Ray Ring

Senior Editor

In the 1980s, a Presbyterian minister in Tucson, Rev. John Fife, and a few other religious leaders founded the Sanctuary Movement — smuggling refugees from Central America across the border and helping them start new lives in this country. Those refugees were often fleeing death squads, but U.S. authorities cracked down on the movement anyway, dragging Fife and others into court on criminal charges.

We haven’t heard much about the movement since then — if it’s been operating, it’s been quiet.

But now churches in five major cities have announced, they’re launching a New Sanctuary Movement. They have humanitarian goals, and it’s another rebellion against our nation’s heavy-handed, blundering, in-total-denial immigration policy. They say they have churches in more than 50 cities ready to participate. The AP story is worth a read.

Since the immigration crisis and the numbers of players have only grown, this Sanctuary go-round could be even more compelling than the last.