Tuesday, December 15, 2015

As Christmas Approaches We Might Ponder Ancient Lessons


(I nicked this off Steve Bell's website, Grace for Muslims).

2 comments:

Andrei said...

34 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:

35 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:

36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

40 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.


But what to do with all those who suffer today in war zones?

23 million people live in Syria - we cannot re-home them all and even if we could how would Syria ever recover?

Taking in refugees en mass is the wrong thing to do on many levels - it denudes the source nations of the people they need to rebuild, doesn't solve the underlying problems - in fact exacerbates them and there is no way we can integrate this number of people into our societies

Providing haven to individual people on a case by case basis yes but taking hordes of people chosen because they are the ones with the wherewithal to make the move - no bad for all concerned

And we only care about Syrians because for political reasons they are the ones that getting all the attention - what about Libyans, Yemenis, Malians, Afghani and all the other troubled places we ignore and the millions who suffer in those places?

We are manipulated by our emotions and wanting to do the right thing into doing the wrong things or allowing others to do them in our name



Michael Reddell said...

Ironic? No, not really. Surely everyone is relaxed about people temporarily escaping a war-zone (eg to camps in Lebanon, Syria or Jordan). The issues are mostly about economic migration and the extent to which large numbers of people - not a aingle family - from an alien religion and culture are permanently resettled in the West.