|More

 

Text

Translate

Disclaimer

This translation is not completely accurate as it was automatically generated by a computer.
Powered by

A UMNS Report
By Linda Bloom*

April 30, 2010 | ST. LOUIS (UMNS)

Fulata Mbano-Moyo (left) of the World Council of Churches and Myrna Stephens of the Kansas East Annual (regional) Conference share their viewpoints at the United Methodist Women's Assembly in St. Louis. UMNS photo by Mike DuBose.

Long before the passage of Arizona’s controversial new immigration law, United Methodist Women were planning a May 1 march and rally on immigrant rights.

The public action, in collaboration with local organizations and interfaith leaders, is a centerpiece of the April 29-May 2 assembly that has drawn some 6,500 women to St. Louis.

As they participate in worship, service projects and workshops on topics ranging from the foreclosure crisis to prison ministries, with salsa dancing and karaoke thrown in for fun, the women are focusing on how to advocate through their faith.

The Arizona law requires immigrants to carry documents verifying their immigration status. Police officers with “reasonable suspicion” may question a person’s immigration status.

Like other United Methodist Women, Ann Thomas is gaining a new perspective on immigrant issues through relationships in her local church and community.

Eric Ward of the Center for New Community helps lead a workshop on immigration. UMNS photo by Mike DuBose.

Her congregation, First United Methodist Church in Ypsilanti, Mich., has a Latino ministry and an associate pastor from Mexico. “Now, I have learned a lot about the problems immigrants have,” said Thomas, who attended an April 30 forum on immigration and race at the assembly.

She’s also had a first-hand view of the devastation caused to three church families torn apart by deportation. In one case, a mother was separated from her husband and child and sent back to Mexico. “I think it’s terrible,” she added.

Debate about America

The Rev. David Ostendorf, executive director of the Chicago-based Center for New Community, pointed out to Thomas and others that anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States has a long history and – whether aimed at the Chinese, the Irish, Eastern Europeans or Mexicans – is firmly tied to race.

“From the beginning, there was controversy about who was going to be let in,” he said.

Eric Ward, the center’s national field director, said the current debate is not about immigrants and refugees, but it is “a debate about who is an American and what America will look like.”

Ann Thomas

White supremacist groups are attempting to influence legislation and sway others with concerns about immigration by injecting bigotry “into what should be a rational discussion on migration and immigration in the United States,” Ward said.

The best way for United Methodist Women to affect “real action” on the immigration issue is to build relationships and trust with immigrants and refugees in their own communities, Ostendorf said.

With seven other states now considering legislation similar to that passed in Arizona, the time for action has come, he added.

Portions of the United Methodist Women’s Assembly in St. Louis can be viewed live over the Internet at http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/assembly/.

*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.

News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.