pilgrim road sign

Notice who is on the run–Pilgrims.  A gentle reminder that unless we are Native American, all of us were once immigrants when  our ancestors  came to this  country.

Please remember that there are people in the world who do not have adequate  food, clothing or shelter.  People in war-torn countries have it the worst.  They are often victims of their government’s greed or  ideology.

Some people want immigrants and refugees to go back to where they came from.  Sometimes that just isn’t possible.  Homes and infrastructure are just gone.

 

war-torn

Thanksgiving is a time to gather around family and friends to observe one’s blessings.  It’s also a time to welcome others who perhaps don’t have as much as we do.

Most of the major religions of the world believe in what Christians call “the Golden Rule” —Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

There are many variations on this theme regarding how we are to treat each other.    Christianity is very clear on how others are to be treated.  The mandate is repeated many times using various parables as well as divine directive.  I am a fairly casual Bible reader but I do have my favorite verses:

Matthew 25:  31-46.        (NIV)

31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

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.’

46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

21 Thoughts to “Separating the sheep from the goats: some Thanksgiving thoughts”

  1. Wolve

    We are all immigrants here, including the “Native Americans,” who came from Asia.

  2. Wolve

    Just take care not to let the wolves in with the sheep.

  3. Wolves go after sheep and goats. Always remain vigilant.

    The Anglo Saxons also felt that William the Conqueror was an invader.
    I am not willing to call people who Native Americans who had been here 10,000 years “immigrants.”

  4. Cargosquid

    Be aware that the immigrants that are coming here have apparently been living outside the “war torn” areas for quite some time. Some of the “Syrian refugees” have been living in Turkey, making a living, for years and are trying to make it to the northern parts of Europe, Canada, or the US because of better benefits.

  5. Wolve

    I am willing. They just got here first and were later overcome by numbers and more advanced development. Same thing has happened everywhere on this planet throughout history.

  6. Wolve

    The Anglo-Saxons (Saxons, Angles, Jutes) were invited in as paid mercenaries by the ancient Britons to help fight military incursions by the Irish and Picts. Only they never stopped coming and then brought in their families and other relatives. To make a long story short, the original Britons wound up barely hanging on at the fringes in Wales and Cornwall. That’s what happens when you don’t think through your immigration system.

  7. Starryflights

    Very well stated, moon. Our country should always be welcoming to immigrants as our nation was built by immigrants.

  8. Kelly_3406

    I do not think these overly general questions serve the debate at all. There is probably no one on this thread who will argue against taking in any immigrants at all. But there are more specific questions that have to be answered in terms of the present debate:

    Do we want to accept 1000, 10,000, 100,000, 1 million, ….. unlimited?

    In this era of multi-culturalism, many present-day immigrants choose to live among their own countrymen or religion within our borders and reject US customs and culture. Should we accept immigrants that will probably choose to remain separate from other Americans?

    Should we just accept the risk that there will be radicals embedded within the refugees? The FBI says there is not enough information to vet immigrants from Syria. How do you propose that we do due diligence to prevent radicals from getting in?

    1. What is done for any other group of immigrants to make certain there are no terrorists embedded?

      I understand about living in one’s own community. Let me play devils advocate….if they move into our neighborhoods, we bitch. If foreigners stay in ethnic neighborhoods, then we bitch and say they are isolating themselves. Don’t all immigrants live in their own communities when first arriving? The neighborhood because a community resource. Church, charities, etc are all there.

      I guess we move slowly but we move. How do you recapture lost information? Perhaps you keep an eye on those who have been let in for suspicious behavior. I am simply not sure. What do we do with other people?

  9. The immigration issue has risen its very ugly head here in Prince William County. Some WJLA reporter claimed that we are a sanctuary city which is ridiculous. Prince William county has had some of the strictest policies regarding immigration including its own 287(g) program and a criminal alien unit as part of the police department.

    Now a couple of irresponsible bloggers are trying to stir up problems, once again, with our police chief. Our police, however, were used to working with 287 (g) until that program no longer existed. We were just a little different than the surrounding counties. Perhaps WJLA just didn’t get it. No one has ever accused PWC of being soft on crime committed by illegal immigrants. It was probably also a slam at Chairman Stewart. Slow news day or something.

