Tennessee Clergy Step up the Fight Against Anti-Immigrant Laws
In December, we blogged about Clergy for Tolerance, the new group of interfaith leaders in Tennessee pushing back on anti-immigrant rhetoric and legislation in their state.
The clergy coalition has seen major growth lately. According to Kathy Chambers, co-organizer of CFT, at the most recent meeting “almost half the attendees were new to Clergy for Tolerance, which shows this issue is gaining traction within the Middle Tennessee faith communities.”
She also explained that the 180th Annual Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee had adopted a resolution vowing to stand with immigrants and advocate for their protection. Most of the authors of the resolution attended the event.
Also at the meeting, members screened a new documentary produced by EthicsDaily.com on faith and immigration called “Gospel Without Borders.” The documentary highlights stories from five states dealing with the issue of immigration and its intersection with faith.
Following the film, a panel including Lutheran bishop Julian Gordy discussed the challenge facing the religious community in Southeastern states:
Tennessee has not passed any restrictive immigration legislation yet, Gordy said, but such has been proposed, and it will be proposed again this year. Alabama and Georgia (states in the ELCA’s Southeastern Synod) have passed laws that Gordy called “very mean-spirited.”
“In those states, almost all religious communities have come together, at least officially, to oppose what the state has done,” said Gordy. “Now granted, most of the people who proposed and passed those laws were also members of the congregations of those churches that came together to oppose it.”
Watch a teaser of the film below:
Learn more about the documentary at EthicsDaily.com and watch more trailers on their Vimeo channel.
It’s really interesting how people can be very religious and believe in social justice from a Biblical perspective, but not translate the same time of compassion and love to other issues such as immigration policy negatively affecting marginalized communities in our country. Great cover of the story.