the employer containing the name, contact information and specific work permit information of each guest worker authorized to perform the work.

The Secretary will recommend adjustments to the size of the guest worker program based on the regional economic assessments. The DHS Secretary, in consultation with the determinations by the Secretary of Labor regarding regional economic conditions and the size of the guest worker program, may annually adjust the total number of green cards available.

Any employer in the guestworker program that violates labor and safety laws will be subject to the same penalties as if employing U.S. citizens as well as being debarred from participation in the guestworker program for up to 10 years. An employer in the program shall be absolved of all prior illegal behavior as pertains to the immigration status of employees.

Section 103. New Nonimmigration Guest Worker Categories

The Immigration and Nationality Act is amended by adding category (W)(i) for seasonal and nonseasonal guestworkers.

Section 104. Prohibition on Adjustment of Status to Permanent Resident Status

Any guestworker employed less then 3 years or has violated the terms of the program is prohibited from adjusting their immigration status to legal permanent residence.

Section 105. Guest Worker Investment Accounts

The Treasury Secretary shall quarterly transfer S.S. and Medicare taxes from guestworkers into an investment account. The investment accounts will be the property of the guest worker and be invested in funds created and managed by the Secretary of the Treasury. The guest worker can access these investment accounts only after the worker permanently leaves the program and returns to their home country. These accounts are exempt from taxation in the U.S.

Title II-Adjustment of Status of Certain Unlawfully Present Aliens to Nonimmigrant Guest Worker Status

Section 201. Adjustment of Status

The DHS Secretary shall adjust the status of any undocumented aliens who apply for the guestworker program within 12 months after the date of enactment and if the guestworker is employed by a U.S. employer.

Section 202. Enhanced Civil Penalties for Employed of Unauthorized Aliens After Termination Date for Adjustment of Status

The DHS Secretary shall impose civil penalties upon any U.S. employer that knowingly employs an unauthorized alien after the expiration of the application period. The employer is also barred from participation in the program for several years based on the number of violations.

Posted: 1/21/05

Judge orders school to remove
evolution disclaimer from textbooks

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)—A federal judge has struck down a suburban Atlanta school district’s policy of placing disclaimers about evolution in science textbooks, saying the policy violates the Constitution’s ban on government establishment of religion.

United States District Judge Clarence Cooper issued a ruling ordering the immediate removal of textbook stickers that caution evolution is “a theory, not a fact.” The disclaimer is placed in public-school science texts in Cobb County, Ga.

The Atlanta-based judge said the school board’s policy ordering the stickers be placed in middle-school and high-school textbooks sends “a message that the school board agrees with the beliefs of Christian fundamentalists and creationists.”

The ruling came in response to a group of Cobb County parents who filed a lawsuit against the school board asking for a halt to the policy.

Cooper, applying a test prescribed by a 1971 U.S. Supreme Court decision to determine if a government action violates the First Amendment’s establishment clause, said a reasonable observer would conclude that the stickers represented the school board’s endorsement of the religious view that God created the world a few thousand years ago in six literal days.

Such a reasonable observer, Cooper said, “would interpret the sticker to convey a message of endorsement of religion. That is, the sticker sends a message to those who oppose evolution for religious reasons that they are favored members of the political community, while the sticker sends a message to those who believe in evolution that they are political outsiders.”

In a preface to the opinion, Cooper took pains to note that his findings concern only a narrow legal issue and was not a pronouncement on other issues surrounding the controversy over the origin of species.

“First, the court is not resolving in this case whether science and religion are mutually exclusive, and the court takes no position on the origin of the human species,” Cooper wrote.

“Second, the issue before the court is not whether it is constitutionally permissible for public school teachers to teach intelligent design, the theory that only an intelligent or supernatural cause could be responsible for life, living things, and the complexity of the universe,” he continued.

“Third, this case does not resolve the ongoing debate regarding whether evolution is a fact or theory or whether evolution should be taught as fact or theory.”

The policy stems from a petition drive organized by Cobb County parent Marjorie Rogers in 2002. Rogers, who according to the opinion describes herself as a “six-day biblical creationist,” had complained about the lack of a disclaimer in the textbooks.

But, Cooper noted, the board didn’t order disclaimers regarding other theories that have some religious implications. “However, there are other scientific topics taught that have religious implications, such as the theories of gravity, relativity, and Galilean heliocentrism,” he wrote.

The head of a Washington-based group that supports strict church-state separation hailed the ruling as a “great decision.”

“These textbook disclaimers are part of a national campaign to undercut the teaching of evolution in public schools in accordance with fundamentalist Christian beliefs,” said Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “Today’s court decision will throw a major roadblock in the path of that crusade. Public schools may not be used to advance religious dogma, and the court has rightly upheld that principle.”

Posted: 1/21/05

Bush criticized for saying he won't push for amendment

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)—Despite clarifications from the White House, some socially conservative groups are criticizing President Bush for comments suggesting he will not pressure senators to pass a constitutional amendment outlawing same-sex marriage.

The comments, first published in a Jan. 16 Washington Post story based on an interview with Bush, suggested that he would not expend significant political capital in an attempt to pass the amendment.

According to the Post, Bush said it is not necessary to press for the amendment because so many senators have said a federal law known as the Defense of Marriage Act is sufficient to prevent the spread of gay marriage across the country. Massachusetts is currently the only jurisdiction in the country where same-sex marriage is legal.

“Senators have made it clear that so long as (the Defense of Marriage Act) is deemed constitutional, nothing will happen,” Bush told the Post. “I’d take their admonition seriously. … Until that changes, nothing will happen in the Senate.”

The proposal, also known as the Federal Marriage Amendment or Marriage Protection Amendment, died in Congress last year, after it failed on a procedural vote in the Senate. Several Republicans joined most Democrats in opposing it.

Dan Bartlett, the White House’s communications director, sought to clarify Bush’s statements on Sunday television news shows Jan. 16, saying the statement simply reflects Bush’s perspective on the legislative reality and “does not change President Bush’s view” on the amendment or his support for it.

But conservative Christians—whose high turnout rates on election day was credited by many pundits for Bush’s re-election—have campaigned heavily for the proposal. Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, in a press release responding to Bush’s comments, said the voters who elected him to office expect him to push hard for the amendment.

“Let’s be clear. Both here and abroad, the judicial assault on man-woman marriage is well underway,” Perkins said. ”For our nation’s leaders to be advocating that we wait for the Defense of Marriage Act to be struck down by the courts before they act to protect marriage is like a fire chief telling a local hotel to wait until there is a fire to install a sprinkler system.”