Alabama Churches Unite to Halt Anti-Immigration Law

From Alabama-

Today the leaders of the Episcopal, Methodist and Roman Catholic churches of Alabama filed suit in federal court to stop the enforcement of Alabama’s Anti-Immigration Law because it prevents the free exercise of religion. The bishops called the new law “the nation’s most merciless anti-immigration legislation.”

Bishop Henry N. Parsley, Jr., of the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Alabama; Bishop William H. Willimon, of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church; Archbishop Thomas J. Rodi, of the Mobile Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Alabama; and Bishop Robert J. Baker, of the Birmingham Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Alabama, have joined together as plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit. Some 338,000 Alabama residents are members of Episcopal, Methodist and Roman Catholic churches in the state.

Augusta Dowd, an attorney representing Bishop Parsley, said, “These religious leaders seek relief because the law will prohibit, under threat of criminal prosecution, Alabama citizens from exercising their First Amendment right to freely practice their Christian faith.” Archbishop Rodi said “that ‘the love of Christ impels us’ (2 Cor. 5) to live our Christian faith. No law is just which prevents the proclamation of the Gospel message, the baptizing of believers, or love shown to a neighbor in need.”

More here-

http://www.wkrg.com/alabama/article/alabama-churches-unite-to-halt-anti-immigration-law/1208597/Aug-01-2011_10-55-am/