Bama SBCExcom Rick Lance Immigration Law

[Stephen Fox]

Governor Bentley is prominent member of Lance's long term stay at FBC Tuscaloosa.

Senator Beason is member of Steve Gaines former FBC Gardendale.

Ethicsdaily.com took all Baptists on the State to task including the CBF. I imagine FBC Auburn's Jim Evans will weigh in soon.

ED.com staffer Cliff Vaughn is a native of Huntsville, Al as is his sister, Carol Ann who has considerable influence in the state from her platform on the faculty at Samford.

http://topics.al.com/tag/immigration/index.html

http://www.ethicsdaily.com/alabama-gove ... -cms-18036

[Jim]

[Stephen Fox]

http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=35518

And influential member of FBC Gardendale, Scott Beason. Gardendale the jumping off platform for Steve Gaines now at Bellevue.

Will Rick Lance fly Maria to Montgomery, Alabama to meet with his Deacon from FBC Tuscaloosa Gov Bentley.

Also bring in Dan Carro from the Leland Inst and Baptist World Alliance of which Timothy George is strong backer, to talk to and with Governor Bentley and Maria.

George is a big fan of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In light of the Jenkins and McBride essays in Bonhoeffer and King, what would Bonhoeffer have Lance and George do, say to the Governor at this teachable moment this opportunity for a prophetic word in Alabama

[Alan Carter]

If you lived in Texas, Arizona, or California you would better understand the need for immigration law enforcement. We are drowning in debt and one of the primary causes is illegal immigration. Its time for our government to enforce the laws of the land.

[Stephen Fox]

Now I guess we are waiting on Gov Bentley's Pastor Rick Lance.

Willimon the former Chaplain at Duke, has shared the Duke Chapel pulpit with Jerry Falwell, Billy Graham, Marney, BB Taylor, Fleming Rutledge and Peter Gomes and Will Campbell among others.

I am very proud of him for taking this stand.

http://ht.ly/5hvSJ

[Jim]

[KeithE]

[Stephen Fox]

SBTS Russ Moore and SBC ExDir Frank Page weigh in.

Will be interesting to see how Rick Lance translates all this to Gov Bentley in Alabama.

http://www.ethicsdaily.com/sbcs-content ... -cms-18060

[Stephen Fox]

http://www.npr.org/2011/06/16/137219413 ... mmigration

[Stephen Fox]

http://www.ethicsdaily.com/forgotten-pa ... -cms-18075

Evans column ran over the weekend in the Huntsville Times and Anniston Star among other papers in the state

[Stephen Fox]

http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispa ... migration/

Religious community may lead to reform

[Stephen Fox]

[Stephen Fox]

http://www.abpnews.com/content/view/6495/9/

I still haven't seen public statement by Rick Lance

[Stephen Fox]

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2011/06/ala ... aises.html

[Stephen Fox]

[Stephen Fox]

Steve Gaines was recent pastor of Bama Senator Beason, who with Bentley is now at eye of the storm of Bama immigration bill gaining national attention.

Since Gaines went from influential place in the SBC Resurgence to his wife's home church to follow Adrian Rogers, I think it fair to call on Gaines to unpack Senator Beason's recalcitrance here in light of the way Richard Land is inflecting SBC's stance on Immigration reform.

Beasley subject of featured Oped in June 22 Birmingham News

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

[Stephen Fox]

http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispa ... nstrances/

And this new film maybe they can watch in Montgomery over the weekend with the Alabama Southern Baptist ethics agency:

And a Better Life

http://www.npr.org/2011/06/22/137227086 ... etter-life

or Sinn Nombre

Maybe Beasley and Gaines, the Governor and SBC Ex Dir Lance should have a film festival with Bishop Willimon and Hernan Prado and my friend Annie Lucas Brown

[Stephen Fox]

Olson's blog got picked up by ethicsdaily.com
He had a followup blog you can see here

http://www.patheos.com/community/rogere ... rant-laws/

I made a comment on the earlier one about scapegoating.

