Before I started NSSD, I used to write a more general blog. Since I was working on my undergraduate degree in religious studies, history, and politics at the time, I wrote a lot about the intersection of those areas.
I try really hard to not get into those subjects here, because I know how separating they can be. Trust me – it’s a part of why I have no relationship with my mother.
The recent attacks in Paris, France, have brought up xenophobia, racism, and religious discrimination across the entire world… but nowhere more than in the United States oddly enough.
France is actually increasing how many refugees it brings in. On the flip side, the US is trying to BAN refugees from Syria. Even those whose parents were essentially refugees like Rubio & Cruz are trying to say we don’t need to help these people.
It’s not enough to ignore the plight of the Syrian people – we have to actively not help them?
Mind you, this is happening as we start the holiday, feel-good, love-and-help-one-another season.
I know that as someone who isn’t religious, it is easier for me to see the hypocrisy. Let’s break this down a bit though…
We live in a country that:
- has a folkloric history of peoples emigrating here due to ‘persecution’ especially of the religious kind;
- is cited (incorrectly but that’s for another time) as being founded as a Christian nation;
- has a poem about inviting others less fortunate here for a better life from Emma Lazarus:
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-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
The United States, the melting pot of the world, the savior to many, isn’t living up to our end of the bargain. And yet, we find the time to argue over how Starbucks having a non-holiday endorsing red cup is a war on Christmas and Christianity?
Dear GOP et al – YOU are running the war against your own religion.
So many of you live in the 1% that holds so much wealth.
So many of you run the corporations that employ workers in horrible situations overseas while complaining about job creation here.
So many of you turn people away from your religion by your proselytizing while forgetting to practice what you preach.
You want to be scared of Muslims? They’re afraid of the Daesh more than you are, because your lives aren’t directly threatened by Daesh (who, by the way, we helped create just FYI).
If you don’t want to help, you should probably turn over your iPhone, made proudly by the son of a Syrian immigrant. Maybe that’ll motivate you?
By all means, though, let’s not help people who are being systematically murdered and actually need our help…
After all, we have more overpriced crap made by sweatshop factory workers we exploit in other countries to sell for the over-commercialized holiday that is supposed to remind us to love and help each other.