{"id":26458,"date":"2015-09-16T14:37:20","date_gmt":"2015-09-16T20:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=26458"},"modified":"2015-09-16T14:37:20","modified_gmt":"2015-09-16T20:37:20","slug":"two-cautionary-notes-on-the-current-european-refugee-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/09\/two-cautionary-notes-on-the-current-european-refugee-crisis.html","title":{"rendered":"Two cautionary notes on the current European refugee crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"North<\/a>
At first, they were coming in large numbers across the Mediterranean from North Africa. Now they\u2019re also coming in VAST numbers, by land, from Syria, Iraq, and Turkey.
(Wikimedia CC; click to enlarge.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Terrible things are happening in Europe right now, and there\u2019s a lot of desperate human need.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

My instincts, like those of most decent people, make me\u00a0very strongly inclined to help, and to support government actions that will help \u2014 and perhaps all the more so because I\u2019ve spent a large chunk of my life either in or reading, thinking, and writing about some of the areas concerned. \u00a0Not merely in the Middle East but in Europe.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But sentiment and emotion need to be confined with reflection and rigorous thinking.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here are two pieces to toss into the mix, important because they suggest that we mustn\u2019t let our emotions and our very human desire to help completely overcome our rational judgment, and that we should seek to understand the situation accurately as well as to respond to it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

My generally appreciative attitude toward Professor Phillip Jenkins has taken a substantial hit over the past few months, but this is an important article:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Germany\u2019s Coming Demographic Revolution<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And this piece<\/a> by Jonah Goldberg sounds an important note, too.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 Terrible things are happening in Europe right now, and there\u2019s a lot of desperate human need. \u00a0 My instincts, like those of most decent people, make me\u00a0very strongly inclined to help, and to support government actions that will help \u2014 and perhaps all the more so because I\u2019ve spent a large chunk of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nTwo cautionary notes on the current European refugee crisis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    Terrible things are happening in Europe right now, and there's a lot of desperate human need.   My instincts, like those of most decent\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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