The Bible presents King Herod as a cruel ruler, ambitious to the point of paranoid
jealousy when it came to potential rivals, especially a “newborn king”. We can learn a lesson from Herod, the one who
dictated an order to kill all children under the age of two born in Bethlehem
in an effort to retain his throne. He had obviously acquired wealth and power didn’t
want to lose it, no matter the consequences.
I think a comparison can be made between Herod and modern-day
folks who confuse immigrants with refugees, and the ‘intentions’ of both groups
of people. There are some who label all refugees and immigrants as “illegal
aliens”, and all must be purged from our society, guilty of crimes or not.
A refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her
country because of persecution, war, or violence. A refugee has a well-founded
fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political
opinion or membership in a particular social group. I wonder how many people
today would consider that the Holy Family were refugees, having had to leave
their homeland to escape the violence that threatened them at home. Refugees do
not leave their homeland on a whim, but rather seeking to live in security.
They leave behind everything, except their human dignity, which we all
–individuals and governments– need to respect.
An immigrant may be a refugee or may simply be someone
hoping to find a better life for himself and his family.
Because our immigration laws in this country are so screwed
up that they confuse even the people who write, legislate, enforce and defend
them, abuses do occur. Then some ‘Herods’
in our society label all immigrants and refugees as thieves and murderers. Yes, there have been crimes committed by non-citizens,
and justice must be handed out with due process. But if you search your heart
honestly, you realize that more crimes are committed by natural born citizens than
by ‘illegal aliens’. Stop with the hate.
Fix the immigration laws quickly with an
eye toward justice for all and allowances for those who are already living
otherwise law-abiding lives.
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