Home of the Brave?
Matthew 25. KJV The parable the sheep and the goats.
Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
When you say you are a Christian, you need to act like a Christian. If every church in America took in only one Syrian family, this problem would be solved.
Additionally, Syrian immigrants have added so much to this country, including the father of the man who built my computer.
When did my country stop being the land of the free and the home of the brave?
The cowards came out in force after 9/11, thanks to Bush and Cheney, and have been running rampant ever since.
1“When did my country stop being the land of the free and the home of the brave?”
Sometime post Eisenhower, perhaps Nixon era? That is when the coward slide began. But the total jive was when PNAC installed Cheney & Dubya, then the exploitation of 9/11 delivered the neocon ‘dream,’ the nightmare we all know as war, endless war.
Don’t know that I’d subject any refugee to many of our allegedly Christian churches. Probably better that each family be “adopted ” by a family with similar background. Many of the Syrian refugees are educated professionals, so matching a dentist’s family, or a teacher’s family, etc with a family prepared and in a position to help seems kinder.
2Every Neo con should be saddled with a dozen to support for the rest of their lives. That includes all wingnuts and some Dems that showed yellow and voted for war in Iraq.
3The people who think they need to carry a gun everywhere they go are cowards. They are afraid of everyone who doesn’t look and act and think exactly as they do. They often call themselves “Christian” but they don’t know the meaning of the word. (And we know how they vote.)
Adel Termos, the father of two young children, died when he tackled a second suicide bomber in Beirut last week before he got into a crowd, probably saving hundreds of lives after the first guy blew himself up along with everyone around him.
And if Termos were alive and wanted to come to the US, a bunch of GOP governors and others would bar him for not being Christian…..
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2015/11/16/the-fearless-father-who-threw-himself-on-a-suicide-bomber-saving-hundreds-of-lives-in-beirut/
4JuanitaJean? I’ll keep this short because there’s alot of info about this if anyone wants to reference.
– Danny Thomas, Lebanese, entertainer and father of Marlo, founded St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
– ALSAC (American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities) founded in 1957 to fund raise for the creation of St. Jude. They have raised hundreds of millions of dollars for them.
Much more on the web. An easy search. Not easy if all you have in your heart is suspicion, fear and hate.
5Those that are rich in heart and soul won’t have any concern about providing for the refugees. Nuff said.
6“When did my country stop being the land of the free and the home of the brave?”
When GOP chickens***s who are afraid of their own shadows took Congress and most of the state houses. All of the GOP’s policies are directly or indirectly based on fear of anything that is out of their control.
7One of the most Christian families I’ve ever met — judging by actions, not by what building they go into on Sundays — are Lebanese Muslims who own a wholesale bakery in Plano. They are sweet, gracious, generous, and loving; i.e., acting like Christians. And they make the best bagels in town! Really!
8JJ, you wrote a very, very good post. There are others questioning what happened to Christianity too.
The righties have always owned some pseudo Christian churches, but with the advent of far right tea baggerism, led by the earlier mentioned Darth Cheney and other neocon vermin, it’s all gotten much worse.
Red-letter Christians and good people everywhere, take heart. You are stronger than the hateful ones.
9Evidently sometime around 1980.
10My Governor says Come on in! I would be happy to help, even without a church behind me. What is wrong with people????
11Every reporter wants a Paris trip, so expect this media frenzy to continue until the cub reporter from the Idaho Sentinel Leader, has had his day in Paris.
But 130 dead is 6 months in Baltimore, so it’s impressive, but not overly so. For the most part Charm City dwellers eschew AK-47s in favor of more concealable weapons, less automatic. But, they aren’t spraying the streets either. They have to stalk and approach their targets, who are watchful of the potential for harm. They are selective- not just anybody will do.
The US is number one, so I expect we as a nation, can kill 130+ of our own citizens before December 31st, without any help from some damn foreigners.
Expect every Republican candidate to defend the rights of every home grown and foreign terrorist to buy their weapons with minimal difficulty, while at the same time advocating the necessity to deny entry to decent humans of the wrong religion. (Hint: in the 30s it was the Communist Jewish element)
But In a head to head killing contest- the Isis team comes out second place to Charm City, Hon.