[Stephen Fox]

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/ne ... 5889.story

They can also listen to interview or read the Transcript of today's Weds Fresh Air on NPR

[Stephen Fox]

[Stephen Fox]

http://www.trackforums.com/forum/showth ... mmigration

Jimenez was born in Greenville, S.C. and is now Page's successor at Taylors, appointed by Bryant Wright to head up the SBC Resolution.

Says sending everybody back is impractical; a notion that seems foreign to Bama Gov Bentley and Steve Gaines's Senator Beason.

Like Jimenez, UMC North Alabama Bishop Will Willimon was also born in Greenville South Carolina.

I imagine they all have their long form Birth Certificate to show Gov Bentley, Lance and Beason should they want to see them at the Forum in Birmingham this Tuesday at Highlands UMC at Five Points.

[Stephen Fox]

http://www.leftinalabama.com/diary/8368 ... to-diary-1

I did not see Rick Lance, Steve Gaines or Eunie Smith, Bham native and widow of Albert Lee Smith; did not see their faces in the crowd.

I think it quite likley that Pastor Jimenez, Frank Page's successor at FBC Taylors and chair of 2011 SBC Resolutions Committee; the son of an immigrant from Nicaragua, were he a pastor in Birmingham, Alabama area, could have quite likely found himself among the throng, in this Candlelight vigil.

And video of the march in this piece from Bham News:

http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2011/06/mar ... t_new.html

[Stephen Fox]

George, a supporter of the Baptist World Alliance whose Vice-President Daniel Carro led a workshop with Mercer's Proff Wilson at the Atlanta Covenant meeting of January 2009, is in an interesting vortex on the Immigration matter.
His wife has co-authored a book with Ms. McKinstry, a survivor of the bombing of the 16th Street BC in Bham in September of 1963
George, a leader of the Manhattan Declaration with Chuck Colson, also claims to be a devotee of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who drove through Alabama in 1931 with Frank Fisher, whose Father C.L. Fisher Ms McKinstry celebrates in her book on 16th Street BC.
Will Timothy George use his influence with the likes of Charles Pickering, SBC Peace Committee member, now on board with the Alliance Defense Fund, to shame Gov. Bentley and FBC Gardendale's Scott Beason into a better legacy for the aspirations of his wife coauthor's experience in Bham.
Or will he be silent with Rick Lance.

This theo-political ball is now in the court of a co-author of the Manhattan Declaration.
How will his conversation go with the Bham City Council?

http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2011/06/bir ... ondem.html

[Stephen Fox]

I attended the forum on Tuesday at the Highlands UMC in Bham. RG LYons and Matt Lacey, the young UMC ministers are on the front row in the opening shot of the ABC 33/40 report

http://www.abc3340.com/story/14994461/immigration

And here is UMC official report on the gathering

http://www.umc.org/site/apps/nlnet/cont ... 33&notoc=1

Lyons is a native of Centre, Alabama, and Lacey is pastor of Woodlawn UMC in Bham the home church of Bull Connor and the great UMC pastor John Rutland. Their story is told in Paul Hemphill's Leaving Birmingham.
The two pretty much ghost wrote Bishop Willimon's statement at his peculiar prophet blog.
Also at the meeting was Joe Godfrey, head of ALCAP for the state, a key leader in the Bama CR who in April 2002 hosted Judge Pressler at Godfrey's then Taylor Rd BC in Montgomery. While Pressler was intown, they had a three person lunch with Judge Roy Moore of Ten Commandment fame. Godfrey was raised at West Rome BC in 60's and 70's; mentored by SBC President Jerry Vines.

At one point Godfrey was on panel with attorney Matthew Penfield of the Maynard Cooper Law firm; one of his associates on that firm is Stephen Black, grandson of SCOTUS legend Hugo Black.

So it was an interesting mix. At one point in conversations among the gathered it was suggested Albert Lee Smith's widow Eunie, and religious right advocate Mickey Kirkland were a force pressuring Scott Beason to move the bill through the Senate.

33/40 says there are more presentations to come, July 18 in Huntsville, and later in Tuscaloosa

[Stephen Fox]