There has been a lot of talk recently, in the aftermath of the tragedy in Paris, about refugees. This blog does not have passionate feelings one way or the other on the issue. I respect the opinions of those who feel, for security reasons, that his or her nation or state should not allow any Syrian refugees in. I also respect the opinions of those who feel that that is not an option for a believing Christian, who is called to welcome the stranger and clothe the naked. To what extent we should continue, stop, or modify our welcome of refugees is a matter worthy of debate in these times. All sides should be listened to.
Saint Joseph was a refugee. He had to flee to Egypt to protect the life of his earthly son, the Son of God, Our Lord Jesus Christ. I am sure he would urge people of today to try and find a way to welcome refugees, but I think he would also respect legitimate security concerns. That is only me speaking, though, and my opinion on this is not to be taken as gospel truth.
However, this blog IS passionate about something else. I am passionate about us being consistent in what we say, and what we do, on anything, not just this issue. If we are going to welcome all refugees, and say we will not exclude anyone, than how do we square that with our liberal abortion laws that close the gates to life here on the unborn? Are they not refugees, as well? While we may rightly open our national borders to those fleeing persecution, it is entirely inconsistent of us, at the same time, to close our doors to the infants in the womb who would want to flee another type of persecution, namely death by the various means abortion is carried out.
The land where the unborn live, the mother's womb, because of very liberal abortion laws, is far from the safe place that it should be. In many ways, it is as unsafe as many places in the world are now, due to there being no legal protection for them in there. We have to be their voice! They have no one to cry out for them besides us. They often are crying out for help and nobody is listening. They are saying "Help me flee this land, danger is in the lurks! I need to "cross over" to a safer place; please help!"
Are we listening?
Abortion, as well as contraception, have led to very low birth rates across Europe, and because of this, governments have had to liberalize their immigration policies in order to keep up their economies because they simply do not have enough people to keep it going. When that happens, there is naturally less screening of the character of people coming over the border. I will not say that I know for sure that this happened here, that people of suspicious character and background got into France because of this, but it is worth thinking about. It may be happening here in the United States, as well. While bad economics is not the most important negative side effect of abortion (compared to its effect on our bodies, our souls, and our relationships), it is something worth noting.
Whenever we have a problem, we need to turn to the Lord and ask Him to help us solve it, not try to do it on our own, as we are learning the hard way what happens often when we do. The attitude of Saint Joseph was always for life, and that must be our attitude, as well. The answer to a low population is to be more open to life, as God, the Author of Life, is. This openness must exist in our own hearts, and in our own lands, which will not force as much to turn to other lands or other peoples to provide that life for us. We need as, Saint John Paul II said, to foster a Culture of Life. We need to encourage things like adoption and having large families. We need to strongly discourage and ideally, stop, abortion and birth control.
Each of us was given the responsibility for life by God. We should not turn to others to do that job for us. We cannot expect to continue aborting and contracepting, and then think we can turn to others to solve our problems that are directly or indirectly caused by those acts. I believe France found that out the hard way, unfortunately, too late; I pray we here in the United States learn our lesson before it is too late.
Saint Joseph, Foster father of the Son of God, and diligent protector of Christ, pray for us.
No comments:
Post a Comment