Angst struck me Thursday with news that the immigration reform bill had hit a wall in the U.S. Senate and appears dead until 2009, given the reality of politics. I felt a sad pathos at the impotence of national decision-makers who cannot and will not work together to solve serious social issues. Like many, I recognized the bills provisions as imperfect, but it seemed to be an honest step forward toward sanity about ordered immigration. So much powerful and passionate writing and speaking had addressed the knotty, complicated and distressing problems. As a church volunteer who drives the water truck every few months on a Saturday for Humane Borders to deliver water to tanks in the desert to help stem dehydration and death of migrants passing through, I agonize that little has been resolved amid this long, bitter debate. So well keep taking our turns driving the rough terrain hauling water. Its worth excerpting from a letter to the editor written Sunday by Teri Conrad, chairman of the Social Justice and Peacemaking Committee of the Presbytery of Grand Canyon. It began, I am dedicating this letter to Jose, although he will probably never read it. I met Jose at work. He was employed by a company that contracted to provide janitorial services. Generally, we ignore people like Jose. They pick our vegetables, process our meat, service us at restaurants, clean our hotel rooms, build our houses and scrub our toilets. To many people, they seem faceless and indistinguishable.Conrad noted she has been uncomfortable with the fact that so many people like Jose are relegated, by reality, to fill those work roles. In my Christian faith tradition, all people are precious and unique in Gods sight, she shared. With the sting of such guilt, she decided to be intentional about greeting the people who cleaned her building just as I would greet my colleagues. And that is how he met Jose.Teri Conrad explained how the greeting went to a conversation about each others families. She practiced her Spanish with Jose and he struggled to talk to her in English. Together they laughed about the challenges of learning each others languages, Jose showed her a photo of a niece, and I introduced my father when was visiting, she noted.Now Jose is gone. I do no know where, nor why. I will probably never know, Conrad said, acknowledging that the experience taught her something important: It is time to stand up and let my voice be heard. For the past three years, I have listened while the tone of the conversation about immigration turned angrier, uglier and louder. The voices of peacemakers and moderates have been drowned amid the din.She suggested that efforts to erect imposing walls physical and virtual — dont deter the human spirit seeking a better life. We learned our lesson in Berlin. Any solution must address the economic factors of globalization, the need for additional workers in the United States and the human desire to improve ones standard of living.She called for compassion in exemplifying the Judeo-Christian tradition of treating strangers as guests. Bottom line: Jesus tells us to treat all people with love and compassion, she said. If we listen to his voice, we can no longer watch idly as hundreds die, trying to cross the desert. We can no longer ignore the inhumane working conditions. We can no longer watch the families who are ripped apart by raids and deportations.She called for honoring the humanity of immigrants as a group and as individuals. We applaud the work of the many churches and charitable organizations who provide water, food, clothing, shelter and other necessities. Citing significant places where Christians have serve to bring about social change, she said, Now as we face the challenge of illegal immigration. We must respond with tolerance, wisdom courage and compassion.

