Clergy Vow to Counsel Disobedience on Prop. 187 : Activism: Six leaders express strengthened religious resolve against immigration ballot measure.

Six clergy stepped up the religious resolve against Proposition 187 Thursday by saying they will urge their congregants to disobey the law if the ballot initiative passes, while a key protest organizer admitted that religious opposition to the anti-illegal immigrant measure is by no means universal.

Father Tom Rush--a Pacoima parish priest and a leader of the interfaith group Valley Organized in Community Efforts (VOICE), which sponsored the call for civil disobedience--said he has not encountered any clergy who favor the measure, “but I’m quite sure there are some who do.”

Indeed, religiously and socially conservative Protestant church leaders have kept a public silence on the initiative that mandates cutting off medical and education services to illegal immigrants in California.

Among them is the Rev. Jess Moody, a Southern Baptist who is pastor of Shepherd of the Hills Church in Porter Ranch.

Moody said he has not heard of any church group taking a stand in favor of Proposition 187. As a private citizen, however, Moody said that although the initiative is full of legal problems, “it needs to be passed to make a point. The influx (of illegal immigrants) is driving California into bankruptcy.”

Pastor Jack Hayford of the conservative Church on the Way in Van Nuys said through an aide that he does not talk about 187 or other propositions because to do so “gets into partisan politics.”

In past state elections, it has been noted by observers that most religious groups--left or right--are activated by ballot initiatives they oppose on moral grounds. In the case of evangelical and charismatic churches, political issues concerning abortion, homosexuality or pornography tend to generate the greatest response.

Sara DiVito Hardman of Tarzana, state director of the conservative Christian Coalition, agreed that conservative clergy have been silent on 187. But Hardman, speaking personally, added: “The only moral issue I can see is that (illegal immigrants) are breaking the law and we should not encourage that kind of thing.”

By contrast, Rabbi Akiva Annes, who hosted the anti-187 news conference Thursday at his Temple Judea in Tarzana, said he has only been involved in social protests twice before, but the prospect that voters will pass Proposition 187 Tuesday was too important to ignore.

A statement signed by Annes, Unitarian pastor Charlotte Shivvers and four Catholic priests pledged them to counsel congregants who are school administrators, teachers, health workers and law enforcement officers “to disregard the requirements of Proposition 187 if it becomes law and to obstruct its implementation.”

Father David Ullrich, pastor of St. Ferdinand’s Catholic Church in San Fernando, said: “We do not take this step toward civil disobedience very lightly. I’ve certainly never done that before and never thought I would.”

Ullrich and Annes conceded that they are taking no legal risk themselves, so far as they know, with such counseling.

The statement the group signed, however, declared that just laws must be “based on the common good that cultivates respect for the weakest and poorest in the society.” The statement said that in the tradition of biblical prophets, “as religious advisors of our people, we will have no choice but to counsel civil disobedience.”