Turkish border closed as Christian hostages in Syria spike to 250
Patriarch urges prayer after at least 90 Christians kidnapped in Syria
These Syrian Christians are the people to whom we should be giving political asylum. I remember back during and after the Vietnam war when Catholic parishes were adopting Vietnamese refugees, helping them find housing and jobs and assisting them to make a new life in this country. Why can't the bishops organize such a program for the Syrian Christians? Hey, they could demonstrate what it means to "welcome the stranger" by taking some of the refugees into their mansions. I'm sure my bishop has a few spare bedrooms. And we would happily participate in such a program.
They deserve an open door with reasonable steps to becoming an American citizen just like all other people on Earth. You can't bark about the rest of the illegals and then welcome one group because you approve their religion. What if they were being targeted by terrorists because they were *gasp* homosexuals!?! Your silence would be deafening. You know I'm right.
ReplyDeleteIt isn't so much a question of approving their religion as recognizing that they are a persecuted minority. I feel the same about the Buddhist Chinese under the one child policy who are being forced to abort. Rather than being a persecuted class, (despite all the propaganda like the Matthew Shepherd lie) LGBTQetc. folks are a privileged class. When the government will pay for transgender surgery but not dental treatment, I'd say they've reached the top in politically correct privileged status.
ReplyDelete"What if they were being targeted by terrorists because they were *gasp* homosexuals!?!"
ReplyDeleteYeah?
But, they are not. They are being killed because they ARE Christian.
Any openly homosex person in a region controlled by ISIS would be dead, dead, dead.
BTW, we defend sinners equally. Catholics are equal opportunity forgivers. It's the sin we hate not the sinner.
To toss this out there, "Paris Match" magazine covered the Syrian Christians as one of its feature stories last month.
ReplyDeleteI also read two French news websites for their international coverage. Both have covered Syria's Christians.
There are so many good causes to which to contribute that it is hard to decide. Another way to help persecuted Christians is to buy their products I bought a Coptic cross from Egypt on EBay; Serbian. Greek, Russian and Eastern Rite Catholic or Orthodox Christian Jesus prayer ropes and bracelets and religious items carved from olive wood from the Arab Christians in the Holy Land. We need to help one another regardless of our differences.
ReplyDeleteAlso, please tell Dymphna on Dymphna's Road that I enjoy her blog, too, and am praying for her uncle and have bought chapel veils from some of her links.