Homeland security has come to be an excuse to do anything. This obsession, this pretext to stop whatever, to inconvenience hundreds of millions for routine checks, this massive new security industry its all mind-boggling. Our summer vacation flights through Phoenix, Atlanta and Philadelphia and four days visiting the monuments and hallowed places in Washington, D.C., left me aghast that so many billions are being spent on elaborate machinery, gadgets and manpower. The petty little rules about what cannot be allowed into places perfume and fingernail files seem the creation of somebodys what-if bull sessions.Law enforcement is ready to shut down all activity whenever a nervous Nellie spots some ominous (to her) package. Take Wednesdays suspicious package left outside a fast-food restaurant in Salt Lake City. Police closed down several blocks for about two hours, then got a robot to detonate what was a music case containing nothing but a trumpet. Some VERY ALERT CITIZENS watched this package for a considerable amount of time and then they called the police thinking it didnt look right, a Salt Lake City detective said. Never mind common sense, police took no chances.Then we have the mindless case in a Valdosta, Ga., courtroom. A Georgia Muslim woman went to the courtroom of Municipal Court Judge Vernita Lee Bender to contest a speeding ticket. But she was prevented from entering because she was wearing a hijab, the traditional Islamic headscarf. Uniformed officers demanded she remove that scarf. The woman explained that she wears the scarf for religious reasons. She offered to let a female officer perform a body search. Still, the officers denied her entry to the courtroom due to homeland security. They reportedly told her that if she were allowed to wear the scarf, it would show disrespect to the judge. Then she was told that she could come back at a future date for the case, but still would be barred again if she insisted on wearing her hijab.Faced with that, the woman pleaded no contest and paid the $168 fine for the speeding ticket. The Council on American-Islamic Relations reported that the judge communicated an apology for the denial of entry, but was quoted as saying that we have rules that everyone has to follow.Rightfully, CAIR filed a complaint, noting that the courtroom is a public facility where civil rights legislation has stated that any denial access based on religious believes or practices is discriminatory.If such a policy were enforced across the board, then Sikh men could not come there wearing turbans; Orthodox Jewish men and women could not wear yarmulkes and head scarves, etc. Tactics like that only divide people and cause resentment. Oh, how easy is that catch-all pretext homeland security to herd people around these days. And any box sitting around without someone guarding it is certainly trouble. In Washington, we were deeply impressed by the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial along the Tidal Basin. I paused at one point when I read the wall showing "The Four Freedoms" that FDR enumerated in 1941. "Freedom from Fear" was the fourth listed. Fear was something he so passionately talked about when he was inaugurated in 1933. We cannot let fear and what might happen be such an easy excuse to take away our freedoms and leave us with tyranny by those "protecting us."

During March, I wrote extensively about Catholic writer-lecturer Edwina Gateley who was apparently too controversial to be allowed to speak at the Franciscan Renewal Center in Paradise Valley without the Diocese of Phoenix monitoring her remarks. The center is a Catholic facility, and the bishop has a policy that Catholic critics not have the privilege to use church property for their forums.Gateley, 63, author of 10 books, had been engaged to speak to a retreat for nuns for a week in early June, but she balked when she was informed that Bishop Thomas Olmsted wanted to have her talks taped for review to ensure Catholic orthodoxy and congruity with church teachings. Gateley insisted that what she planned to say, especially about the feminist realm of the divine, met the test, but she said such tapings would violate copyright terms she has with the company that markets her lecture CDs. Catholic reform groups, most notably Call to Action and the Arizona Center for Theological Studies, came to her defense, and a Friends of Edwina Gateley group rallied to raise funds comparable to the $4,000 she would have gotten for the retreat. Then they booked her to speak to the public on June 10 at CrossRoads United Methodist Church in Phoenix.Catholic Women Will Not Be Silenced read a 6 by 5 -inch advertisement published June 8 in the Arizona Republic. The retreat facilitator, Catholic author Edwina Gateley courageously refused the bishops threats, the ad said. The retreat was canceled but the talk will go on. It invited people to hear her at the Methodist church. We support Edwina and the voices of Catholic women everywhere.The text was surrounded by some of the 2,000 names of people who Call to Action said signed a petition protesting the dioceses action. The petition was turned in that day to the bishop. We Catholics in Phoenix are deeply disappointed that the bishop would resort to the use of threats to tape and monitor a retreat for nuns, said Mary Jayne Benton, a leader for Arizonas Call to Action, in a press release that day. The statement went further: The nuns retreat was originally promoted as a weeks reflection on the feminine dimensions of God. The tradition of imaging God in female form