Bama Immigration Bill Apologist co-opts Samford Icon/

[Stephen Fox]

http://blog.al.com/birmingham-news-comm ... ratio.html

Randy Sparkman says he is a School Board administrator in North Alabama.

I imagine the consensus of Samford faculty, Dean Brad Creed in particular, and I hope President Westmoreland, would have dissenting view from Sparkman and would have some reservation about his use of a Samford icon to make his case both in the online picture and print issue of Sunday's Bham News.
I think most of the Samford faculty would be more of thinking of UMC Bishop Willimon and FBC Auburn pastor Jim Evans and the several essays at http://www.ethicsdaily.com
But now would be the time for them to speak to it.
There is a ralley in Ft. Payne, Alabama August 27 about a block from the FBaptist and FUMC churches. The Ft. Payne Catholic Church is the main, maybe sole sponsor of the "Prayer for Christian and Human Values" gathering; Hometown park with statues of the country mega group Alabama. Also the park where Mary Anne Cole and Albert Lee Smith's widow Eunie Smith hold their tea party rallies.

Smith's Eagle Forum is leading the Gov Bentley Forces in St. legistlature. See video from below from Crossville, Alabama. Eunie Smith is key figure in Tea Party ralleys held in Ft. Payne.

Whether Samford will speak with something of a unified voice on the immigration bill; or the good folks of and the Most Influential protestant churches in the 2nd most densely Hispanic populated county in the state, remains to be seen.
Casual, ad hoc on the fly conversations with folks in those congregations suggest to me at least the Tea Party ideology is strong, maybe bullying in several influential congregations.
Bishop Willimon has his work cut out for him. Will be interesting to see what local educational avenues obtain on the matter, are possible.

www.secondcooler.com and Parham's documentary are grand educational tools for the Influentials in the region. I imagine Bishop Willimon is ready when they are.

For starters would be good if Sunday School classes at these two leading churches would consider Colin Harris recent ethicsdaily.com post on Bama's Immigration bill, the Tea Party and days of George Wallace.

[KeithE]

[Stephen Fox]

http://www.npr.org/2011/08/23/139887408 ... ration-law

Judge decides tomorrow whether to put the bill on hold for further review or full implementation Sept . 1.

Bellevue Steve Gaines former charge St. Senator bill spnsor Scott Beason was on the national feed. High time for Gaines to have a conversation with Adrian Rogers son David, whose writings at SBCImpact lead me to believe he may have a differing word for Gaines and Beason.
Rogers also differs in significant nuance from Albert Lee Smith's widow Eunie, a Tea Party activist whose views on race and class, mercy and Justice seemed not to have changed much from White Citizen Council Days of George Wallace of the 60's.

My friend John Killian is at a different place from Eunie Smith and Scott Beason. Killian hosted Gov Bentley at his church Sunday week ago for celebration of 100th birthday of his Maytown Baptist.
I hope Killian, Bentley, bishop Willimon, Mike Shaw and the ecumenical council of greater Alabama will summitt soon on this matter as they consider the Martin Luther King Memorial Celebration in D.C. this weekend.

[Stephen Fox]

Otherwise known as FBC Greenville:

http://www.ethicsdaily.com/examining-im ... -cms-18410

[Stephen Fox]

Scroll around this site and read carefully

http://www.secondcooler.com/

Thanks KeithE for the Heads Up. It is finally registering with me, the power with this piece.

How many churches in Dekalb County Alabama will view both this film and Parham's effort from ED.Com?

[Stephen Fox]

See the video at this Huffington Post site on Crossville Elementary School.

Crossville is home of Mitch Hedgepath, good kid, star of Belmont Basketball Team.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/2 ... 35047.html

[Stephen Fox]

[Stephen Fox]

http://photos.al.com/birmingham-news/20 ... law_2.html

Beason is a product of the ministry of Steve Gaines, of FBC Gardendale, Alabama, now at Bellevue Baptist in Memphis

[Stephen Fox]

http://times-journal.com/news/article_f ... 03286.html

[Stephen Fox]

http://www.waaytv.com/news/local/story/ ... sylkg.cspx

[Sandy]

Is there a record on this board for the most continuous posts by a single person, set by someone other than Fox? I almost feel as if I am interrupting a fine private conversation he is having with himself.

What's going on here is a mini Civil War, with several states pushing a "states rights" agenda into an area where the federal government has supreme authority. The need is not for new laws, it is for enforcement of the existing ones. Hence the dilemna.

The Republicans and their anti-spending posture have created this problem. Bush whacked the budget, including a good percentage of the money devoted to enforcing US immigration laws, the Border Patrol, and the State Department. Trying to enforce immigration policy in a country this size, on the money that was left, was not possible. The result was that nine million people came pouring over the borders, mostly from poverty-stricken Latin America. Corporate America isn't exactly thrilled with the idea of returning to strict border enforcement, since they have been able to capitalize on cheap labor as a result, and they don't want to pay the taxes necessary to protect the borders or enforce the laws.

So, the states have interjected themselves into this quagmire of cross purposes. It certainly makes sense, if the federal government isn't going to have the money to enforce the borders and immigration law, for the states to help out. But if they're going to help, then they have to have laws to enforce, and that's where the problems come in. You'll have fifty different laws with fifty different systems for enforcing them. Maybe the confusion will just keep people from crossing the border.

I think the best solution is just to tax the corporations to pay for protecting their property, and enforcing laws they are breaking.

[Stephen Fox]

Could get his hands on the www.secondcooler.com documentary and Parham's documentary easily found at ethicsdaily.com and have his folks back in Texas ( you moved to some other parts, didn't you Sandy) discuss these matters.

Or have David Currie and Barry Hankins discuss these matters with Governor Rick Perry soon after watching the 2nd cooler and parham documentaries.

More later.
Nothin personal but I do not apologize for providing links and information to goad this board into a conversation about one of the most significant issues around right now.
The problem is not mine, but that folks like Joe Godfrey, Rick Lance and Bama Baptist editor Bob Terry are participating in public online discussions like this while folks like Wayne Flynt and Bishop Willimon are laying it on the line.

[Stephen Fox]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/opini ... n-law.html

[Stephen Fox]

http://www.ethicsdaily.com/gop-candidat ... -cms-18488