Morning Thoughts: January 21, 2018

Lot of posts these days talk about how some immigrants have “broken the law,” and should be punished. There’s something odd about it.

In my opinion, and this is just one person’s, these posts would carry more weight if they weren’t posted, in almost every instance, by the same folks who would totally exonerate the woman in Kentucky, who refused to obey a lawful requirement because of her (a woman with multiple marriages) so-called “religious beliefs.”

Now, I’m not a biblical scholar, but unlike most evangelicals, I’ve read the whole Bible, not just the parts that support my embedded beliefs. It’s tough going and takes you through so many nooks and crannies that forming a consisted belief system from it is tough without severe selectivity.

My readings have convinced me, though, that there are more requirements therein for us to love one another, to show mercy on one another, to comfort the afflicted, to treat aliens well, and to care for the weak and helpless than there are to keep two men or two women who love one another from engaging in a lawful wedding.

By lawful, I mean one that has been amended in modern times from the original biblical allowance for men to have as many wives as they chose, or for the woman to hold only a supporting and grossly unequal role in the matter. Geez, if we truly believe that, we wouldn’t even allow our sisters to preach the Gospel.

Yes, our definitions have changed over the years. By the time the Galilean came along, there were two people involved in marriage and he was more vocal about divorce than he was about who the two people were.

He didn’t like it, divorce that is. I haven’t found, though, where he suggested deportation for the offense.

But back to the law. Yes, certain things are illegal, sexual harassment being one of those. So far, there hasn’t been a national outcry for deporting the guilty, quite the contrary in at least one case.

Hiring illegal aliens itself is, well, illegal. I’m trying to get a count on how many employers have been departed so far for the offense, but no luck so far.

Hiring contractors and not paying them is, I think, under certain conditions, illegal. If the one doing the hiring and shafting has enough legal resources, though, deportation doesn’t follow. Filing bankruptcy seems to be a cheaper way out for the contractors involved than bringing lawsuits against billionaires.

Lynching and other forms of murdering African-Americans should have been illegal at least since shortly after the end of the Civil War. Not only did our country not make it illegal, we didn’t even deport a single guilty party. One can probably still smell the cloud of guilt on a hot summer night at Ninth and Broadway in my city of Little Rock, Arkansas where whites once burned a black man. A white man in the crowd then publicly directed traffic with a charred and severed arm. Deported? No. Arrested? No. A local hero? Yes, among many. Do any of his descendants now post offensive things on Facebook about minorities? In all likelihood. Acorns don’t fall far from the tree.

A woman recently admitted that she lied when she made comments that initiated one of our country’s most infamous lynchings, that of a black child. Has she been deported? Not to my knowledge. Would our country be better off if she never had lived within its borders? You decide.

I’m not trying to foment divisiveness. I’ll leave that to our president and his minions. I just choose to follow the path of one who said, “let him who is without sin cast the first stone.”

I think, if I remember correctly, that same person, it is written, said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” I don’t recall a word therein about our deporting one another.

Further, I believe that if we have national problems, and we do, they can be solved better with love than with hatred. I also believe that if we do have laws, and we must enforce them, we can do so in the least restrictive, damaging, hurtful, and vengeful way possible. If a person’s church or political party doesn’t believe that, I have suggestions for that person. I, for one, think the Galilean would agree.