has a rich history dating back to the Hebrew scriptures (Old Testament) and carrying through the Christian scriptures and much of Christian history.Benton reports that about 300 turned out for Gateleys talk that lasted 90 minutes. She knew of no representatives from the bishops office on hand taping or taking notes. Meanwhile, the original retreat was not canceled. The Franciscan Renewal Center subsequently booked Sister Mary Lou Carlson, a Franciscan nun from Resurrection parish in Los Angeles, to lead the retreat, said Pat Julian, the centers director of adult education. There were about 30 nuns attending, the same count as had originally signed up for Gateley. Meanwhile, Jim Dwyer, public information director for the diocese, reasserted Tuesday that we didnt silence her. It was her (Gateleys) decision not to come there. Nobody silenced her. She came here, didnt she?At some point, the media has to start asking logical questions about advocacy groups, Dwyer continued. They are entitled to say whatever they want to say, but truth is: Nobody silenced her. Dwyer said the diocese has heard that sometimes she makes statements that are opposed to Catholic teachings, but we didnt want to take anyone elses word for it. So she was welcomed to come. All we wanted to do was to tape it. Dwyer reiterated that the diocese had been willing to sign wavers to guarantee no violation of copyright provisions between Gateley and the company marketing her CDs. Dwyer said their taping would have cleared the way for Gateley to come in the future to the diocese to speak in Catholic settings. We could decide for ourselves if she comes here again, he said. She is the one who silenced herself from that retreat If they ever want to continue to make false claims that we silenced her, there is not a whole lot we can do about it.Benton said that Gateley was well-received at the CrossRoads gathering. Quite a number of women came up to her after her talk and said that after they heard her, they will be staying in the church. So there isnt a real dynamic push against the church She talks about faithfulness to what God is calling you to do.

The United Methodist Church is commonly regarded as the faith of Middle America. A denomination that grew up and expanded with this nation, it has exemplified mainstream Protestantism and has not been one to be splintered by major controversy.Its been marketing itself with the phrase Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors. Compassionate, receptive, inclusive. And who doesnt have a Methodist relative? The United Methodist Church in the U.S. and worldwide has been doing some market research about itself. It has been testing its members opinions and attitudes and finding out what the outside impressions people have about Methodists. Some 11,000 members in the U.S., Africa, Europe and the Philippines took part in online and telephone surveys. Some 2,600 interviews were carried out.Since 1964, United Methodist churches have seen a 27 percent loss in membership while the American population grew 54 percent. The Western U.S. is the least served region: In this jurisdiction, there is one United Methodist church for every 37,000 people, while there is one for every 6,337 people in the South Central jurisdiction, one per 5,400 in the Southeast, one per 8,400 in the Northeast, and one for every 7,600 in the North Central jurisdiction.The survey data found its members affirmed strongly a belief in God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit as well as their reliance on Gods grace and salvation. The report said there was somewhat less agreement as to whether mission and service are important to personal salvation. Here in the American West, the surveys found, Methodists afford lesser importance to core beliefs. Overall, Methodists highly agreed that more young people must be brought into the 8 million-member church (2006), which had 11.5 million members in 1968. But there was less agreement on how to attract young people. A minority of respondents said the church is willing to make needed changes to reach the young, such as alternative worship services or putting money into the effort. More than half of the new Methodist churches in the past six years were in Spanish-speaking communities. Worldwide, fastest growth is in Africa and the Philippines. Not surprisingly, when American Methodists were asked about the churchs position on homosexuality, the Southeast least condoned it and the Western area was most receptive. Yet, fewer than half of those surveyed called the gay issue extremely important. Highest priorities were: scripture, children, reaching out to the unchurched and ending racial division. Yet, only a third of the respondents believe the church provides the opportunity to discuss those issues. Pastors said they generally do not believe they are well-trained, expertly supervised or assigned to churches in an appropriate manner. When non-Methodists in six test markets, including Pittsburgh, Roanoke and Sacramento, were interviewed by the Barna Research Group on their impressions about the denomination and the Open Hearts message, the church got strong marks: 47 percent expressed a willingness to attend U.M. church, with 11 percent very willing; 37 percent said their impression of the church was very, or somewhat, favorable; and 58 percent could recall the Open Hearts theme after being exposed to the advertising. A church official concluded the United Methodist message seems to be shifting peoples attitudes about the denomination in a very favorable way.

