On being Christian. . .

Bishop Myriel from Les Miserables
depicted by Gustave Brion

It is Christmas and typically my thoughts and heart focus on the home at this time. It is largely the same this year no doubt. And honestly it is the home, those in it, and the gingerbread too..  That said, this year I do wonder if we have lost something. Yes I raise the question of Christ. Have we neglected Christ, despite celebrating his birthday?

The story of him being born in a stable is presented to us at every Christmas Mass or Service. The question being asked of us each time, I think, is will we let him in? Would we have made room for him? It is customary in some families and traditions to set a plate for him at the Christmas meal.

And let me qualify, Christmas Eve Mass is one of perhaps the two or three times I make it to church each year, and honestly I go largely for the two or three carols I get to sing. So I do not see myself as any great Christian. Honestly, the question of any faith really has not been answered for myself. Regardless of all those speculations, I wonder if many who do profess a faith, have lost their way.

I say this in regard to our responses to the ongoing refugee crisis in Syria and to a lesser degree Libya, and all of the related challenges in Europe, This includes Aleppo, the huge camps in Jordan, Turkey, and elsewhere, the swelling populations of refugees across Europe, and the terrorism that seems to have followed in the past year in Europe. All of it unfortunate. And America's response to all of it seems to be that we will have none of it.*

I talk not of actual refugees that entered our country. We brought roughly 80,000 refugees into the United States in 2016. Roughly 40,000 of those were Muslim. Those numbers are for the fiscal year 2016.**

No, I respond not to these numbers, but more to the attitudes of the President elect and others who cry that we cannot allow such things to happen or continue. We cannot allow such refugees to come into the US due to the terrorist threat. And I know he has not defined a specific policy regarding this. I am aiming not at policy here, but rather what drives our policy. I point to our attitudes, our thoughts and beliefs, our concerns It seems that we will no longer care that such groups exists. Rather, we ask first are we safe? We ask can we trust? We distrust.

This Christmas, we leave Christ at the stable. We have not seated him at our table. I am afraid that Myriel looks down disappointingly.

*https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/02/syrias-refugee-crisis-in-numbers/
**http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/10/05/u-s-admits-record-number-of-muslim-refugees-in-2016/