A Democrat Congressman says “every institution in America” should find ways to ignore or work around federal immigration laws.
Let’s see… Big Business, the Roman Catholic Church, the mainline protestant churches, most public universities, municipals governments, state governments, the Federal Government, the welfare bureaucracies, the public schools, law enforcement, banks, insurance companies.
I think every major institution in the country is already ignoring immigration laws.
Maybe conservatives should just ignore tax laws the ways liberals ignore immigration laws.
Makes me want to change that to tax laws. Why should I have money taken from me to support some crack addict that squatted out 21 feral illegitimate kids like the woman from NJ?
The difference between the f’ing socialists and conservatives is that we obey laws, even if we don’t concur with them. The left won’t follow the law unless they have written that law in their favor.
2014: Michael Jackson Moonwalks and Performs at Billboard Music Awards Show
http://commoncts.blogspot.com/2014/05/2014-michael-jackson-moonwalks-and.html
VtK, as a on-again-off-again Catholic of dubious standing with the Church, I am more than a little annoyed with the bishops who bang the amnesty drum. It should be noted that these bishops are with Latinos themselves, or are bishops of diocese with high Latino populations, and are whoring themselves to gain favor with their congregations.
In my most anti-clerical moments, I often think of the hierarchy of the Church as whores, willing to do whatever it takes to perpetuate the existence of the Catholic Church. Hence their recent focus on South America and Africa, where their message is getting more traction. Catholics I mention this to wonder how the Church will “survive” in these areas when it has always been based in the West, but that’s the thing: the Catholic Church thinks the West needs the Church more than the Church needs the West. The Catholic Church has gone through a Hebrew phase, a Greek phase, a Roman phase, and is on the tail-end of a Germanic phase, changing its ceremonies and structures to gain tractions with the dominant culture of the time and place. Why do you think the Church adapted so many pagan festivals? If Africans are willing to accept the Church, well, the bishops will be more than happy to play up the aspects of Christianity that appeal to the Africans.
If the Church decides to leave the West to fall, screw them. I’m not (yet) daring enough to hook up with something off-the-wall like neo-paganism, mostly because I’m too attached to Christianity for that, and I’m not willing to go for Protestantism due to the apostolic succession issues that my Catholic upbringing has infected me with. I could consider jumping ship for the Orthodox or even non-denominationalism, but the higher-ups in the Church would really have to piss me off force me to that point.
Sean, go Episcopalian. It’s Catholic lite.
Every major institution in the US is paranoid about hiring an Illegal, so people have to jump through hoops to prove they’re citizens. This guy doesn’t live in reality.
@ Juan: I don’t mean to be rude, but f**k no. I’m way too conservative to join those fruits. Episcopalians are mainstream Protestant, which automatically means “slowly collapsing.” Pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage, pro-affirmative action, “nuanced” on abortion; they are liberal whores, through and through. Episcopalians I have spoken to have expressed concerns that their clergy are more interested in appeasing the liberal elite than actually trying to follow Christ’s teachings. As much as I have problems with the Catholic clergy, I’m too Catholic to even consider switching to the Episcopalians.
And I would make sacrifices to Odin and Thor and consign myself to an eternity in Hel’s icy halls before I called some sanctimonious hippy lady in male drag a “priest.”
I like the tax law suggestion. If “every institution in America” should undermine this country’s immigration laws, according to a federal official, then I see no reason why I or any other citizen should feel compelled to follow the tax laws. Underground economy, here I come!
Sean L,
I have been fascinated with this pastor and the mission he has built. My years with the Jesuits was great for me in helping to develop my understanding of many things, but I realize that I was drilled on the fundamentals, without being given the chance to absorb the teachings of the church on my own terms of understanding.
Maybe the link is a little too regional, but the ministry has an incredible record and is spreading out with great success. It never goes off the track of who you are and how you relate to the teachings of the faith. Politics and social engineering are not a part of the program.
You will note that it is only AMERICAN immigration laws that are being ignored.
Good luck getting into Russia like that.
Sean I’m a recovering Catholic and the RCA (recovering catholic anonymous) meetings help. I stopped pulling out my hair with their support.
Sean L., when I went to college I broke away from the mainline Protestant denomination I was raised in because it had become hollow to me, and, frankly, pro-Communist. I took a long journey and tried many different denominations, including Roman Catholic (too much pomp and ritual), Episcopal (way too PC), Lutheran (stale), nondenomination (their services felt too much like pep rallies) and others before eventually converting to LDS. Partly because an LDS service was the first place I truly felt the Spirit of God, and partly because LDS is the Nerd Church; and that suits me fine.
It’s one of the reasons it angers me that the secular left portrays all Christians as mindless followers. First, a lot of us have undergone long, thoughtful journeys to discover our faith. And second, standing up to the aggressive secularism of modern society takes real balls.
There is a great deal of diversity within denominations. Mine, Presbyterian, might be liberal in one neighborhood, and more conservative (PCA) in the next. And I don’t let a church define my faith. That is, I believe, the one reason I could never become a Catholic.
I think that it is ironic that Congressman Gutierrez bangs the drum for amnestyfor predominately mexican and Central American illegals. Yet he supports independence for his native Puerto Rico.
For those who are unhappy with the various religious denominations but would like to belong to a spiritual group i recommend Religious Science, a.k.a. Science of the Mind. After having been born in Italy as a Roman Catholic, after migrationg becoming Anglo Catholic Episcopalian and a priest in the same, then back to Rome, and a short spell evangelicals, I found my spiritual home in Religious Science, and have been happy ever since because there is no dogma nor doctrine. For me the teachings based on the universal laws common to all religions, among them the Law of Cause and Effect, the Law of Compensation, and prosperity is a divine right, all sound like good conservative Republican principles.
We are now a banana republic. Pissing on one’s oath of office is just to be expected.
@ V the K: Unfortunately, I find Mormonism a little silly because of their Restorationist teachings: the “real” Church ceased to exist at some point in the past, and it took Joseph Smith and some divine revelation for the “real” Church to be restored. All this despite the fact that Jesus said point blank that His Church would never go away. That, and LDS have the same problem with homosexuality as Catholics, plus dietary restrictions. I like caffeine to much to become a Mormon.
@ fortdixmike: I appreciate the suggestion, but I just don’t like the implication that my upbringing was somehow harmful. Yes, I have my issues with Catholicism, but even with the problems I’ve dealt with and continue to deal with, I can’t bring myself to consider my upbringing in the Church as some form of religious abuse. Maybe in a few years I’ll wake up and decide that, yes, my religious upbringing has caused me emotional distress that I have sublimated, but not at this point.
I don’t know about any of you guys, but having grown up in a tight-knit Catholic family, dropping Catholicism is not as easy as all that. I am still very attached to the ritual and ceremony (sorry, V!), but I’m saddened that I cannot be fully accepted by the Church, and may never be accepted by it. To say nothing of the rift that will certainly form between me and my family over my sexuality and any decision to walk away from Catholicism. Maybe I’m mentally abused and I don’t realize it, but I can’t bear the thought of going against my family in such a fundamental way.