By Rebecca Harms from Wendland, Germany (Ungarn September 2015) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>Imagine this dystopian scenario, if you will:<\/p>\nPuerto Rico negotiates a status which is even more autonomous than its current \u201ccommonwealth-ness\u201d but not quite that of an independent country.\u00a0 (Let\u2019s say the territory wanted to get itself out of the Jones Act restrictions that increase the cost of goods shipped onto the island.)\u00a0 Then, the country\u2019s government becomes less respecting of civil rights and, because of the semi-autonomous status we\u2019ve granted it, the federal government considers itself unable to intervene.<\/p>\n
Then let\u2019s add in a dollup of sci-fi, for instance, the episode from The Orville<\/em> in which they find themselves on a planet where an extreme form of astrology lands every child born during a month corresponding to a certain astrological sign into a concentration camp.<\/p>\nShould we in the United States welcome the unluckily-born ones from Puerto Rico?\u00a0 Duh.\u00a0 Would it matter whether they were \u201crefugees\u201d or merely \u201cinternally displaced\u201d?\u00a0 No, of course not.<\/p>\n
Does that have any bearing on whether the United States should open its borders to immigrants from overseas who have crossed through country after country on their way here, who are seeking economic prosperity rather than preservation of life and limb, and in cases where the peril that the would-be immigrants face is not so clear-cut, or could be avoided by leaving for a different region in their own country?\u00a0 \u00a0What\u2019s more, does a receiving country have an obligation to permanently resettle those who are deemed to be \u201ctrue refugees\u201d or merely to provide for their material needs until such time as they can return to their home country?<\/p>\n
This is a matter of prudential judgment, and even the Pope admits that the call to \u201cwelcome the stranger\u201d may be appropriately be balanced with the need to watch for the well-being of the people of the receiving country.<\/p>\n
And none of this is altered by the answer to the question of \u201cwere the Holy Family refugees?\u201d<\/p>\n
Joseph was warned by an angel to leave Bethlehem for Egypt, leaving one part of the Roman Empire for another, just as he had previously moved from Bethlehem to Nazareth and back again.\u00a0 Was Egypt sufficiently separately-governed as to count as a \u201cseparate country\u201d and to give the family the label \u201crefugee\u201d?\u00a0 Did they arrive in Egypt bedraggled and in need of charitable support?\u00a0 Was Joseph unable to speak the local language and need translation services?\u00a0 Or did his carpentry expertise and the cultural and linguistic ties mean that he was able to easily integrate himself into the local community?<\/p>\n
Likewise, was the Holy Family poor?\u00a0 We have precious little evidence; pretty much all we know was that they offered two pigeons rather than a lamb for Mary\u2019s purification at the temple.\u00a0 But I\u2019m not seeing anything online that explains what the income cut-off is below which a family was considered poor enough not to offer a lamb \u2014 especially under such circumstances as having travelled recently and perhaps being short of cash.\u00a0 Did only the poorest of the poor offer the pigeons?\u00a0 Did only the wealthy offer lambs?\u00a0 If there\u2019s a consensus, it\u2019s not easily findable?<\/p>\n
Other than that, it\u2019s now become routine to find at this time of year explanations that the narrative of the Holy Family being turned away from house after house (or hotel after hotel) is charming but not in line with what 1st century Judea would have looked like, with \u201cthe inn\u201d really being \u201cguest room\u201d and \u201cmanger\u201d meaning that they would have slept in the \u201cstill a part of the house\u201d barn (which is, incidentally, what you\u2019d see if you visited a German open-air museum).\u00a0 And one might make a case for \u201cJesus was born into poverty\u201d in the sense that pretty much everyone except landowners and tax collectors in this backwater province of the Roman Empire were poor, but that doesn\u2019t really matter.<\/p>\n
So again:\u00a0 \u201cJesus was a poor refugee.\u201d<\/p>\n
Should we help the poor?\u00a0 Should we aid refugees?<\/p>\n
On the one hand, duh.\u00a0 Of course, we should.<\/p>\n
But at the same time, many of Jesus\u2019s followers expected a literal liberation from the Roman oppressors and were disillusioned when it became clear that he was not going to do that, that he was not going to use his divine power to shatter Roman rule in one stroke, or to lead an army into battle.<\/p>\n
And it seems to me that altogether too many people are making the same mistake in 2019, by claiming that Jesus\u2019s message was one of social justice and banding together to fight against oppression, perhaps not violently attempting to overthrow an unjust regime, but focused on the battle against oppression nonetheless, rather than a call to personal repentance.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a prosperity gospel of \u201cGod wants you to be rich,\u201d per se, but it still doesn\u2019t sit right with me.<\/p>\n
So that\u2019s my \u201c2nd day of Christmas\u201d rant.<\/p>\n
Oh, and Merry Christmas!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Imagine this dystopian scenario, if you will: Puerto Rico negotiates a status which is even more autonomous than its current \u201ccommonwealth-ness\u201d but not quite that of an independent country.\u00a0 (Let\u2019s say the territory wanted to get itself out of the Jones Act restrictions that increase the cost of goods shipped onto the island.)\u00a0 Then, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[107],"class_list":["post-16305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christmas"],"yoast_head":"\n
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