I returned home from a two-week, 12-state vacation on the East Coast from Massachusetts to Georgia, marked by four days in Washington, D.C., experiencing Philadelphia, winding through the Smoky Mountains, long drives through new England and time in Pennsylvania Dutch country near Lancaster, Pa.I was gone during the publication of my column about the ordination of six new priests on June 2 at Ss. Simon and Jude Cathedral in Phoenix. There was strong reaction both ways. I struck a nerve suggesting the weak response of men to seminaries and the priesthood may be due, in large part, to church celibacy requirements and Catholic males feeling more called to marriage and fatherhood.Priests and laity wrote at length to correct me. In short, I had overlooked that God was in the middle of the whole matter, so the priest shortage is his mysterious way. We believe the Holy Spirit is acting in our church and that what is happening is for a reason, said Paul Kelley, a lay Catholic from Tempe. Perhaps the Holy Spirit is telling us we are praying too little or too selfishly, or that parents should again tell their sons that the priesthood is a wonderful vocation, instead of pushing them to become successful doctors, lawyers and Wall Street tycoons.Kelley said the Catholic Church is not alone in a shortage of clergy. He cited the president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations that its vocations crisis is the most serious issue facing rabbis now. He noted how Protestants annual reports are full of almost frightening and nearly identical situations growth is minimal if not negative, vocations are down, increasing numbers of churches go without a pastor.In that column, I gave a barb to the Diocese of Phoenix for inviting me to the ordination, then having no place to seat me (later deemed miscommunications) and I had to scramble to find a seat in the balcony. One angry reader said I should not have been there in the first place (even many of the Catholic faithful are unable to get in). Curtly, the writer told me, Even you would have to agree that an invitation to you would be like inviting Margaret Sanger (founder of what became Planned Parenthood) to a pro-life rally. Either you know not what you do, or you, too, have an agenda or vendetta, he wrote. In that writers rant, he said, You cannot get rid of or remake the Catholic Church. Catholic Christians, from popes to theologians to scandalous priests, have tried to do that from within (fighting) a never-ending war with the devil to promote dissent and heresy.Another man named Frank said I should never have been at the event, and I am narrow-minded and opinionated to boot. One reader who physically couldnt climb the steps to the cathedrals balcony for the event lamented that she sat on the main floor and her view was blocked by peoples heads. The point of her remarks was that the idea of married clergy always seems like the quick fix but being a husband and father while being a pastor is problematic. While growing up, she said she would have never wanted to marry a pastor, and she felt sorry for pastors wives who seemingly must be able to sing on key, play the piano and do so much more to support their work. Celibacy may not be popular but it does leave the man or woman (religious) with a 24/7 time frame to serve the Lord without family responsibilities. Either way, the Lord is honored with a gift.The Rev. William Mitchell, a priest for 58 years, thoughtfully told me that celibacy isnt what dissuades men from seminaries. He recalled how six decades ago six lads in a two-block section of Chicago chose the priesthood. I think it is todays culture that is making it difficult for many to hear Gods call. And call he does! But our society makes it quite difficult to respond positively. We are very materialistic and drowning in sex and pleasures. He goes on, .As I look back, I see how meaningful and workable my celibate life has been. It is not for the weak. Hard at times? Yes, but quite rewarding..So my 2,000-year-old church made the call case settled.

