The Famous Tweet
Justin Trudeau has thrown the doors wide open to pretty much any refugees or asylum seeker who can reach the Canadian border. Why do these people come to Canada? Because they’re faced with war, desolation and destruction back in their home countries. The refugee crisis of 2015 saw many refugees come to Canada.
While it may be charitable to lend a helping hand to these people fleeing a country destroyed by war and Islamic extremism, the safety and welfare of Canadian citizens needs to be taken into account. This is also costing the tax payers a lot of money.
As with everything in life, I like to take a Catholic approach. In the OT, we can find many verses that talk about treating a foreigner well. Here’s one of many examples:
“‘When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
A refugee and the foreigner are not the same thing. However, when the foreigner is in the land with refugee status, we should treat them well. I suppose the big question is, should we receive all of these refugees?
Realistically, we can’t accept every refugee that reaches our border. We simply don’t have the finances for it. Should we accept some? Here is my answer.
We should accept some refugees. In Matthew 2:13-23 we read about how the Holy Family fled to Egypt when Herod was ruling. The Egyptians allowed the Holy Family to stay as refugees. If the Egyptians can accept Jesus, can’t we accept the Syrian refugees? My answer is yes but it has some qualifications. Yes, they can come here, but like the Holy Family, they must eventually return to their land. They are not immigrants, but refugees. Verses 19 and 20 read:
After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”
ISIS has been defeated in Iraq and Syria and therefore these refugees should go back either now or very soon. Some may say that things in Syria are not as good as they are in Canada. They’re not, but they never have been. The Christian response is to receive the Syrian refugees and put them in camps which we’ve done. The Christian thing to do would be to take care of them. We should also try to Christianize them while they’re here so when they go back, they can spread the true faith in Syria.
I see this as the only Biblical analysis of what to do. It helps those in need, it sends them back when things are better and hopefully they’ll be bringing the Gospel back to Syria. I don’t believe in granting any of them citizenship or permanent residence.
If anyone wants to challenge these views based on Scripture, Tradition, or Catholic social teaching, feel free to respond bellow.
Allan,
I agree with you 100%. Your statements are entirely sound. Sad to say that many of the noisy people that are our fellow countrymen don’t understand that hospitality must have limits otherwise it is taken advantage of (and eventually the honest, needy stranger may be resented).
The Western World – in particular the territories established by the British – have established good and very successful societies. They are great places to live so they attract many peoples from the rotten parts of the world. How I wish they would go back and use what they have learned in order to make their own homelands better.
(You are working really hard these days Allan, and it’s all very good stuff, but I can hardly keep up with all this! I read all of it even if I don’t comment, and I am the better for it. My English summer is arriving and life is getting quite nice and easy, surely it must be arriving in Canada too?)
Cheers,
Christopher
Hi Christopher,
I agree. The British have established good societies all across the world. I’m privileged to live in a colony which has one of the highest standards of living on the planet. The part about the British Empire that is sad is how anti-Catholic it was. If only England had remained Catholic, there may not be any Protestantism today. Imagine Spain and England fighting together against the Ottomans? That would have been awesome.
You are correct, I am producing more content and am trying to post every second day. My view counts are definitely up though. At the end of June or early July I should pass the total amount of views that I had in 2017 and in only half the time! Thanks for being a loyal follower. I’ll make it to England one of these days and maybe we can have some tea!
God Bless,
Allan