NYT Iowa story - Evangelicals hate immigrants

[dalton99a]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/03/us/ice-raid-iowa-churches.html

An ICE Raid Leaves an Iowa Town Divided Along Faith Lines
The detention of 32 workers at a concrete plant opened fissures among the town’s churches and secular leaders, and brought an abstract national issue painfully close to home.
By Trip Gabriel
July 3, 2018

MOUNT PLEASANT, Iowa — In the days after immigration agents raided a dusty concrete plant on the west side of town, seizing 32 men from Mexico and Central America, the Rev. Trey Hegar, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, got into an impassioned argument on his Facebook page.

“The Bible doesn’t promote helping criminals!!!!” a Trump supporter wrote.

Mr. Hegar answered with Leviticus: “When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.”

The Trump supporter came back with the passage in the Gospel of Mark about rendering unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and added for good measure: “Immigration laws are good and Godly! We elected our leaders and God allowed it.”

...

Mr. Hegar’s church on Walnut Street is across from the site of Mount Pleasant’s most popular event, a Labor Day festival of steam-powered tractors and other farm machinery. In the days and weeks after the raid, the church became a hectic crossroads for family members of the detained men and their supporters. Parishioners in a group called Iowa Welcomes Immigrant Neighbors raised $80,000 to help detainees’ families pay rent, utilities and legal fees.

Other mainline Protestant churches, including the Lutherans, contributed to the fund, as did the Catholics at St. Alphonsus, where a Spanish Mass is held once a month. Notably absent from the donor roll, though, were Mount Pleasant’s evangelical churches.

[Vinca]

1. I guess Jesus wouldn't be welcome in Trumpland.

[dalton99a]

3. "Dirty Mexican!"

even though we know for a fact that Jesus spoke fluent English

[Vinca]

4. I assume you're referencing hot, blond Jesus not the "other one." LOL.

[3Hotdogs]

10. Dirty Nazareen. Lookin' for free handout.

[Squinch]

2. Evangelicals have concocted a sweet deal for themselves. If it happened, God willed it, and

therefore they can do anything they damn well please.

Assholes. There is not a speck of ethic or morality in that nonsense. And deep down, they know that perfectly well. They are the anti-Christ.

[yardwork]

6. Are they so self-deluded, they believe their own lies?

The right-wing evangelical movement in the U.S. was built on that "prosperity gospel" delusion, which would be laughable in its absurdity if it hadn't caused so much damage to our country.

I think that they believe their own lies.

Edited to add that I agree - they are the anti-Christ.

[JHB]

9. They are and they do.

You want to sew division among Republicans? Wind these people up and let them go on about how Catholics aren't Christians.

[Orangepeel]

11. Right? I wonder how many ever said that between 2008 and 2016

[Squinch]

13. Good point. And they think they need to feed their god an armageddon in order for white guys

to be able to keep a heel on everyone else's necks.

They really are such an evil force.

[WhiteTara]

17. and no matter what they do or did

Jesus died for their sins and they are absolved of responsibility.

[klook]

5. Bad Samaritans (nt)

[paleotn]

7. Evangelicalsim is

Evangelicalism is hate codified as a religion. Nothing more.

[Vogon_Glory]

8. Up until recently, Northern Evangelicals have enjoyed

A reputation for being devout (if perhaps over-enthusiastic) Christians free from the taint of racism that has haunted their southern brethren for more than a century. Actions speak more forcefully than words, and that reputation is going, going, going...


If in the near future they bewail a reputation for racist bigotry, they need only remember that it wasn’t given, but earned.

[paleotn]

16. They've fallen off the cliff as well....

Maybe the SBC and northern Baptists should rejoin since they're all just as bigoted and hateful. It's funny, over the years I've discovered that public devotion and loudly espoused purity is inversely proportional to actual following the tenants of their religion. Those who profess the loudest have the most skeletons in their closets.

[Vogon_Glory]

18. If they decide to mend their ways and their reputations, they may

find that like Moses and the Isaelites making their way from Egypt to the Promised Land, it’ll take them 40 years to live it down.

Assuming that they still remember how.

[el_bryanto]

12. You can't mix religion and politics without harming both.

My own faith is as guilty of this as many others.

I will add one caveat - acknowledging your faith as a motivating power in your life if you are a politician shouldn't be a big deal, but when you use it to justify a specific political policy it crosses the lie.

Bryant

[rockfordfile]

14. The KKK and Christianity have always been together.

[The Polack MSgt]

15. Pleaser allow a slight correction

Protestantism and the Klan have always been together.

They hate Catholics almost as much as Jews.

There are many good and sufficient reasons to condemn my former faith, but connecting them to the Klan is just wrong.

[TheBlackAdder]

19. "We elected our leaders and God allowed it." It sounds like they're following Satan.

.

Did God let the serpent into the Garden, or does he not really see and know everything?

The point: Are you sure God isn't fucking with us when assholes get elected to office, or is He really not micro-managing everyone and everything like you guys believe he is. In either context, evil has permeated the churches and vis a vis the elected office holders under the guise of holiness and virtue.

.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

20. K&R

[GulfCoast66]

21. When someone believes that 6000 years ago,

A 600 year old man made a wooden boat and saved every animal on earth from a worldwide flood, which 25% of Americans do...they will believe anything.