God and Caesar at the Rio Grande: Sanctuary and the Politics of Religion - Softcover

Cunningham, Hilary

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0816624577 ISBN 13: 9780816624577

Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press, 1995

Synopsis

The Sanctuary Movement began in 1981 as a collection of mostly church-related people deciding to help the wave of Central Americans migrating to the United States, and was transformed in the following years into a highly volatile church-state confrontation. The movement established an underground railroad to help Central Americans enter the US and then provided sanctuary within churches, where the US government was legally forbidden entry. In "God and Caesar at the Rio Grande", Hilary Cunningham offers an account of the history and growth of the Sanctuary Movement in the US, as she demonstrates how religion shapes and is shaped by political culture. Focusing on the Sanctuary located in Tucson, Arizona, Cunningham explores the movement primarily through the experiences of everyday participants, including interviews with Sanctuary workers and reproduction of letters from her stays in Arizona, Mexico, and Guatemala. She discusses and illustrates such diverse subjects as US church-state relations, the social construction of power, and international refugee policy. One of the few books to document the culture of the religious Left in the US, "God and Caesar at the Rio Grande" illustrates how a particular group of people used religious beliefs and practices to interpret and respond to State authority. This book should be of interest to individuals wishing to explore the relationship of religion to power and social change.

About this title

From the Back Cover

The author offers a fascinating account of the history and growth of the Sanctuary Movement, as she demonstrates how religion shapes and is shaped by political culture. Focusing on the Sanctuary located in Tucson, Arizona, she explores the movement primarily through the experiences of everyday participants conveyed through interviews with Sanctuary workers as well as reproductions of documents from her stays in Arizona, Mexico, and Guatemala.

Edition details

• Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0816624577
• ISBN 13: 9780816624577
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 296