Word: churches
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...contrast to South Africa, the Church document cites the United States as a place where society has "found increased vitality in the melting pot cultures." But the document also points to latent racial tensions in American society that express themselves when "exaggerated nationalism" degenerates into "xenophobia or even racial hatred...
...Church's warnings on racism in the United States are timely and well-founded. Unfortunately, however, they seem unlikely to be heeded. American Catholics are still just as likely as non-Catholics to fear other races and cultures unreasonably...
...influx of Central American refugees fleeing war-torn El Salvador and Nicaragua and economically-crippled Mexico has generated just as much mistrust and fear from Catholics as from any other group. Although Church social teaching says that when a country cannot provide the basic necessities of life, its citizens should be free to emigrate to those countries that can, Catholics have been as reluctant as other religious groups to denounce restrictions on emigration from Central America...
Another example of Catholics' reluctance to follow Church teaching is seen in their reaction, or lack thereof, to the January decision by the Reagan Administration to restrict the number of Southeast Asian refugees allowed into the country. It's no coincidence that this policy shift comes amidst nationalist cries over the "Yellow Peril" in education, real estate ownership and economic competitiveness. If American Catholics were to recognize that every-one deserves an equal chance at the freedoms and opportunities that the United States can provide, pressure against such a policy would be enormous...
...case of racial equality at least, the Church has provided the world with a statement which all concerned with human rights should heed. It's a pity that many Americans, Catholics in particular, aren't listening...