I was researching Biblical arguments to support providing sanctuary for Syrian refugees in the United States. But maybe I was wrong. I found Republican Bible, the one where political candidates find the inspiration to demonize people, and turn away the hungry, the poor, and the dispossessed. It’s apparently also the Bible of the cowardly Democrats in Congress who voted to turn away the Syrian refugees:
Matthew 25: 41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
“They also will answer, ‘But Lord, there were so many of them and we were scared because someone said one or two of them would hurt us'
“He will reply, ‘Oh, well that's completely different. You certainly shouldn't have had to feed or clothe or heal any of them. We're cool....’
Time after time, the Republican candidates and politicians talk tough, but act like cowards. Unless it involves the 2nd Amendment, they’ll use fear to trample the Constitution and Bill of Rights. And they’ll give up their professed Christian beliefs at the drop of a shoe. It’s the same unfortunate fear that led our country to throw Japanese-Americans into internment camps without due process, despite the fact that nearly two thirds of them were American citizens. It was the fear that caused us to turn away a boatload of Jewish refugees in WWII. Today it is the fear that we use to demonize an entire religion based on the action of extremists.