Last week was a hard week for me to do VBS at church.
We were in year two of a program about feeding the hungry, and I was in the storytime group.
Our pastor pretended to be so sleepy from having been up half the night caring for unexpected visitors whom he and his wife had to feed....because that is what you did when someone came to your door.
You washed their feet and fed them.
To do otherwise was to violate norms and be considered uncivil and inhospitable.
As you can imagine, my brain was pummelled by the cacophony of "love thy neighbor" and the Muslim ban, the ICE detention centers that separate children, the restaurants who pick and choose who they serve.
I am not a Bible thumper by any stretch of the imagination, but I love me some badass Jesus.
Badass Jesus ate lunch with Zaccheus, a tax collector who may or may not have gouged people.
Badass Jesus told Martha, who was all concerned about "looking like a proper hostess" to chill her ass out and visit with him. (Which makes me feel MUCH better about my meh hostess skills when book club friends come every summer.)
Badass Jesus politely (and sometimes not politely) gave the middle finger to "propriety" and to hypocrisy.
I suspect that Jesus, who himself was an infant refugee, would have his sandals down in Texas protesting and flipping tables and not having any part of children being separated from their parents.
I suspect Badass Jesus would be giving hell to the rich white folks who claim to be Christian and yet seem to be perfectly ok with denigrating anyone who is brown-skinned or poor.
I admit, though, that I'm not sure what Badass Jesus would say about the restaurant refusing to serve Sarah Sanders.
I really have mixed feelings about this one, as does apparently everyone.
Maybe Badass Jesus would too?
I follow Reason magazine, which is libertarian, and they posted opinions by two of their writers that had diametrically opposed feelings about the actions of the Red Hen owner.
My own feeling is that I would have served her, taken pictures of my staff serving her, giving her a really excellent evening and then posted all over social media that "WE DO NOT AGREE WITH ANY WORD THAT COMES OUT OF HER MOUTH (she is a bonafide liar), but we serve even those we disagree with."
I get not wanting to serve her, but I would choose differently.
Because if we're going to not serve people based on being liars, where do we draw the line?
Cause I've lied.
Being kind, being compassionate does not have to mean allowing people to run roughshod over you, which is often the response when anyone questions the treatment of refugees or immigrants at US borders.
It's like you can't be a kind person AND have boundaries.
"Do you want open borders where anyone can just waltz right on in?"
"Will you let people just walk right into your house without your permission?
Well, of course not.
I am procedure-oriented, not rule-oriented, and the current procedure for seeking asylum in the US states that you have to be PHYSICALLY PRESENT IN THE US, which means the procedure is to cross the border and step onto US soil and state you are seeking asylum.
So don't blame immigrants or refugees because this is the procedure.
Desperate people take desperate measures.
If I was running from persecution or violence or abject poverty, I may not care about breaking a law either.
Or if you insist on blaming them, then at least be sure to spread the blame around sufficiently.
Maybe blame politicians who don't adequately fund immigration courts, meaning there are too few judges to manage the proceedings, which means it takes YEARS for asylum cases to be decided?
Maybe blame the Americans who illegally smuggle/sell guns to cartels in Mexico, thereby worsening the violence from which people want to escape?
As with virtually everything under the sun, if you don't think it's complicated, you're not paying attention.
The sermon today at church was about how Jesus often followed the "spirit" of the law and maybe not so much the exact law.
How many people who lambast immigrants for crossing the border illegally (and therefore deserve whatever horrible things happen to them as a result, including the forced separation from their children) break the law by speeding?
Or by violating intellectual property rights by showing a film to a large group of people?
Or by not giving attribution every time they download a photo off the Internet that they then use on a flier to advertise their business?
Or drive while using a cell phone?
Or don't wear their seatbelt?
Or drink while underage?
Or sharing medication?
Or failing to update your driver's license when you move?
Or not registering their pet?
Or any of the other laws regular citizens break all the time.
I'm smart enough to know that I know virtually nothing about immigration law.
I'm also smart enough to know that our country is going to pay a heavy price for separating kids from their parents, whether it is through legal action or through the animus that will pervade these kids and, perhaps, make them do harm to Americans down the road.
