Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses

For most of America's history, in spite of it's flaws, it was a beacon of hope to those fleeing from hopeless situations around the world. Over the centuries, people have flocked to America to find shelter in the wake of famines, wars, religious persecution, crippling poverty, and so much more. I personally would like to believe that legacy will carry on even after I've departed from this earth.

However, I'm beginning to fear that, within my lifetime, this time we are living in now is going to be the era that people point to as the place in history when that legacy began to die.

I'm devastated and enraged by this immigration ban President Trump has enacted. If you're somehow unfamiliar, Trump issued an executive order banning citizens from 7 Muslim-majority nations entry to the U.S. for 90 days, and bans all refugees from entering the U.S. for 120 days.

I'm honestly not entirely sure what the President (or the order's supporters) believe will be accomplished by it. America already has the most rigorous refugee resettlement process of any nation in the world. It can take asylum seekers YEARS to be thoroughly vetted. Any potential terrorists seeking to strike out at us from within would find it far easier to sneak into the country than to try to come in through ANY official avenues.

The only possible outcome of this ban is the further erosion of the already very shallow reserves of goodwill that the rest of the world has for the U.S. It is an objectively nonsensical plan that is already having negative repercussions around the world.

So it's a dumb move. As an American, I find it embarrassing, but as a Christian? I find it repulsive. Especially the talk of prioritizing Christian refugees over Muslim refugees. Scott Arbeiter, President of World Relief, said it well: "Some of the most vulnerable people in the world right now are Muslims. If we say no Muslim should be let in, we are denying the humanity and dignity of people made in the image of God."