Religion and Arizona - Into the Wilderness for Christianity?

USA Today had reactions from religious leaders to the new Arizona law that will check papers, stop vehicles, impound vehicles, and arrest those associated with illegal migrants. The clergy cited by USA today called the law a ""sin."

The largest single church in Arizona is the Catholic Church (28%) and there has been some rumbling. The biggest grumble from Catholics, however, has come out of Los Angeles from Cardinal Mahony who, on his blog, called the law "dreadful" and called for reform of the laws to remove the conflict between the "Help Wanted" sign and the "No Trespassing" signs on the US border. Mahony also condemned the aspects of the law that require US citizens to inform on each other.

On another religious note, much of the early settlement of Arizona was done by Mormons - themselves seeking a refuge when the kind people of the mid-west and New England found them to be less-than-acceptable participants in the American Dream. Missouri's "extermination order" was one fun example of US Americans sharing the love. Mormons in Arizona are now only 6% of the population, 17% of the AZ legislature. At any rate, conservative Mormons see no lovely irony in the use of state power to oust a group THEY don't like. I would also note, as I have before, that though you are not allowed to be baptized a Mormon if you are currently breaking the law, the LDS church does not stop baptism if you are an illegal alien. (Arizona Republic, April 2, 2009) I assume, as in many churches, there is something of a gap between the church leadership which tends toward compassion on immigration and the conservative rank and file which tends toward... well, see the samples below to see what they tend toward. (From LDS Freedom Forum). (And of course, these nut-jobs below do not reflect the views of all Mormons... even in Arizona.)

From an acquaintance who works in the AZ Capitol:
"I haven't had any discussions with any of the senators yet, but it sounds to me like Obama is rumbling about trying to stop it. And I was told by someone in my Ward tonight that Janet Napolitano said in an interview today, "Oh, Governor Brewer signed the bill ...? Oh, that's too bad -- now we won't be able to give Arizona any federal funding." I hope that's true because it would save a lot of time and effort if they would just cut us off altogether. We want to get out from under the feds, and this would do it!! I hope it's true! So, to answer your question, "What do I expect?" I guess I won't be surprised if Obama tries to stop us -- either through cutting off federal funding or something else. I'm sure it won't take him long to try to bully us back into submission."

or

To understand the illegal immigration and amnesty issues in depth, I believe it is necessary to understand the bigger picture. We are being assaulted not only by mass immigration of people who place tremendous burdens on our society and public services, but also by the global warming hoax, the terrorism hoax carried out by false flag Ops and media hype, undeclared wars that hurt our economy, and other actions that are leading to the destruction of the American economy and culture.

I have concluded that the purpose of this destruction is to make Americans more willing to accept a socialist or fascist dictatorship to replace what is left of our constitutional republic. All this is intended by people who have been and are still the puppetmasters of recent US Presidents and many in Congress, to eventually enable them to make this country subject to a single world government.

Good times with religion and law in Arizona.