WSJ: Re: Pope "insulting our country"
Excellent job, WSJ.
Pope Benedict XVI: called on U.S. bishops last week to 'continue to welcome the immigrants who join your ranks today, to share their joys and hopes, to support them in their sorrows and trials and to help them flourish in their new home.'
This shouldn't be anything terribly surprising:
Deuteronomy 24:17-19 (NRSV): You shall not deprive a resident alien or an orphan of justice; you shall not take a widow’s garment in pledge. Remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this. When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be left for the alien, the orphan, and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all your undertakings.
Leviticus 19:33-34 (NRSV): When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
Matthew 22:36-40 (NRSV): 'Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?' He said to him, '"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: "You shall love your neighbour as yourself." On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.'
Because this is obviously so offensive:
Rep. Tancredo: [accuses] the pontiff of 'faith-based marketing' and [claims] that 'the pope's immigration comments may have less to do with spreading the gospel than they do about recruiting new members of the church.'
Mr. Dobbs: all of this [amounts] to the pope 'insulting our country.' The CNN anchor said, 'I really don't appreciate the bad manners of a guest telling me in this country and my fellow citizens what to do.'
Oh well:
Brilliant editorial: You know the restrictionists have gone head-first into the fever swamps when they denounce a Christian religious leader for sounding like a Christian. The pope welcomes immigrants because he's Catholic, not because they are. He isn't 'marketing' his faith. He's practicing it.
At the end of the day, may we all be able to say as much. Amen.
