AZ immigration law. Views, context & text.

I support legal immigration.  My dad came on a job visa, became a resident alien and finally got us through the process.  It took many years as we waited for approvals.  He sacrificed being away from us to give us a better life and future.  Coming from a poor country, I understand why others would take their chances to sneak in here illegally.  Seeing the video below makes me understand why the citizens of this country would want the immigration laws to be enforced.

With regards to the Arizona law, I would be remiss if I did not post the bishops' comments.  Then again, those were for an earlier draft.  So, I posted the revised law as well.  I wonder if the bishops would revise their appraisal.

"WASHINGTON— In solidarity with the Catholic bishops of Arizona, Bishop John C. Wester of Salt Lake City, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Migration, issued a statement April 27, opposing the enactment and implementation of Arizona SB 1070, which criminalizes undocumented immigrants. “This new law, although limited to the State of Arizona, could have impact throughout the nation, in terms of how members of our immigrant communities are both perceived and treated,” Bishop Wester said in the statement. “SB 1070 gives law enforcement officials powers to detain and arrest individuals based on a very low legal standard, possibly leading to the profiling of individuals based upon their appearance, manner of speaking, or ethnicity.” More at: http://www.usccb.org/comm/archives/2010/10-080.shtml

Here's the text of the May 1st version of the Arizona law.  http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/49leg/2r/bills/sb1070s.pdf

Here's a video from those who support the law.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEVeRQgExjk&feature=player_embedded

Video commentary from producer:  "As the video will show, there are rebellious dissidents within our borders and within our institutes of higher learning who openly call Americans “frail, racist white people who want to keep us out of this country.”  Read more: http://nosheepleshere.blogspot.com/2010/05/america-emasculated-by-ignorant.html#ixzz0oVW9qDQL"

'Pastoral' - not where men are men and the sheep are nervous.

There's a state where men are men and the sheep are nervous.  But we'll leave that to show that anyone with a staff can be a shepherd.  To lead people, one needs to be a good shepherd like Jesus who would search for the lost sheep then carry it on his shoulders when it's too tired to walk back.

Tax collectors and whores were like lost sheep and Jesus went after them. He drank with Matthew and allowed Mary to touch him by letting her wipe his feet with her hair. But after that, he asked them to change, “Follow me.  Sin no more.”  He didn't stop at the drinking and touching.  This is his way of shepherding  – his pastoral method. And while the first part is easy, popular and politically savvy, the follow through is the one that saves.

Some church leaders today get stuck in the first step – seeing, hearing and doing no evil.  But they conveniently justify their inaction as being pastoral to the detriment of the sinner and those affected by his actions. Consider the 60 million children in the US who were brutally slaughtered in their mothers' wombs because, the supporters and legislators of abortion laws are permitted by their pastors to receive Holy Communion.
If these pols are ignorant about their responsibilities to defend life, how pastoral is it to tacitly look the other way?  If these pols knew the errors of their ways, how pastoral is it to simply let them be?  Either way is to grease the slippery slope to eternal perdition. And with the condemned will be their pastors who were too distracted to notice, too preoccupied to understand,  too lazy to correct, too timid to confront or too scared to discipline.

The pastoral way of the Incarnate God is loving because it is real; and to be real is to be truthful. It does not call evil - good and good - evil.  To be loving without upholding the truth is to be like a dotting parent who spoils the child into a brat. Yet, it proclaims the truth in love.  To uphold the truth without love is to forget that the law was for man and not man for the law.

Music Video: Daddy's Hands

Even if our daughters don't respond to our parenting, we must never give up or get bitter.  We plant the seed of counsel and discipline now and leave it to the good Lord to let it blossom in His time.  Always bear in mind the good word that St. Paul has written in his first letter to the Corinthians chap. 13.

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK6QJP4khPM&feature=related

Dolly Parton lends her vocals for a live version of Holly Dunn's timeless classic song, "Daddy's Hands".