We were in year two of a program about feeding the hungry, and I was in the storytime group.
Our pastor pretended to be so sleepy from having been up half the night caring for unexpected visitors whom he and his wife had to feed....because that is what you did when someone came to your door.
You washed their feet and fed them.
To do otherwise was to violate norms and be considered uncivil and inhospitable.
As you can imagine, my brain was pummelled by the cacophony of "love thy neighbor" and the Muslim ban, the ICE detention centers that separate children, the restaurants who pick and choose who they serve.
I am not a Bible thumper by any stretch of the imagination, but I love me some badass Jesus.
Badass Jesus ate lunch with Zaccheus, a tax collector who may or may not have gouged people.
Badass Jesus told Martha, who was all concerned about "looking like a proper hostess" to chill her ass out and visit with him. (Which makes me feel MUCH better about my meh hostess skills when book club friends come every summer.)
Badass Jesus politely (and sometimes not politely) gave the middle finger to "propriety" and to hypocrisy.
I suspect that Jesus, who himself was an infant refugee, would have his sandals down in Texas protesting and flipping tables and not having any part of children being separated from their parents.
I suspect Badass Jesus would be giving hell to the rich white folks who claim to be Christian and yet seem to be perfectly ok with denigrating anyone who is brown-skinned or poor.
I admit, though, that I'm not sure what Badass Jesus would say about the restaurant refusing to serve Sarah Sanders.
I really have mixed feelings about this one, as does apparently everyone.
Maybe Badass Jesus would too?
I follow Reason magazine, which is libertarian, and they posted opinions by two of their writers that had diametrically opposed feelings about the actions of the Red Hen owner.
My own feeling is that I would have served her, taken pictures of my staff serving her, giving her a really excellent evening and then posted all over social media that "WE DO NOT AGREE WITH ANY WORD THAT COMES OUT OF HER MOUTH (she is a bonafide liar), but we serve even those we disagree with."
I get not wanting to serve her, but I would choose differently.
Because if we're going to not serve people based on being liars, where do we draw the line?
Cause I've lied.
Being kind, being compassionate does not have to mean allowing people to run roughshod over you, which is often the response when anyone questions the treatment of refugees or immigrants at US borders.
It's like you can't be a kind person AND have boundaries.
"Do you want open borders where anyone can just waltz right on in?"
"Will you let people just walk right into your house without your permission?
Well, of course not.
I am procedure-oriented, not rule-oriented, and the current procedure for seeking asylum in the US states that you have to be PHYSICALLY PRESENT IN THE US, which means the procedure is to cross the border and step onto US soil and state you are seeking asylum.
So don't blame immigrants or refugees because this is the procedure.
Desperate people take desperate measures.
If I was running from persecution or violence or abject poverty, I may not care about breaking a law either.
Or if you insist on blaming them, then at least be sure to spread the blame around sufficiently.
Maybe blame politicians who don't adequately fund immigration courts, meaning there are too few judges to manage the proceedings, which means it takes YEARS for asylum cases to be decided?
Maybe blame the Americans who illegally smuggle/sell guns to cartels in Mexico, thereby worsening the violence from which people want to escape?
As with virtually everything under the sun, if you don't think it's complicated, you're not paying attention.
The sermon today at church was about how Jesus often followed the "spirit" of the law and maybe not so much the exact law.
How many people who lambast immigrants for crossing the border illegally (and therefore deserve whatever horrible things happen to them as a result, including the forced separation from their children) break the law by speeding?
Or by violating intellectual property rights by showing a film to a large group of people?
Or by not giving attribution every time they download a photo off the Internet that they then use on a flier to advertise their business?
Or drive while using a cell phone?
Or don't wear their seatbelt?
Or drink while underage?
Or sharing medication?
Or failing to update your driver's license when you move?
Or not registering their pet?
Or any of the other laws regular citizens break all the time.
I'm smart enough to know that I know virtually nothing about immigration law.
I'm also smart enough to know that our country is going to pay a heavy price for separating kids from their parents, whether it is through legal action or through the animus that will pervade these kids and, perhaps, make them do harm to Americans down the road.
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