So, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops is in reality simply a non-governmental agency of the US government. No matter if you think they do good work with the money or not, the false impression given is that they are a religious agency, one which furthers the aims of the Roman Catholic Church in the US. That is not the case. The money they administer is done within the parameters of the granting agency and therefore cannot be used for religious purpose but only for a secular one. It is high time that we cease and desist in calling such organizations churchly and admit that they are but a fancied up name for any other group the US government gets to do its work. If you are going to do the government's work, then at least be honest and remove the name USCCB from the title of the group and label it appropriately.
Lest any Lutherans here be smug, I could say the same for the the work of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Resettlement Service or even Lutheran World Relief -- both of which might do good work on the government's dime but are hardly worth labeling as Lutheran. If it is Lutheran, then it ought to be supported by Lutherans. At least the LIRRS has rebadged itself to Global Refuge Connect. Lutheran roots, yup. Lutheran history, yup. Lutheran identity, no more. Lets all have a little more honesty in packaging. FWIW, this does not apply to the LCMS World Relief and Human Care work done by the LCMS which is done separately and with Lutheran money. Please send your offerings there with confidence that they are a churchly agency doing churchly work. But the formerly Lutheran agencies conceived at a time when Lutheran work was cooperative and more Lutheran are but a shell of their former selves. We all know it. Let's simply admit it. Whether or not they do good work on the government's dime, they are not Lutheran agencies doing Lutheran work. Once you accept the government's money, all religious character to the work ceases and you become, for all intents and purposes, a government employer employing government employees on the government's dime. So if these NGOs do a better and more efficient job of that work, fine. Just don't hide behind the Lutheran name and make us forget that it is not Lutherans doing mercy work.
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Rather than "Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Resettlement Service", the leftist organization was actually the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIaRS), which LCMS leadership has never apologized for supporting. Today the organization is known as "Global Refuge and is run by a Hindu.
LIaRS was exposed in an April 19, 2017, BJS blog, :"LCMS Roped Into Deportation Evasion Scheme" (https://web.archive.org/web/20170425061854/http://steadfastlutherans.org/2017/04/lcms-roped-into-deportation-evasion-scheme)
If a church body supports a charitable cause related to the needs of people in the community or in the global economy, even if public funds are contributed by a government, how is this wrong? However, if receiving public funds requires a Christian body to deny Christ, or compromise the tenets of our faith, then I would agree that the church must withdraw participation. But in recent years, NGO’s, including Catholic and Lutheran relief organizations, have aided and abetted the prior Democrat administrations in enabling and even advocating illegal immigration policies. They have willfully encouraged people from various regions of the world to simply violate the sovereignty of the United States and enter it unlawfully, fully intent on disrupting the legal formalities required by the laws and the Constitution. The borders of the United States became porous and uncontrolled, as millions of undocumented and unscreened refugees poured into the land, many under the control of the drug cartels. Some relief agencies and NGO’s went beyond humane care of displaced populations, and worked to settle them into American communities without regard to concerns over possible terrorists, criminals, or the health of unscreened immigrants. Dumping them into American communities, this burdened the resources of citizens facing unprecedented influxes of alien populations, stressing the medical system, hospitals, schools, and financial abilities of the residents. The Democrat Party exasperated the problem by seeking to nefariously allow voting rights to non citizens as well. The NGO’s were culpable in enabling this issue to percolate into the political and social fabric of America. Although we are a land of immigrants, we are also a land of laws, not lawlessness. But the NGO’s and Christian relief organizations see this as their moral cause, and a desire for profit as well. It will take years to recover from the invasion of undocumented refugees, and most will eventually assimilate, others will be deported. We can bet that should the Democrats regain power, the borders will be open again, and the NGO’s will be back to work. Lawlessness will again return to American borders. Soli Deo Gloria.
Follow up to previous remarks: To be objective and fair, despite the political drama and social consequences of an imperfect immigration policy, it seems that the work of the NGO’s, and Catholic, and Lutheran relief organizations carry out works of necessity once the floodgates of refugee migration have collapsed, and millions of people are already settling in. However, American citizens, naturalized or by birth, must pay the cost. And it is correct to point out that mixed with families, men, women, children, are criminals and lawbreakers, and those who never planned to assimilate, but are intent on changing America into a copy of the place they left behind. Such of those who hold to the Islamic faith and want to live under the Koran, considering all outsiders and non Muslims as infidels, for them there is no desire for assimilation, no regard for the Constitution, no deference to Christianity or non Muslim faiths. Fortunately, there are Muslims who do not adhere to extremist ideas and will coexist with other groups, but the ones who oppose loyalty to the host country remain radicalized. As I see NGO’s, where they venture into foreign lands and encourage migration illegally, with promises of generous support once refugees enter, they have then crossed the line to advocating lawlessness. If they are attending to the temporary needs of those already here, as they apply for citizenship, it fits into the biblical idea of charity. However, the lure of government compensation and the advocacy of illegal migration leads to social consequences. Everyone wants a better and safer way of life, and these virtues have motivated people to make their way to America over the centuries. However, the NGO’s must follow the spirit and intent of the law as well, lest they aid in the destruction of the country, perhaps even crushing the Judeo Christian foundations in the process. Soli Deo Gloria
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