I try not to bring politics into the comic too much, especially considering I'm personally inexcusably under-informed about the Syrian Refugee Crisis, but I've been feeling especially sick of double standards watching the media and internet news feeds these past couple of days--To say nothing of the prevalent trend of a handful of loud bigots giving the soft-spoken majority a bad reputation.
For the record, to paraphrase my dad, the Pastor with decades of theological expertise, the bible is not "very clear" on homosexuality (as I've several times heard it asserted): The bible is utterly uninterested in homosexuality--It objectively has more to say about, to take one example, menstruation- And I think REALLY REALLY HOPE we can all agree that stuff is so impossibly archaic, that to let it guide you today would be offensively laughable.
The bible is essentially two thousand years old (and the old testament's been stewing for six); Any version of it that we're reading today has invariably been translated and reinterpreted far more times than you'd care to count. Responsible reading of it is not about rote parroting of isolated, ambiguous passages: It's about emulating the overwhelming, undeniable themes and lessons. Lessons like generosity and stewardship; welcoming and caring for strangers and people in need; humility and dedication in the face of adversity. ("Love your neighbor as yourself": That one sound familiar?)
Which is not to say the discussion of the American politics regarding refugees is or should be a religious issue, but for my experience as the grandchild of two sets of missionaries, it is impossible to see this situation and not find it deeply evocative of the values I've grown up with. So if we're going to be bringing Christianity into political discourse anyways, can we at least do it genuinely for once, when it actually maybe has some applicability, rather haplessly wielding it about as some flashy prop as has become the all too comfortable norm?
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