Deplorables and Islamophobia

In the now famous “Deplorables” speech that Hillary Clinton gave before an LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) meeting she added Islamophobia to the list of phobias possessed by half of Donald Trump’s supporters. For Clinton “Islamophobia” is a foolish, irrational and dangerous reaction to the recent bombings and shootings carried out by Moslem fanatics in this country.

So far Islamophobia has not led to even local persecution of the Moslem population in this country. In fact, the fanatics who carry out these crimes are given all the protection of the laws. As Donald Trump noted the Chelsea bomber will receive the best of medical treatment while recovering from his wounds, and then free, professional legal advice when he is brought to trial. He will not be publicly humiliated and tortured before having his head cut off while millions watch on the Internet.

It is hardly surprising that Clinton never seems to notice or speak out about the widespread persecution of Christians in many Moslem dominated countries. How serious is Islamophobia compared to the murder, rape, looting, and devastation visited on Christian communities in places like Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and Libya?

In fact, the Obama, Clinton policy of support for the so-called Arab Spring and various rebel groups has led to one of the most brutal persecution of Christians ever witnessed in the past 2000 years. It is true that President Obama and Secretary Clinton supported rebel groups in Egypt and Libya and succeeded in overthrowing dictators in both countries. The result has been devastating for Christians in both countries.

Even after the Egyptian army overthrew the radical Islamic government, the persecution of Christians in that country has continued. Our support of rebels in Libya has led to total chaos in that country highlighted by the terrible attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi.

Things are not much better elsewhere. A friend of mine compiles a daily report, “Today’s Martyrs”, that highlights the everyday atrocities perpetrated against Christians throughout the world. Here is a recent excerpt of how our Kurdish rebel friends behave in Iraq. 

 

Archbishop Jacques Behnan Hindo (UPDATE: narrowly missed death when Kurdish militia fired into his residence, said "At that moment, the area was presided over by Kurdish militias, and there were no other armed persons nearby...Whenever the Kurdish militia enter in action to reaffirm its military hegemony over the city, the epicenter of their raids and acts of force is always the area of the six churches, where most of the Christians live. In many cases they expelled the Christians from their homes under the threat of Kalashnikovs. And where they enter, they loot everything"

The situation in Syria is much the same. The Obama administration has armed and supported the rebels fighting the Assad dictatorship. The rebels may oppose the Assad regime but their rockets seem to be directed at Christian targets. Here is another recent excerpt from “Today’s Martyrs.”           

Fr Ibrahim Alsabagh OFM (aged 44; UPDATE: said "we were awakened by a rocket that fell near here [which] hit the Syrian Catholic bishop's residence...Neither the bishop nor his vicar were present at the time, this prevented casualties or injuries. The damages to the building remain", added that the cathedral had "been targeted by rockets and mortar fire for a while" by rebel forces)

The first Presidential debate will take place this Monday night. These debates could be decisive in determining the winner. I believe that it will include a discussion of foreign policy. Islam and Islamophobia may come up for discussion in the debate, but I doubt if the persecution of Christians by the rebel friends of the Obama administration will be an issue. ###

Bashing Mother Teresa

     

My Yahoo home page headlines anti-Christian articles almost as often as it does accounts of scantily clad women attending entertainment award ceremonies. The latest was from a scientist who in addition to the usual atheist diatribe against God saw fit to slam Mother Teresa on the occasion of her canonization as a saint by the Catholic Church.

Not only did the scientist claim that the two miracles credited to Mother Teresa were bogus, but he also believed that her whole life’s work in serving the poor and the helpless was bogus. He claimed that she was a religious fanatic and suspected that she misused the millions of dollars donated to her and her order by religious dupes.

I am not one of those who believe that miraculous healings are necessary to establish the saintliness of someone’s life. I also know that the Catholic Church today is very careful when it comes to evaluating claims of miracles. I do believe that many people, even though they will never be canonized, could be called saints because of the life they led, the work they did, and the way in which they did it.

As far as I can tell, Mother Teresa not only talked the talk but she walked the walk. Just one incident from her life was enough for me. At the very outset of her work in Calcutta, she happened upon an elderly man left for dead in the street. His body was covered with maggots that she removed herself. She continued to care for the man although he did not live long. Before he died, he said that for the first time in his life someone had treated him like a human being.

