Yesterday, two Indian engineers and a man who tried to help them were shot at, here in my glorious state of Kansas. The battle yell was “Get out of my home!”

One of them died in the incident.

The gunman later apologized, saying he thought they were Middle Eastern.

Because, apparently, that would be okay.

I’ve been a student of Christianity since my youth; while not a believer, it is a belief system that has always fascinated me. Unfortunately, reading the Bible isn’t part of most Christians’ faiths (illiteracy is true of most religious people of all/any faiths). So let’s actually read:

New International Version (NIV), Matthew, 2:13-23

¹³ When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

¹⁴ So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt,

¹⁵ where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

¹⁶ When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.

¹⁷ Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

¹⁸ “A voice is heard in Ramah,
    weeping and great mourning,
    Rachel weeping for her children
    and refusing to be comforted,
    because they are no more.”

 

¹⁹ After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt

²⁰ and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”

²¹ So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.

²² But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee,

²³ and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.

This isn’t a plea from a secular liberal; this is the story of Jesus. If the Egyptians had acted the way the United States is acting to refugees, then there would be no Christ.

Baby Jesus, along with his Middle Eastern parents, would have been turned away at the gates; no more refugees.

Make Egypt Great Again.

America no longer feels like the country I grew up in, the place I was born and raised.

And yes, I can already hear someone shouting, “If you don’t like it, go home!”

Back to Missouri, where I was born?

It’s okay if you stand by this version of America.

It’s okay if you approve of it.

But if you call yourself a Christian, go back and read Matthew 2:13-23, and consider the fate that would have befallen the Messiah if the Egyptians had acted like the U.S. is acting right now.

And for the love of God, show mercy.

Or at least forsake any presumption of religious righteousness.

Those days are gone.

Until next time, Shalom.