Pardon me while I briefly indulge my Inner Cynic.
Strangers cross your borders unbidden. They are miserable, hungry, and lack the skills necessary to live in your land. You are compassionate. You welcome them, feed them, and teach them survivial skills. You enjoy the boost they bring to your economy.
Ask the Native Americans how that worked out for them.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Hearts and stars and flowers to your Inner Cynic!
Sad truth.
We have to tear down the Statue of Liberty then.
This is no longer valid:
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
That Golden Door only worked because the U.S. Government was giving away the land it was in the process of wresting from the original occupants.
"Sending the serpent to look after the dove" doesn't mean abandoning compassion. It means not abandoning wisdom.
After reading your Thanksgiving post above, I've been thinking about the Hindu/Buddhist concept of karma all day. But since most of the readers of this post are likely Christian, let me put it this way: Galatians 6:7 King James Version (KJV)
"7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Wrested from the Native Americans, wrested from the descendants of those who wrested it from them..
Your statement about the Golden Door does not stand, because France gave the U.S. the Statue of Liberty on June 19, 1885, way after the U.S. Government had wrested the land from its original occupants and parceled it among the invaders and descendants thereof.
I just heard Mrs. Ivanka Kushner saying that her father's administration had created more jobs than there are people to fill them...
What would Jesus do about this issue? How are we, as followers of Jesus, to act towards these people? How would He act? I cannot imagine Him doing anything else but welcoming them, as He did everyone.
Interesting historical context: "The New Colossus" was written by Emma Lazarus as part of a fundraiser to build the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty. (The plan was for the French to fund the statue and the American, the pedestal.) The fundraising exhibit was opened 133 years ago today, on November 2, 1885, and her poem was the first item read.
The statue itself, "Liberty Enlightening the World" had nothing to do with immigration, but was a gift to America from France, to commemorate the centennial of the Declaration of Independence. Lazarus made the connection because she knew how much seeing the Statue of Liberty would mean to immigrants sailing into New York.
The poem was forgotten after the fundraiser, but was later recovered and the plaque added in 1903.
One government or another (first European, then American) had been giving away Indian lands from the first settlements until well into the 20th century.
These hard questions MUST be answered by each one of us who purport to follow Jesus: What would Jesus do about this issue? How are we, as followers of Jesus, to act towards these people? How would He act? I cannot imagine Him doing anything else but welcoming them, as He did everyone.
