If only big-dollar churches (and ministers) would take such a position in their community - consider the possibilities with Lakewood Church in Houston with its famous Joel Osteen. Can you imagine what could be accomplished if Osteen, with his famous name and millions of dollars in donations were to take an interest?
We need more church communities like Buenas Nuevas Church and more pastors like Rev. Edwin Mieses.
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On Religion
Church Expands Its Mission to Immigration Advocacy
By SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN
Published: September 8, 2007
New York Times
HAZLETON, Pa.
...As Hazleton has become a national center for opposition to illegal immigrants, as members of ...[Rev. Edwin] Mieses’s congregation have experienced suspicion merely for being Hispanic, he has begun attending rancorous public meetings and sharing bulletins from his pulpit. In addition to staples like youth ministry and Bible study, his church has begun holding citizenship and English classes for adults.
...In the summer of 2006, Hazleton enacted an ordinance punishing landlords who rented to illegal immigrants and employers who hired them. The mayor, Louis J. Barletta, blamed illegal immigrants for a variety of crimes, and the CNN anchor Lou Dobbs regularly extolled the crackdown to his national audience. A federal judge struck down the ordinance in July, ruling that it had illegally exceeded federal laws, but the mood here remains tense and fractious.
“We are involved not so much by choice but because we’re forced to be involved,” said Mr. Mieses, 44, who was born in the United States to Dominican parents. “We want to keep the lines of church and politics separate, but we are affected by what has caused fear in our people, fear of being persecuted for being Latinos. I’d rather be encouraging people, inspiring people, but we have to make the Gospel relevant to the world.”
The almost begrudging political awakening of Mr. Mieses and his congregation typifies a national trend among Hispanic Pentecostals...
While no members of Buenas Nuevas have been arrested or deported for being in the United States illegally, Mr. Mieses said, several of them, including his brother-in-law, have been stopped and interrogated by the police despite being citizens. Even more, he said, have been on the receiving end of bigoted comments in supermarket checkout lines. A barber once refused to allow Mr. Mieses into his shop for a haircut; going bald lately, he has taken to shaving his head.
Taken together, such events made it impossible for him, Mr. Mieses said, not to discuss immigration and not to offer practical aid to immigrants in the form of English and citizenship classes. Tellingly, those classes are taught by Mercedes Cruz, who was born a Roman Catholic and who had previously offered similar programs at St. Gabriel, a Catholic church here that has been supportive of Hispanic residents...
church website: http://www.mibuenasnuevas.com
for complete article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/08/us/08religion.html
image: http://www.mibuenasnuevas.com/images/buenasnuevas.gif
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