Jesus and the Muslim Ban

Luke 10:25-29 

25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’[c]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[d]”28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

This is my neighbor

A few weeks ago, I visited the Baha'i Center in DC.  While there I met people from a variety of different ethnic backgrounds.  Many were naturalized citizens who had originally come from Iran fleeing religious persecution.  I met one man whose brother had been executed for being Baha'i.  Next week, I'm headed to a Zoroastrian Temple to visit with them.  The Magi that visited Jesus in the book of Matthew were Zoroastrian priests.  Zoroastrians too are a persecuted minority throughout regions formerly controlled by the Persian Empire.  Many of them have fled to the United States, specifically from Iran.

The ban that has been put in place affects real people, many of whom are already suffering.  Some seek to live here.  Others already do either as citizens or residents.  Those who live here usually still have families who live overseas.  Imagine not being allowed to see your parents.

Mathew 2:13-23 tells us that after Jesus birth, Joseph took his family and fled to Egypt (They too were refugees) 

The way the ban was implemented makes things even worse.  You have families with children stuck all around the world.  They were planning to go from one place to another.  That trip may be all the family was budgeted for.  Imagine being stuck midway between a place you are fleeing and the place you are fleeing to and all of the sudden you aren't sure how you're going to feed your babies.  Governments around the world are having to deal with this problem.  So will their citizens.  The image of the US will be tarnished for some time.

When I think of these refugees, I look back at my own ancestry.  I have a lot of Dutch blood running through my veins, with ancestors on the north american continent going back to the early 1600s.  They came fleeing religious persecution in Europe to start a new life.  (Europe at the time was far worse the Middle East with people killing each other by the millions over views on communion and other nonsense.) If they hadn't had a place to go, I wouldn't be here.

Plymouth Rock: where Dutch Pilgrims landed

My statement on the Muslim Ban is this: the best way to improve vetting of individuals from more dangerous countries is to increase funding and hiring of the State Department staff that are responsible for vetting individuals.  If you have more staff and better funding, the vetting can be done more effectively and efficiently.  We won't have to break treaties to do this.  We won't have to leave persecuted refugees stranded at airports with their babies.  We won't have to ignore the people who are suffering because we decided to invade Iraq and didn't have a good plan for how to stabilize it afterward.  And we won't have to degrade our standing in the world by creating outrage among our allies, just in case global power is the only thing we really care about.

In response to the religious scholar's question, "Who is my neighbor?" Jesus tells a story, the moral of which is something like this: Your neighbor is the person who needs help.  Even the people you look down on know that.