    Now some jerk on one of the other blogs has accused Elena of hiding on Moonhowlings. While Elena was co-owner of this blog, she blogged under her own name. Those posts that said Elena were written by her. Those that said Moon-howler were written by me. We co-wrote several. I don’t think those exist now because we did some clean up after she disassociated herself from the blog.

    That’s just for the record when all the blogger contributors run over here on a drive-by trying to justify an absolutely dumb ass statement made by one of them.

    For the record, Elena may come back at any time and she pay post here with administrative privileges. She just has a lot of irons in the fire now, including her health.

  10. Kelly_3406

    Moon-howler :
    What is done for any other group of immigrants to make certain there are no terrorists embedded?

    Terrorists embedded among refugees seems to be an unprecedented development in US history. Prior to 9/11, I am not familiar with any attempts to seek refuge in the US in order to get into the country and kill as many civilians as possible. There were previous scares that spies were embedded among refugees. The US substantially decreased the number accepted in those cases.

  11. Kelly_3406

    Moon-howler :
    I understand about living in one’s own community. Let me play devils advocate….if they move into our neighborhoods, we bitch.

    I do not think people bitch because foreigners move into the neighborhood. I think they bitch when immigrants move in and do things that detract from the neighborhood. If the immigrants have trash strewn about the yard, or 50 people living in a three-bedroom home, or an unusual paint scheme, people will not be happy to have them in the neighborhood. If immigrants take care of their property and keep their home attractive in general conformance with community standards, i.e. assimilate, they will generally be welcomed in most communities.

  12. Kelly, I agree with you about good neighbors. However, I have heard people howling when “others” move in, just because they are “others.” I have been on this planet for a long time. I remember when it was done to blacks, even.

  13. Wolve

    I see in media reports that the FBI already has 48 individuals highly suspected of ISIS connections under 24/7 surveillance. That is just ISIS cases. In terms of real surveillance (not the movie kind) that means multiple teams (both in terms of number of teams and number of agents and equipment on each team) assigned to each individual to maintain the 24-7. That’s a lot of trained agents and a lot of cash. That means fewer agents on criminal cases, and a promise of being severely stretched, perhaps to the point of ineffectiveness, if we throw a huge number of possible suspects at them. Then they may lose the tracking threads, as happened in France and Belgium and is happening in Germany.

    That is how you “keep an eye” on them. And it isn’t easy, especially when you are outnumbered big time.

    1. Wolve, I don’t know the answers to it all. I just know we can’t cut off humanitarian relief because something “might happen.” Then we become like WWII America putting people in concentration camps. The rhetoric and reasoning then seemed solid also. Oddly enough, the Japanese went in. Germans and Italians didn’t.

  14. Wolve

    It looks like Sweden, as altruistic as a nation can be on the refugee question, may be choking on the numbers. Many Swedes appear to be fed up with multicultural diversity, especially the Middle Eastern kind. There is even a small town in Sweden where some of the locals and newly arrived refugees are going head-to-head with stone throwing and vandalism against each other. The Swedes are limiting refugee ingress at the border for the first time. It isn’t easy being a country targeted by refugees because of your well known “benefits” system and not having enough housing to cover the incoming crowd.

  15. Wolve

    Ongoing shooter and possibly bomb situation at Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs, CO. Perp not yet identified — or caught, apparently.

  16. Wolve

    Colorado Springs perp has surrendered. No details yet on him or any fatalities.

  17. Starryflights

    And we’re worried about Syrian refugees?

    1. Starry, I thought the same thing.

      Am I surprised? No. I dealt with some of those folks 20 years ago. I know that there are some people out there who are driven by whatever….and who will cause bodily harm to those who do not agree.

      Not being surprised doesn’t mean I am not filled with disgust.

      We know one officer has been killed by this lunatic. 2 other people have died. There are 9 or 10 others wounded. Some of those wounded are also police officers. The others could be planned parenthood workers or patients or people off the street. We just don’t know yet.

      There are also bomb warnings. Its horrible! Yet there will be those cheering for this A-hole.

  18. Wolve

    Starryflights :
    And we’re worried about Syrian refugees?

    I worry about both.

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