Friday,
12/16/11
The
first reading today brings up the matter of how we are to deal with aliens.
Isaiah was not discussing the
offering of citizenship to foreigners, he was discussing welcoming them into
our religion. That is a different matter, but there is enough similarity for it
to have some bearing on what our conduct should be to immigrants. God is quoted
as saying that if they keep the rules “Them I will bring to my holy mountain
and make them joyful in my house of prayer.”
On this
subject we read how Moses cautioned the Israelites, saying, “You shall not
molest or oppress an alien, for you were once aliens yourself s in the land of
Egypt.”
None of
us were aliens in the land of Egypt, but when our ancestors arrived here by
ship they took the Statue of Liberty at her word.
A few
years ago I read the story of a teenaged girl from Ghana, who feared castration
preparatory to being sold as a third wife to a wealthy Muslim. She stowed away,
making her way to America where she thought she would be acceptable as one
fleeing persecution. Jailed immediately she spent three years here in a series
of prisons for such people. For sizable stretches she was in solitary
confinement. As one in a million she got her story of Oprah, and was freed.
When
highly Christian Politicians are being praised for similar tough measures one wonders
if they would associate with the Good Samaritan
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