Ron DeSantis sent a planeload of asylum-seekers to Martha's Vineyard and dropped them off unannounced.
Ha!
It was political theater. DeSantis could show up those liberal "sanctuary state" governors as sanctimonious hypocrites. The more they complained, the better. Watch liberals cry.
The people seeking asylum from Venezuela were props in the drama. Extras. They were told they were going to Boston where they would get help filling out paperwork so they could get jobs. Fooled!! Suckers!!
Maybe this wasn't just about liberal tears. What about the refugees? What about feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, and welcoming the traveler? The migrants are people. Wasn't this cruel to them? Didn't Jesus speak directly to this?
Matthew 25: 44-46
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.’
46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment.
The week's events generated revised attention and circulation of this video on YouTube: Republican Jesus.
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| Click: "Let's get her to a detention center." |
14 comments:
Well put, but casting it as religious hypocrisy is actually somewhat generous. It's simply racist, with a dash of sociopathy for added kick.
This is complimentary to the recent post about hubris. These gentlemen are narcissistic, utterly sure of the righteousness of their actions, and I think it exposes how similar they are to each other, and their supporters. This is the same confidence that segregationists asserted going back as far as you'd like.
Isn't there something in the Bible about "chosen people"?
Whatever cruel cynical political benefit Republicans get from this there is some comfort in knowing the migrants will ultimately be ok, with their future prospects funded in part by the good people of Florida and Texas, so hey, thanks Ron, nicely played.
We all know that evil, cruel people exist. What is so disturbing is that they have so many followers.
I see it strictly as a political move by DeSantis. He is running for president and this looks good to his base.
But I agree, it is just wrong.
Don’t laugh. There actually is such a thing as the Conservative Bible Project seeking to counter what they perceive as the Bible’s liberal bias. I wouldn’t be surprised if their view of Jesus were something like the one presented in this parody. About the only thing missing is the AR-15. I’m sure that would be his weapon of choice.
Certain leaders in the Catholic Church have been very hard on Democrats for their pro choice political views, including Nancy Pelosi and John Kerry.
The Catholic Church is pro immigrant and pro refugee. Will Ron DeSantis, an Italian-American Roman Catholic, feel the wrath of the Catholic Church?
The pope speaks very compassionately about immigrants and refugees and Catholic Charities assists immigrants and refugees in communities across the US.
It’s true that wasn’t nice to fly those immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard. But a flight in a well-maintained airplane to a luxury vacation spot is not exactly cruel and unusual punishment. I am sure that flight and the ensuing experiences will not make any of those immigrants’ top 10 list of the worst things that happened to them on their journey to the USA.
DeSantis made a political point about Democrats’ “sanctuary“ immigration policies, and now Democrats are making a political point about Republicans’ “cruelty.” Good times all around…
Unfortunately, a Democratic talking point is to compare this with the so-called "Reverse Freedom Rides" of 1962. This misses the issue, which is that the federal government must provide for asylum seekers who present themselves at the southern border (or any other border or U.S. embassy or consulate).
In other words, the victims of the Reverse Freedom Rides were American citizens with homes in Arkansas, Louisiana, and other American locations. They were on their own when lured into going to places such as Massachusetts. The whites who lured them were cynical and cruel.
In contrast, when aliens from, say, Venezuela present themselves to the federal government for political asylum, in Texas or anywhere else in this country, it's up to the federal government--the Department of Homeland Security, I think--to decide where they will stay (one option is detention) and on what conditions they'll stay there; this is a federal responsibility regardless of the state where the aliens are found, be that Texas or somewhere else. But we aren't being told what the Biden Administration proposes to do with these people; we just hear about how it's either cruel or not cruel or Christian or not Christian to send them to Martha's Vineyard. If you really care about immigration, you need to focus on federal policy; a start would be to ask the Biden Administration what it plans to do with these people.
As appalling as it may seem upon first blush for Governor DeSantis to have abandoned these migrants to the ravages of Martha’s Vineyard, some perspective is warranted. Caracas is over 3,500 miles from Boston, their ultimate destination, whereas the tony island resort is less than 100. This segment of the journey may well have been the safest and most pleasant by far, and certainly no less so than the innumerable group migrant trips by plane, train and bus into the U.S. interior from the Southern border under the auspices of the Biden administration over the last couple of years, somehow escaping accusations of “cruelty”. All this despite no COVID and other screenings, and with only five or ten percent ultimately meeting the legal definition of “refugee” anyway.