What faith community has not been split, at some point, over bricks and mortar, or over whether something should be obtained or accepted for the campus? The trappings of a house of worship can be the center of bitter debate. I remember a family quitting the church in a huff when they donated the church a unsolicited refrigerator from their appliance store and leaders had the audacity to say their didnt like it and hadnt requested it. We all know how the church kitchen is a battlefield, a sacred turf where no stove or dishwasher can be purchased without agreement, negotiations and careful talks (not to mention who should even use the kitchen). The color of paint, the purchase of art, the weave of carpet or the arrangements of pews can bring turmoil. Pettiness can be contagious. While such decisions typically have to be settled in the private realm of faith communities, new skirmishes are certain when structures for religion are eyed for public places, like the request for foot-washing stations for Muslim students attending the University of Michigan-Dearborn. Seems the university plans to spend $25,000 for foot-washing stations to make it easier for Muslim students to practice their religion, according to the Council on American Islamic Relations. Muslims are to ritually wash their bodies including their feet up to five times a day before their prayers. The university wants to go ahead and spend $25,000 to accommodate them, said school spokesman Terry Gallagher. There would be floor-level stations at two bathrooms to be installed in August at the University Center and the Fairlane Center facilities. Without them, the university said, adherent Muslims will resort to what they have already been doing — washing their feet in restroom sinks. Dearborn, Mich., has one of the nations largest concentrations of Muslims. The spokesman for the campus of 8,600 student said the university doesnt track its counts of students by religions, so it wasnt clear how many student that affects. Criticism of the plan came quickly from conservatives, through blogs and talk radio. Why, they ask, should a public entity have to pay for something like this for a religious group?The university spokesman said the $100,000 bill for restroom improvements, including the foot baths, is not paid by taxpayers, but student fees. CAIRs Michigan director said it wasnt any big deal for the campus community, but the Internet conservatives couldnt miss an opportunity to get in another digs at Muslims.This whole thing came to light through some right-wing Islama-phobic bloggers that want to promulgate the idea that the university is being Islam-fied, said Dawud Walid of CAIR. We are not promoting one faith over another, Gallagher said in a statement. Instead, we are providing a service that many of our students need and value.Makes perfect sense in a world where minority religions no longer should have to make due with things as they are. Accommodation is not a bad policy. If we want people to live up to the best level of their religious beliefs, there should be reasonable and thoughtful response to what is needed.

Religions waywardness and misbehaving have major consequences for civilization. Callers and e-mailers routinely vent about their disdain and contempt for organized religion. They ascribe words like hypocrisy and hate-mongering to faiths. They predict the downfall of the human race will be a result of hardcore, one-minded believers who will insist on having their way come what may.Between 4:15 a.m. and 4:27 a.m. Sunday, a man called my voice-mail three times with a doomsday message and bragged how he had abandoned religion in his youth without regrets. But he’s frightened at the mischief all the believers may be up to.I was an altar boy in Prescott in the Catholic Church in 1949, said the caller who did not give his name. I knew right then and there, after listening to various sermons that this church, and even religion in general, is about the sickest thing I had ever encountered in my young life. He said all he heard was condemnation of other religions. He witnessed the sickest, most terrible example of demagoguery that I have ever seen in this world. He was appalled by the threats and warnings that poured from the pulpit. Across the nearly 60 years, he has never had a day that he wasnt overjoyed that I had nothing to do with religion. He singled out Catholicism as religion that is a throwback to the stone ages and called its ceremonies pathetic. Describing himself as a Republican, he criticized President Bush as a sociopath out to destroy America, one of the most wonderful societies in the history of civilization, with the the president wearing label of a compassionate conservative. He noted that Bush, while governor of Texas, went forward in 1998 with the execution of Karla Faye Tucker, 39, accused of a murder in 1984. Much had been made of her becoming a repentant born-again Christian while in prison. Then, the world watched to see whether Bush would commute her execution. Instead, he had her put to death, the first woman executed in Texas since the Civil War.It is unthinkable that any man would flaunt his power as governor of Texas over a woman who professed her unfortunate conversion to Christianity, he said. The caller said it was highly telling that a man, now president of the United States, condemned to death a woman who might have chosen a correct interpretation of life at the last hours of her life. I hope you dont have any children to have to endure this life that is remaining here for the United States, said the self-proclaimed agnostic who had to make three phone calls to make his points. Ironically, he mentioned the divine: Thank God I have lived my life without this albatross around my neck.What is disturbing is that this mans outrage is common. If religions are working together to increase understanding, bridge cultures, nurture tolerance, speak out against injustice, seek to tame the human beast and work for peace on earth, the skeptics are not seeing it. And theyre fed up and scared that snorting, entrenched religious fanatics and zealots seem bent on risking everything for their dogma.Theyre seeing ideological camps lining up for Armageddon. Theyre seeing religionists putting preservation of their faiths over the lives of people, including, and especially, the innocent.

