{"id":286646,"date":"2018-05-16T21:20:14","date_gmt":"2018-05-17T01:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?p=286646"},"modified":"2018-05-17T18:43:33","modified_gmt":"2018-05-17T22:43:33","slug":"these-arent-people-these-are-animals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/05\/these-arent-people-these-are-animals\/","title":{"rendered":"‘These aren’t people. These are animals.’\u2014UPDATED"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

From The New York Times:\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
President Trump lashed out at undocumented immigrants during a White House meeting on Wednesday, warning in front of news cameras that dangerous people were clamoring to breach the country\u2019s borders and branding such people \u201canimals.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1cy1v93 e2kc3sl0\">Mr. Trump\u2019s incendiary comments came during a round-table discussion with state and local leaders on California\u2019s so-called sanctuary laws, which strictly limit communication between local law enforcement and federal immigration officers, and which the Trump administration is\u00a0<a class=\"css-1g7m0tk decorated-link\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/03\/06\/us\/politics\/justice-department-california-sanctuary-cities.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">suing<\/a>\u00a0to invalidate. It was hardly the first time the president has spoken in ugly and racially fraught terms about immigrants, but it underscored his lingering rage about immigration \u2014 the animating issue of his campaign and his tenure so far \u2014 and his frustration that he has not been able to do more to seal the nation\u2019s borders.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1cy1v93 e2kc3sl0\">As he has in numerous private meetings with his advisers at the White House, Mr. Trump used the session to vent his anger at the nation\u2019s immigration laws, calling them \u201cthe dumbest laws on immigration in the world.\u201d He exhorted his administration to \u201cdo much better\u201d in keeping out undesirable people, including members of transnational gangs like MS-13.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1cy1v93 e2kc3sl0\">\u201cWe have people coming into the country, or trying to come in \u2014 we\u2019re stopping a lot of them,\u201d Mr. Trump said in the Cabinet Room during an hourlong meeting that reporters had been allowed in to document. \u201cYou wouldn\u2019t believe how bad these people are. These aren\u2019t people, these are animals, and we\u2019re taking them out of the country at a level and at a rate that\u2019s never happened before.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>What are we to make of this? The church has spoken about human dignity many times. It is useful at this moment to remember the teachings which call on us to respect life.<\/p>\n<p>Always.<\/p>\n<p>At all times, in all forms, in all circumstances.<\/p>\n<p>Here we stand. We choose life.<\/p>\n<p>From <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/w2.vatican.va\/content\/john-paul-ii\/en\/encyclicals\/documents\/hf_jp-ii_enc_01051991_centesimus-annus.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Pope St. John Paul:\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Human persons are\u00a0 willed by God; they are imprinted with God\u2019s image. Their dignity does not come\u00a0 from the work they do, but from the persons they are.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>From the <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p3s1c1a1.htm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">catechism:\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The divine image is present in every man. It shines forth in the communion of persons, in the likeness of the unity of the divine persons among themselves . Endowed with \u201ca spiritual and immortal\u201d soul,\u00a0the human person is \u201cthe only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake.\u201d\u00a0From his conception, he is destined for eternal beatitude.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>From <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/w2.vatican.va\/content\/francesco\/en\/encyclicals\/documents\/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Pope Francis:\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00a0Human beings, while capable of the worst, are also capable of rising above themselves, choosing again what is good, and making a new start, despite their mental and social conditioning. We are able to take an honest look at ourselves, to acknowledge our deep dissatisfaction, and to embark on new paths to authentic freedom. No system can completely suppress our openness to what is good, true and beautiful, or our God-given ability to respond to his grace at work deep in our hearts. I appeal to everyone throughout the world not to forget this dignity which is ours. No one has the right to take it from us.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>From <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cctwincities.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Gaudium-et-Spes-Pastoral-Constitution-on-the-Church-in-the-Modern-World.pdf\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Gaudium et Spes:\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>There is a growing awareness of the sublime dignity of human persons, who stand above all things and whose rights and duties are universal and inviolable. They ought, therefore, to have ready access to all that is necessary for living a genuinely human life: for example, food, clothing, housing, \u2026 the right to education, and work\u2026This Council lays stress on reverence for the human person; everyone must consider one\u2019s every neighbor without exception as another self, taking into account first of all life and the means necessary to living it with dignity, so as not to imitate the rich man who had no concern for the poor man Lazarus.