In a lawsuit filed earlier today, representatives of Alabama's Roman Catholic, Episcopalian and Methodist churches claimed the state's new immigration law unlawfully restricts their ability to exercise their faith. The Birmingham News' Kent Faulk offers quotes from the filing.
According to the lawsuit, "the bishops have reason to fear that administering of religious sacraments, which are central to the Christian faith, to known undocumented persons may be criminalized under this law."
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"Motivated by God's mandate that the faithful are humbly bound to welcome and care for all people, the leaders of the Episcopal, Methodist and Roman Catholic Churches of Alabama respectfully request this Court to stop the enforcement of Alabama's Anti-Immigration Law,"
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"If enforced, Alabama's Anti-Immigration Law will make it a crime to follow God's command to be Good Samaritans," according to the lawsuit.
Bloomberg's coverage adds this important statement:
The law “interferes with the biblical imperative of hospitality which our churches have adopted and encoded in various documents of governance,” Bishop Robert J. Baker of the Birmingham Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Alabama said in the statement. “It aims to shut the doors of our churches and social ministries, against our wills, to a whole class of people, denying them access to such basic human needs as food, clothing, shelter, and, most importantly, worship of God.”