12Super-Deeluxe Christian are an interesting bunch. They believe that Jesus is looking out for them in person, angels have their back, and maintain arsenals in their homes and persons. Not to mention their first-class accommodations in heaven!
Yet all they do is wet their britches account of terror-babies, illegal aliens, New Black Panthers, ISIS videos, ginned-up terror alerts, Saddam’s death-spray-from-the-skies model airplanes, Ebola, refugees, yada, yada….
All I gotta say is they sure as hell don’t have much faith.
13There is a wonderful post on FB. I do not know how to add it here so I will copy.
“if we only had a seasonally appropriate story about middle eastern people seeking refuge being turned away by the heartless”
14Looks like the Dems have the right spirit. Governor Tom Wolf of PA just came out in support of taking Syrian refugees. The Republican Party, much like their version of KKKristianity, has become a party of exclusion. The rest of us will welcome those in need of safe haven. Thank goodness we have a President with the right stuff.
15I’ll just leave this here:
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
16With 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-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
They’re cowards. Republicans are basically cowards through and through. They’re afraid of everything. Brown people or people of any color or shade other than white, people of other faiths, young people, anyone who’s different in any way. Pretty much anyone who isn’t old and liley white is totally threatening to them. Frankly, Issis doesn’t scare me at all. They are a concern but I don’t fear them. What terrifies me is the thought that any one of these RWNJ jokers running for president might end up in the white house. If that happens we are seriously screwed.
17Damnable cowards.
18http://texasalmanac.com/topics/culture/lebanesesyrians/lebanesesyrian-texans
19To remind people gently: There ARE Christians who would welcome Syrian refugees. It is just as unfair to slam all Christians because some are mean, selfish, cowardy custards as it is to slam all Muslims because some are jihadists/Islamists. Recognize the good people in all cultures, point out their deeds (as with the man in Beirut who grappled with a suicide bomber). As Mr. Rogers has been often quoted in the past few days, quoting his mother: “Look for the helpers. There are always helpers.”
Something I often forget, because it’s harder to do–but if you pay more attention to bad behavior, you’ll get more bad behavior. If you pay attention to–call attention to–good behavior, not only will that person behave that way more, but others will see that attention goes to the person behaving well. Find out what churches in your area are gearing up to help refugees (or, already are and have been!) and mention them…here and elsewhere. Find out what community groups (like the many interfaith groups) are working together to help refugees.
Because when an Abbott and his shills in the TxLege refuse to provide any funds for refugees, it’s the people in the really Christian/Jewish/Muslim/Buddhist/Hindu/etc communities who will.
And yeah, the GOP as a whole is a bunch of cowards. Not only cowards but STUPID cowards–because their approach will not work, has never worked, and is shot down by simple practical calculation.
20Mary R, just a reminder:
“One of the most Christian families I’ve ever met — judging by actions, not by what building they go into on Sundays — are Lebanese Muslims who own a wholesale bakery in Plano. They are sweet, gracious, generous, and loving; i.e., acting like Christians.”
Christians have no monopoly on being sweet, gracious, generous, and loving. They’d say they were acting like Muslims. And I’ve known Pagans and atheists to be gracious and generous too.
21Timbo: You will, of course, be forwarding this excellent link to the Guv’nors office in Austin. He could use some lurnin’. Thank you for providing it.
22The trouble with all of this hurrah is how come the good Christians don’t speak up in opposition to the so-called Christians who are smearing Christianity? Where are the voices of those who oppose all this fear-mongering? Occasionally I see a letter to the editor or an essay on the View Points page, but I am not seeing or hearing a ground swell of support for or from those who are kind, loving people of all persuasions. Where are their voices? A discussion here and on some other websites is about all I see or hear. Who is loudly opposing Abbott and his fellow governors who are refusing to accept Syrian refugees? We have , right here in my east Dallas neighborhood, over 40 languages in our elementary school. We have refugees from many lands, including Iraq, Myanmar, Afghanistan, etc.
23They are all good people. I just don’t understand how we let our country come to this.
Your real values are what comes through in times of trial. If you want to know the character of someone, put them under stress and see how they react. Some people run towards the cries of the injured to offer help, Others run away, too cowardly to get involved.
We now know the real values of our Governors. We now know their real character.