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This is a slippery slope. In 2011, writer David Livingstone Smith described in <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2011\/03\/29\/134956180\/criminals-see-their-victims-as-less-than-human\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">\u201cLess Than Human\u201d<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0how throughout history people have been robbed of dignity, and treated as subhuman or even called animals:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The Holocaust is the most thoroughly documented example of the ravages of dehumanization. Its hideousness strains the limits of imagination. And yet, focusing on it can be strangely comforting. It\u2019s all too easy to imagine that the Third Reich was a bizarre aberration, a kind of mass insanity instigated by a small group of deranged ideologues who conspired to seize political power and bend a nation to their will. Alternatively, it\u2019s tempting to imagine that the Germans were (or are) a uniquely cruel and bloodthirsty people. But these diagnoses are dangerously wrong. What\u2019s most disturbing about the Nazi phenomenon is not that the Nazis were madmen or monsters. It\u2019s that they were ordinary human beings.<\/p>\n<p>When we think of dehumanization during World War II our minds turn to the Holocaust, but it wasn\u2019t only the Germans who dehumanized their enemies. While the architects of the Final Solution were busy implementing their lethal program of racial hygiene, the Russian-Jewish poet and novelist Ilya Ehrenburg was churning out propaganda for distribution to Stalin\u2019s Red Army. These pamphlets seethed with dehumanizing rhetoric: they spoke of \u201cthe smell of Germany\u2019s animal breath,\u201d and described Germans as \u201ctwo-legged animals who have mastered the technique of war\u201d \u2014 \u201cersatz men\u201d who ought to be annihilated. \u201cThe Germans are not human beings,\u201d Ehrenburg wrote, \u201c\u2026 If you kill one German, kill another \u2014 there is nothing more amusing for us than a heap of German corpses.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And finally, from\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cctwincities.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Evangelium-Vitae-The-Gospel-of-Life.pdf\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Pope St. John Paul:\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Life, especially human life, belongs to God; whoever attacks human life attacks God\u2019s very self\u2026A society lacks solid foundations when, on the one hand, it asserts values such as the dignity of the person, justice and peace, but then, on the other hand, radically acts to the contrary by allowing or tolerating a variety of ways in which human life is devalued and violated, especially where it is weak or marginalized. Only respect for life can be the foundation and guarantee of the most precious and essential goods of society, such as democracy and peace.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>UPDATE:<\/strong> The president repeated the comment on Thursday, and clarified exactly who and what he was referring to.<\/p>\n<p>From <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2018\/05\/17\/politics\/animals-trump-sanders-ms-13\/index.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><strong>CNN<\/strong>:<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"el__leafmedia el__leafmedia--sourced-paragraph\">\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"zn-body__paragraph speakable\">President Donald Trump said Thursday he was referring to MS-13 gang members when he called some undocumented immigrants \u201canimals\u201d during an event at the White House a day earlier.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph speakable\">\u201cI\u2019m referring to the MS-13 gangs that are coming in. I was talking about the MS-13,\u201d Trump said, insisting his comments were clear. \u201cI\u2019m actually surprised you\u2019re asking this question.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph speakable\">Trump was unapologetic about his language and said he\u2019d use it again.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">\u201cThese are animals. They\u2019re coming in to our country and we\u2019re getting them out,\u201d he said. \u201cI referred to them as animals. And guess what: I always will.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">Trump on Wednesday did not directly refer to MS-13 when he used the term \u201canimals\u201d on Wednesday, but his comments came after Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims talked about her struggles in navigating state and federal laws to allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement to \u201cfind the bad guys\u201d in their jails and specifically said \u201cthere could be an MS-13 member.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"zn-body__read-all\">\n<blockquote>\n<div class=\"zn-body__paragraph\">That\u2019s when Trump interjected: \u201cWe have people coming into the country, or trying to come in. \u2026 You wouldn\u2019t believe how bad these people are. These aren\u2019t people. These are animals.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From The New York Times:\u00a0 President Trump lashed out at undocumented immigrants during a White House meeting on Wednesday, warning in front of news cameras that dangerous people were clamoring to breach the country\u2019s borders and branding such people \u201canimals.\u201d Mr. Trump\u2019s incendiary comments came during a round-table discussion with state and local leaders on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":286652,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,43],"tags":[11190,11195,11816],"class_list":["post-286646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-pro-life","tag-politics","tag-pro-life","tag-trump"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>'These aren't people. 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