Lou Dobbs, Church-State Separationist

From the anti-illegal-immigration commentator at CNN:

The separation of church and state in this country is narrowing. And it is the church, not the state that is encroaching. Our Constitution protects religion from the intrusion or coercion of the state. But we have precious little protection against the political adventurism of all manner of churches and religious organizations.

The leadership of the Catholic Church and many Protestant churches, as well as Jewish and even Muslim religious organizations, are driving that political adventurism as those leaders conflate religion and politics. And while there is a narrowing of the separation between church and state, there is a widening schism between the leadership of churches and religious organizations and their followers and members. . . .

This week the head of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, Cardinal Roger Mahoney, basically threatened his faithful with denial of heaven if they don't support amnesty for illegal aliens. The good Cardinal said: "Anything that tears down one group of people or one person, anything that is a negative in our community, disqualifies us from being part of the eternal city."

The nation's religious leaders seem hell-bent on ignoring the separation of church and state when it comes to the politically charged issue of illegal immigration. A new coalition called Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform Wednesday will begin lobbying lawmakers with a new advertising and direct mail campaign on behalf of amnesty for illegal aliens.

Dobbs thus joins the long line of political debaters -- abortion-rights advocates, gay-rights advocates, segregationists during the 1960s -- who have tried to disqualify their opponents' religiously grounded values by invoking the separation of church and state.

Perhaps anticipating the familiar (unanswerable) argument that people's religious values can and do play a role in democratic political debate, Dobbs shifts to theology, quoting Romans 13 on the duty to submit to the governing authorities, who are ordained by God.  This would make a prima facie theological case against Christians who join the illegal-alien-sanctuary movement or otherwise break or help break the immigration laws (although one would still have to deal with the claims for civil disobedience against fundamentally unjust laws).  But it's not much of a case, is it, against those who petition the governing authorities to enact a law granting amnesty?  That's working with the system, not rebelling against it.  True, amnesty would be a law granting forgiveness from previous law violations (under certain conditions), but if the governing authorities could never take any such action we wouldn't have bankruptcy laws, truth and reconciliation commissions, executive pardons, and probably several other features of legal systems that don't come to my mind offhand.  The advisability of granting amnesty in the context of immigration reform is a legitimate matter for debate, as is the question whether bishops and other clergy have accurately interpreted their traditions in pushing for it as a legislative priority.  But Romans 13 and the separation of church and state are both beside the point.

Tom