There are some good posts in here. I’m stealing some of them.
24Ellen Childress: Elizabeth Moon (above) is speaking out, and so am I. As are countless others. But the sensationalists (read: haters/fearmongers) are heard above all others because compassion and love are boring.
While my current small church isn’t able to sponsor a refugee family from abroad, we do sponsor those in our community (without asking for anything in return) by providing temporary housing for homeless families, supplying food for the hungry, building bunk beds for foster kids, supporting a free health clinic, and other ministries. My former church provides space for Head Start (for only the cost of utilities), firewood in the winter for those who cannot afford to heat their homes, garden plots, an amazing food pantry, supports the homeless shelter, and more. The greater denomination to which I belong helps in the US and around the globe – fighting disease, providing disaster relief, etc. Members of the denomination (locally and nationally) donated $30K to a Roseburg OR teen shelter/program when the Umpqua CC shooting forced the cancellation of their annual fundraiser ($30K was their goal).
These acts of love happen all over the country (even in TX) – work is done and rarely is there publicity. People of good heart, no matter of what stripe – religious or not, must speak up for the oppressed.
25Also, there are a couple of Facebook pages, The Christian Left and Christians Tired of Being Misrepresented, which draw people of faith who are compassionate, as well as atheists (!), who are tired of the right wing religious haters ruling the conversation.
26I keep thinking back to when Bush invaded Iraq, the French warned him it was foolish and would splinter the middle east and these kind of attacks would happen. OUR nc republican
27congressperson was urging a boycott of France, named french fries freedom fries and they were all pouring French wine down the drain. I think his name is Walter Jones, a very typical republican, always looking for someone or something to hate.
So now, because a few radical French and Belgian terrorists
have done this terrible thing we must hate Syrian refugees
and children who have already gone through hell!
Christie says he would not even take in a 3 year old – what
are we coming to?
That stellar KKKristian, Rick Santorum, has also come out against our taking in the Syrian refugees. Could someone remind him how much America benefited from the influx of refugees fleeing from Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin. The Syrian people will bring culture, hard work and skill and once again America will benefit greatly. They will pass through security checks and vetting and help “Make America Great Again.”
28The US has not had a good history of welcoming refugees with open arms. I’m thinking about the Chinese after the transcontinental railroad was complete (after the US couldn’t get enough of them to use as slave labor while it was building the thing). And I’m thinking about the turning away of the St. Louis in WWII. Nor has the US a particularly good record of treating its immigrants well, especially the ones who don’t look white or Christian enough. And I think that’s a big problem with the poor Syrians. We can’t defeat terrorists by punishing their victims.
29Nativity scenes and theatrical plays across Christendom are scripted about what? Middle Eastern refugees desperate for a safe place to stay.
30Our Country lost its dignity, bravery and compassion when when politicians, mostly on the right, started preaching fear and decreased funding public schools. Ignorance and fear combine to become hate.
31Another wonderful discussion. Thank you, Elizabeth Moon. I have great Muslim friends who are generous to a fault to Muslim charities but who don’t take people like that into their home. When we at our house had gone through maybe five months of hosting a difficult guest who was like peeling an onion of lies and mooching was his biggest skill, I asked my husband if he wanted a Syrian refugee. He said NO. I think fatigue and health problems are often involved. I like the idea of a church adopting a Syrian family and sponsoring them. That is a huge commitment too. I imagine a time could come when we would take in refugees. Climate change will likely force that issue upon us.
32If you live in or near Austin, please come tomorrow to City Hall at 2:30 for a press conference. The purpose of this is officially sending a resolution about climate change to Paris.
What the hell is wrong with Texass?
33Once up on a time Texas set a standard for Macho. Think of the men at the Alamo who died on principle for the things they believed in. But now you send Senator Snake Oil, a Cuban Canadian Coward named Cruz to DC to wave the white flag and surrender to ISIS. Once Texas had men that would rather die on their feet defending widows and orphans than to live on their knees. Now you have Texas Senator Snake Oil only to happy to live on his knees Felliating the oil barons that own him. I knew that once Molly I. was gone the only good thing to come out of Texas would be I-10. Now that Gov. Good hair is out of the race we have Senator snake oil. This is not a step up.
Rastybob