Showing posts with label Christians. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christians. Show all posts

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Immigrant is not the same as Refugee


  1. im·mi·grant
    ˈimigrənt/
    noun
    1. a person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country.
      synonyms:newcomersettlermigrantemigrantMore
      • BIOLOGY
        an animal or plant living or growing in a region to which it has migrated.


ref·u·gee
ˌrefyo͝oˈjē,ˈrefyo͝oˌjē/
noun
  1. a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster.
    "tens of thousands of refugees fled their homes"



One of these things is not like the other. It seems our friends at  Fosters  need to get out their dictionaries:

More than 25 protestors stood on an overpass off Exit 15 of the Spaulding Turnpike Friday morning to make a stand against illegal immigration.

“The goal is to make the American people aware that there are people opposed to illegal immigration,” said event organizer Jerry DeLemus during the protest. “And also let our government know.”



The children who are appearing at our border are refugees. They are coming from Central America where they are fleeing violence and unimaginable horror. It's typical of the fringe right that they're unable to distinguish the difference. It's also unsurprising that they're disinterested. Jerry calls himself a Christian. He opposes a woman's right to bodily autonomy and medical privacy. But when it comes to brown kids, all that concern for LIFE goes right out the window. 

Ole Billy Baer who attempted to make a big name for himself a few months ago was at this protest with the daughter he was trying so desperately to protect from learning about date rape. He apparently has no problem exposing her to racism, bigotry, and ignorance:

Baer said the blame for the illegal immigration problem lies with the president.

“The Obama administration has basically not enforced immigration law,” said Baer.

“We're becoming a lawless society functioning with a lawless government.”


These guys sit around watching wingnut conspiracy videos all day. What they don't do is bother to find any credible information:

Since taking the oath of office, Obama has deported immigrants at a faster rate than any other president in US history, nearly a record 2 million people. On a typical day, there are over 30,000 immigrants imprisoned in the world’s largest immigration detention system. Most deportees never see an attorney or have a hearing before a judge before they are expelled from the country. 

Oops. Of course DeLemus and Baer couldn't ever applaud Obama, because they're both birthers. Even though the Black Guy in the White House is deporting more people than the last White Guy did, they'd never be able to acknowledge it. 

Both of these guys would force white women to serve as involuntary incubators, in the name of LIFE - because imaginary LIFE always trumps all. The inconvenience of brown refugee children fleeing countries devastated by US foreign policy in Central America is a different matter entirely. Their lives are of no consequence. 

It's Sunday. Somewhere both of these hypocrites are praising Jesus. 


History and background of US conduct in Central America.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Cornerstone's Prattefall






After the Zimmerman verdict was announced on Saturday night, Ashley Pratte the Executive Director of Cornerstone Action/Policy Research sent out the tweet you see above. 





An adult man who killed an unarmed boy was found not guilty, and Miss Pratte* calls this justice. 

In my own understated way, I called it as I saw it, and mocked Miss Pratte. 

From Cornerstone's mission statement: 

Cornerstone communicates with a reasonable, persuasive, and compelling voice on family issues in the media and in the halls of Concord.  We believe the origins of our culture were purposely rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition, and thus advocate for the traditional New Hampshire values of personal responsibility, strong families, limited government and free enterprise.  

I guess I just don't understand contemporary Judeo-Christian values. Is applauding the not-guilty verdict of an adult man who killed an unarmed boy what Jesus would do? Is finding this verdict "justice" the use of a "reasonable, persuasive, and compelling voice on family issues?" 

More from the mission statement: 

We believe that one person can make a difference in his or her community. In our democratic-republic form of government, public policies essentially stem from the values, attitudes, and behavior of people and institutions. Therefore, changing laws without changing the hearts, minds and lives of people proves futile. We believe that influence over hearts and minds are earned by compassion in service, wisdom in relationships, and intellectual excellence in persuasion.

Oh, well, that explains it. Ashley was trying to influence hearts and mind by her use of compassion, wisdom, and intellectual excellence.

A perusal of the Cornerstone website reveals a lot of Christian oriented material. They have a compassion project. They have a page of lessons on social justice from the  the Heritage Foundation. Cornerstone has a page promoting Focus on the Family's Truth Project, which claims to be dedicated to showing the importance and relevance of living the Christian world view in daily life. 

An unarmed teenager is dead. I'm still not getting how cheering the fact that his killer was found not guilty fits into the Christian world view. 

I'm aware that this verdict has created a lot of anger and discussion. That's neither here nor there. A woman who is the Executive Director of an organization that allies itself with Christianity should have had the sense to keep her opinion to herself.  She could have tweeted something compassionate out, about sadness for all of the families involved, since Cornerstone claims to care so much about families. 

Instead, she got mad at me. Miss Pratte's response to my jab was:





Given that I don't work for  (or belong to) the NH Democratic Party, I'm not sure what Miss Pratte is hoping to accomplish by calling upon them to chastise me. (They haven't even tried) A couple of Ashley's buddies retweeted her plea, but she wasn't able to get the kind of media juice for it that she seems to have been hoping for. 

She's right though. It is blatant disrespect. And it is deserved. Someone who could send out a tweet congratulating the killer of an unarmed teenaged boy doesn't deserve my respect. Her respect for the family of Trayvon Martin is nonexistent. In the land of Cornerstone, only some families have value. 

* Since I'm guessing Ashley doesn't identify as a feminist, I chose to eschew the term Ms. and go with the old-school Miss, given that she's unmarried.