Executive Fear Order

UPDATE: Last night (01/28/17) a federal court issued a stay on the Muslim ban!!!! While this does not mean that the ban is lifted, it does give US green card holders time to get back to the US, and it means all people currently detained are being released. This is mostly due to the fast response of the ACLU, who knows they have a long fight ahead of them. If you can, please donate to them here.

ORIGINAL POST:

As of yesterday, 01/27/2017, people from Iraq, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen are not allowed to enter the United States for at least the next 90 days.

As of now, this includes US green card holders from these countries.

Also, Syrian refugees are not allowed to enter the United States indefinitely.  This executive order was signed on Holocaust Remembrance Day, a day to also remember that the United States turned Jewish refugees away, sentencing them to death in the camps.

It’s funny how people tell me to pay attention in history class, so the mistakes of the past will never be repeated. Then they tell me there’s nothing wrong when history begins to become the present.

This executive order is helping to feed a fear that should not exist. According to the Cato Institute, a traditionally conservative research institute, these security measures are useless. There have been no attacks by people from the seven countries listed above that resulted in American deaths, and only seventeen people from these countries have been convicted of terrorism or attempted terrorism in the past forty years. In contrast, in the past 34 years, there have been 48 mass shootings committed by white people. This fear of refugees committing acts of terrorism is just not substantiated; in fact the statistics show that white men are more likely to be terrorists – oh, I’m sorry, I’m supposed to say “mentally ill,” right?

Oh, and also, the president has decided to prioritize Christian Syrian refugees, an order that is illegal.

I’m a Christian who deeply believes that we are to help the poor, the widow, and the refugee. Not just the Christian refugees, but any refugee, no matter their religion. As a Christian, I am deeply ashamed of the president who calls himself a Christian, yet acts as though he’s never read the Bible in his life. We have not been called to live safe, secure lives. Jesus never said to put our safety over loving people – he gave up his own safety and well-being in the greatest act of love imaginable when he died on the cross. If he could give up his life for us, why can’t we share our time, our money, and our relatively safe country with people who are running out of time, out of money, and have no safe country to call home?

“If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need, but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?”
– 1 John 3:17