As I took a quick look at the headlines today I saw the usual divide in headlines: Hysteria on the left and balance on the right. I concede that at this point I only looked at two headlines but I think it is safe to assume that the pattern will hold. Since I am taking the Drudge Report with a grain of salt I was not surprised to see that their lead story was headlined, “Refugees Blocked from USA” and that it linked me to the New York Times. The picture was a lonely woman sitting in a very American dining room dressed in very American clothes waiting for her husband who is detained in New York. It focused on all the wonderful people and organizations that were being discriminated against by this executive order “enacted with the stroke of a pen”. No comment on whether the flood of potential terrorists was initiated by the stroke of a pen.
Then I went to the Washington Times where the headline read, “Trump hits pause button on refugees, puts immigration from terror regions on hold”. That is a slightly different picture. The Times points out “But the policy signed Friday does not single out a religion, instead going after programs that Mr. Trump says have loopholes that terrorists could exploit.”
I have a feeling that in spite of the gnashing of teeth on the left this will only serve to raise Trump’s approval ratings. Will some people be inconvenienced? Of course. Will it make all of us safer? Probably. Will it be administered with compassion? We are Americans. If we do anything to extreme it is mercy. Will it take away or liberty as Americans? That is the big question. I am not so worried about people trying to get to freedom as making sure that they have some freedom to come to.
Stay tuned. Don’t rely on the media, which means consider the sources and keep your baloney detectors in extreme mode.
homo unius libri
The New York Times is nothing compared to the Huffington.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if I have enough time in my life to spend it at the Huffington?
DeleteGrace and peace
I've seen a lot of commentary from Christian friends bemoaning the pause on the US taking in refugees, and asking how this is compassionate and masking comparisons with the parable,of,the Good Samaritan. I think they're missing a major point: God's direction to an individual is not quite the same as His direction to a government. The primary duty of government, as best I can tell from scripture, is to restrain evil (romans 13 is a good summation I would suggest). Yes, government officials are to be held accountable but we can't shove our responsibility to take care of the needy on the government.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking today as I drove about the responsibility of government. As you mentioned, Romans 13 gives it the responsibility to punish evil. I can't think of any admonition for the government to run welfare, education or hospitals. If there is an organization responsible it would be the church, and as you point out it is our job to help those in need. Those who get upset about the government should step up and take some of these people into their homes. Usually they want the government to do it with someone else paying for it.
DeleteObviously I am lacking in the gift of mercy.
Grace and peace.