Because the Bible tells them so

Second of four parts.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - On a rainy evening last September in a Kansas City park, a group of 76 Presbyterians, Methodists, Mennonites, Roman Catholics and Disciples of Christ were clustered in a circle, trying to keep their candles from going out.

They were a stone’s throw from Interstate 70, the most public place they could find to proclaim that illegal immigrants have a place in their churches as part of the “new sanctuary” movement.

After reading Scriptures in English and Spanish, church members pledged to offer “sanctuary,” a concept that reaches back into Old Testament times when a fugitive could seek refuge from the law in designated cities and within the Jewish temple.

Signs such as “Love the immigrant as yourself” and “All religions believe in justice” rested on several shoulders, and three children dashed about with the slogan “The USA deported my daddy” emblazoned on black T-shirts.

Their mother, Winnie Jamieson - a self-described “college-educated, voted-Republican, born-again Christian and mother of three” - sported a slogan asking, “Who would Jesus deport?” She talked of losing $30,000 in court costs trying to keep her Jamaican husband, found guilty of using a false birth certificate, in the country. He was deported in 2004.

“This has devastated our family,” she said. “I cannot begin to tell you of the hurt suffered by innocent children because of the loss of their father.”

Just above them stood a sky-blue freeway billboard proclaiming, “Love the Immigrant as Yourself.” Next came a Bible citation from Leviticus 19:33-34: “And if a stranger dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him.”

A subtitle read, “Keep Families Together.”

The Rev. Patrick Murphy, head of Hispanic Ministries for the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, pronounced a blessing as an audience of birds lined up on an overhead phone cable. Then low on the horizon, the sun suddenly popped out, causing glassy skyscrapers to the west to glimmer in the golden twilight.

Kansas City was one of several cities visited by The Washington Times during an examination of this movement and its activists, pastors and the illegal immigrants they are sheltering. The subjects offered firsthand accounts of living on the run, insights into the goals of the movement and spiritually based justifications for flouting U.S. immigration laws.

Barbecue belt

The small crowd at the Kansas City rally included about 20 people from Grandview Park Presbyterian, a Kansas church pastored by the Rev. Rick Behrens. He estimated that 70 percent of his congregation is Hispanic, most of whom are illegal immigrants.

He would like to volunteer his 117-year-old church as a sanctuary for illegals, but he doesn’t want officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) permanently parked outside his door.

“It’s a constant part of our life as a church to keep people safe,” he said. “People are living in a whole lot of fear right now. That’s the problem of raising our head too high on this. If we became a sanctuary, some 30 families could be affected.”

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