Last May I stirred up a huge controversy here by condemning newly minted state laws that criminalize Christian behavior. The provisions to which I objected were those that criminalized (actually made felonies) knowingly transporting illegal immigrants and sheltering them.
Several people here objected, claiming that these laws exempted humanitarian transportation and shelter. As it turned out, however, those qualifications applied only to emergency service workers, hospitals and state-licensed humanitarian organizations. No one ever proved here or elsewhere, to my satisfaction, that these state laws (especially in Oklahoma and Alabama) did NOT, in fact, criminalize individual acts of humanitarian aid to needy illegal immigrants.
Today’s newspaper contains an article from the New York Times (by Campbell Robertson) reporting on a federal judge’s ruling on the Alabama law. Quote: “She [the judge] blocked a broad provision that outlawed the harboring or transporting of illegal immigrants….”
The state’s governor, according to the article, expressed expectation that the blocked sections of the law would be upheld on further appeals.
I will say this again: I do not believe a legislator or government official can be a Christian who writes, passes or signs a law that criminalizes basic Christian behavior.
Thank God for a U.S. District Court judge who saw the folly in such a law and blocked its enforcement.
To me, these laws raise the specter of fascist xenophobia that usually leads to concentration camps (as in the U.S. treatment of US citizens of Japanese descent during WW2).
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