That Land Grant university in the middle of Iowa, whose nickname is the Cyclones, has a storm brewing over whether its appropriate to hire a chaplain to minister to the football team. Some 101 faculty members have filed a petition calling on the Iowa State University President Gregory Geoffroy to nix the plan because of church-state separation issuesI spent four years at Iowa State, with my first dormitory, Westgate Hall, in the shadows of the old football stadium at the time, Clyde Williams Field, which had a mere 25,000 seats. It gave way in 1975 to 55,000-seat Jack Trice Stadium, named for the first black athlete at ISU, who died from injuries suffered in a varsity football game in 1923. Presumably, a football chaplain would have come in handy. According to the Des Moines Register, the Cyclones new coach, Gene Chizik, came up with the idea to hire the chaplain and make him/her part of the teams staff. The salary would be paid from private donations. Athletic director Jamie Pollard gave his support and suggested student-athletes are under a lot of pressure and need access to spiritual guidance.But faculty members, led by a professor of religious studies no less, Hector Avalos, see trouble. Are you going to have counseling for Jewish students? Muslim students? Theres no such thing as one religion or one version of Christianity, he said. As of Friday, 77 newspaper readers, on-line, have offered their comments, pro and con. Some say a football team is a closed group of athletes of a public, taxpayer-supported university and that players wont exactly be free to spurn a chaplain praying and imploring and talking about Jesus. Register reporter Tom Witosky went to a constitutional law professor, Tom Berg of the University of St. Thomas College of Law in St. Paul, Minn., for insight. Berg sees distinctions between the government furnishing chaplains in the military and prisons and a public university sports team. It seems to center on their availability versus chaplains engaged in what amounts to a closed group. He suggested a general belief that government shouldnt be acting in a way that pressures people to act in a religious fashion or engage in a religious practice. For example, Berg said an Iowa State chaplain leading prayers before a game or match, or coaches praying with a small group of players, could be viewed as coercive, Witosky wrote. He quoted Berg further, Even at the college level, to have a chaplain praying before a game could be viewed as putting pressure on people to participate. An athletic director would have to structure it in such a way as to make sure the chaplain is simply there as a resource and not participate in any kind of coercive pressure.Bottom line, Berg said, When does it become religion within the government itself, as opposed to the government providing funds or access to private organizations for services. Its unconstitutional, suggests Charles Haynes, a senior scholar and the director of education programs at the First Amendment Center in Arlington, Va. He said the courts have been more lenient toward universities than grade schools in such an issue because university students are not as young and impressionable and university education is not compulsory. But he said the use of any public funds to pay for a chaplain slot at a public university should be unconstitutional. Using on private money, however, puts it in a little more of a gray area.Just as a side note: I can somewhat thank Des Moines Register reporter Tom Witosky for introducing me, in August 1972, to the woman who would be my wife now for nearly 34 years. At the time, Tom was a University of Wisconsin journalism student serving as a summer intern in the newsroom of the Waterloo Courier where I had only begun working in June. That summer he had several dates with a city court clerk named Patty. I met her at Toms going-away party. Patty and I subsequently had our first date in November, were engaged the following April and were married in July 1973. Toms grandmother, Alice Witosky, was one of the Couriers most aggressive and prolific newspaper correspondents in Tama County. Her forte was crime reporting. For more than 11 years, she and I would work closely together.