Catholics, Immigration and Deportation; New Christains

On April 18, the US Supreme Court will take up a case examining President Obama’s executive orders to protect more than four million undocumented immigrants from being deported. The plan was never implemented. Several states filed suit, arguing it was an unconstitutional use of presidential authority. Lower courts have ruled against the plan.

At St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia, people from many religious and spiritual traditions gather on Sunday nights to encounter the divine through stillness, silence, music, meditation, prayer, and ancient liturgies and sacraments. Correspondent Kate Olson talked with worshippers and also with historian, author and speaker Diana Butler Bass about changes in people’s beliefs.

“People want to be their own theologians. People don’t just want to receive truth from an institution. They want to participate with a tradition and make a truth that is meaningful for their own lives.”

“The thing that’s dying is a kind of old allegiance to particular institutions or institutional manifestations of the divine. There’s just not much interest in that. The thing that seems to be coming alive is this awareness of God, a pervasive presence of God in our day-to-day lives.”