Yet good and decent and sophisticated progressives have cited Scripture itself in deploring the political tactics of Governors DeSantis and Abbott, so there must be something valid in their censure. Legacy news media figures concerned only with universal human rights have even invoked the Holocaust. Taking their good faith and moral and intellectual heft as a given, then, it still bears mentioning that no Jews of the Shoah, let alone six million, had violated the law (“Render unto Caesar…”?) and national borders to break INTO Hitler’s Germany in the first place. Nor should Martha’s Vineyard, Chicago, New York City and Washington D.C., in any practical, grown-up sense, that is, be considered remotely comparable destinations to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen and Mauthausen.
Governors Abbot and DeSantis are engaging in human trafficking across state lines, using desperate asylum-seekers as political pawns to rally their white nationalist base. Dismissing this as giving them a trip to a luxury vacation spot is disingenuous at best.
Is what Abbott and DeSantis are doing even legal? Why are Floridians paying for immigrants or refugees in Texas to be moved around the country? From what pot of money is DeSantis taking this money? In government, funds must be allocated by the state legislature. Inquiring minds want to know.
Florida has a multi-million dollar account, established with bipartisan support in the legislature to help and relocate asylum seekers (and apparently illegal aliens) to areas that can better accommodate them. This action is well documented in the news, and $600K+ was spent to relocate these people.
These people were originally to be settled in the Florida Panhandle area. DeSantis worked with Abbott to help coordinate the relocation.
When the Biden Administration relocates these people, he does so in the dead of night without much warning.
As I wrote previously, yes, this is a well supported "stunt" that exposes the hypocrisy being demonstrated by several sanctuary cities and states.
Why isn't the media up in arms regarding the Biden Administrations relocation actions?
Because immigration is under the jurisdiction of the Federal government.
In government, there are different jurisdictions: Federal, state, county & local.
One reason that people may be moved at night is so that they will not be attacked and harassed by MAGA, Qanon and other hate groups, which has happened before
"Because immigration is under the jurisdiction of the federal government".
Yes. Full circle: that's precisely why self-declared sanctuary cities and sanctuary states as such are unlawfully preempting federal prerogatives, often to the point of affirmative interference.
In Portland a few years ago, state court staff ushered an undocumented immigrant through judge's chambers to avoid federal officials there to lawfully arrest him for his criminal conduct here.
When the federal government cares about fulfilling its own lawful obligations, that is. Obama's AG, Holder, cynically sued Arizona under preemption....for trying to HELP feds intercept and deport.
Most leftists either want open borders, period, but think it impolitic to admit it openly, or consider the Wish For A Better Life constitutes a valid claim for asylum--in Bad America and the West, anyway.
I think we are seeing the consequences of a key assertion in the Declaration of Independence, i.e., we have the irrevocable right to be free to do what we want and pursue individual happiness. Taken to the extreme, if we think someone is stepping on our right to happiness, then we have the right do whatever it takes to fix it, violence if necessary. It is our “right”.
I love that you quote the Bible. There is a myth that America was founded by Christians as a Christian nation. Thomas Jefferson synthesized the Gospels and created the Jefferson Bible. I bought one at the Library of Congress. It ends with Jesus’ death, which sort of proves that Jefferson was not a Christian in any orthodox sense. But he found it useful to use religious language to get buy-in that the American idea was God-ordained. This created a kind of political theology, and perhaps a sense of holy destiny. We are the good guys, favored by God.
Theology (ideas about God) is usually about ultimate things; about identity, virtue and meaning. Things worth dying for. Christian theology is about transcendence, about the kingdom of heaven. Jesus’ message of hope was not about this world. Indeed, he promises suffering, self-sacrifice (including martyrdom like him) to his followers. He commands them to love not just your neighbor but love your enemies (Matthew 5:43). What? Love your enemies? Don’t have contempt for them? Insane you say!!
Everything Jesus taught was countercultural in first-century Palestine, and it is countercultural today. Jesus modeled what in corporate circles they call servant leadership. Since time immemorial, humans have sought power and they will leverage whatever it takes to get it. Religion is handy because it taps the “ultimate” impulses in us. Loyalty to kings and emperors of all religions was mostly based on a belief in their deity, or at least a special anointing and empowerment by the deities. Like Jefferson, modern politicians, especially on the right, exploit many churchgoers’ (and leaders) ignorance of basic biblical teaching. They perpetuate the “God-ordained-happiness-entitlement-overcome-your-enemies” myth. It’s a holy war and there are no rules, except to overcome and restore my 'happiness'.
70 years ago, Richard Niebuhr, a Yale theologian, wrote a dense little book called Christ & Culture. He explores its intersection and paradoxes. It’s as relevant today as it was then. The question for thoughtful Christians today is – is my culture (including political stance) informing my theology? Or is my theology and biblical literacy robust enough to inform my view of culture? My observation is that it is more the former. Even as a Jesus-following kind of Christian, I wrestle with the former. Culture and tribe are immensely powerful forces.
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