The religious order she founded carries on her work of ministering to the poor. Strangely, some of her critics blame her and her sisters for their volunteer work. They believe that such private, volunteer work detracts from the work that should be done by the state. They also claim that states can do it better and that their facilities are superior.

Some critics actually complain that the hostels run by the sisters are sub-par. They even went so far as to hire a doctor to conduct an investigation, but must have been disappointed with his evaluation.

So the most important features of the regimen are cleanliness, the tending of wounds and sores, and loving kindness.

Such complaints remind me of the remarks made by a Roman Emperor way back in the fourth century. He complained that Christians were more active in helping the victims of the plagues that repeatedly struck the Empire.

•      The impious Galileans support not only their poor, but ours as well, everyone can see that our people lack aid from us….

•      I think that when the poor happened to be neglected and overlooked by the priests, the impious Galileans observed this and devoted themselves to benevolence.

For the Emperor, the word Galilean meant Christian. Despite the fact that the Christians were doing the work that government officials (pagan priests) were supposed to do, the Emperor still felt it necessary to persecute the Christians. This same fate is being shared by Christians throughout the world today.

Perhaps the most scandalous charge against Mother Teresa came from the posthumous public disclosure of thoughts she confided in her own diary or journal. She claimed that early in her career she ceased to have a personal relationship with Jesus.

A few years ago I attended an exhibition of the materials that had been brought together by those promoting her canonization. The exhibition did not try to hide Mother Teresa’s frank admission. Some have claimed that she had experienced a “dark night of the soul” that is not uncommon with mystics. Others believe that her feeling of abandonment by Jesus mirrored the abandonment felt by those she ministered to.

However, at the exhibition I came to see that Mother Teresa’s door to Jesus seemed to close when she first began to care for the sick and hopeless on the streets of Calcutta. It seemed to me that she came to see Jesus in those she helped. After all, He had said in the famous passage in Matthew’s gospel, “When I was hungry, you fed me, when I was thirsty, you gave me drink, and when I was naked you clothed me.”

For most of her life Mother Teresa felt that she did not have a personal relationship with Jesus. I can understand her feeling and believe it is shared by most people today. In fact, I tend to be suspicious of those who claim they do, but won’t give you the time of day.

But she did the work and found Jesus among the poorest and most helpless. In that sense, I believe that she is truly a modern saint. Most of us will not be able to attain her heroic saintliness but whether we consider ourselves religious or not, we should be able to heal the wounds and lessen the burdens of those we know. We can work to make our spouses, our children, our parents, our neighbors, our friends, and our workplace associates feel like human beings.

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Immigrant Labor 2016

     

Three Mexicans painted the exterior of our house last week. A friend who had recently employed them, recommended them highly. We called the owner and he promptly came by and we accepted his quote without quibbling. He and his crew arrived on the day appointed and got right down to work. I never saw such hard working men. The owner has been working in this country for eighteen years and his girlfriend cleans houses.

That same week I had two doctor appointments. The first was with my glaucoma surgeon, an immigrant from Russia, who saved my vision almost ten years ago with surgeries to lower the pressure on my optic nerves. He is one of the leading glaucoma specialists in the country. He is a relatively young doctor who left Russia many years ago to get away from bureaucracy and red tape. Now, he complains that the USA is becoming like the old Soviet Union.

The next day I saw a plastic surgeon who had just repaired my drooping eyelids, a procedure necessary to avoid future eye infections. This doctor is an immigrant to this country from Spain. He runs a very successful practice in a nearby town and employs three or four assistants.

Finally, I went to my local barbershop for my monthly haircut. The owner has been cutting my hair for almost 50 years. He came to this country from Italy with his family when he was only 14 years old. It took him six years to become a citizen after which he joined the Naval Reserves and then did two years of active duty in the Pacific during the Vietnam war. Within a couple of years after his return, he opened his own shop and now provides work for four other barbers, two of whom are his own children.

Some, like the editors of the Wall St. Journal, take a middle ground on immigration and argue that our doors should be open, but only to highly skilled workers like physicists and engineers. They believe that others are undesirable.

But who is undesirable? All of the immigrants that I met in the past week are, despite differing educational backgrounds, and occupations, exactly the kind of people that we should want in this country.

I am a descendant of Italians who migrated to America over 100 years ago. Most of the immigrants who came in that great wave were poor and uneducated. Most of the Italian immigrants came from the south of Italy, the poorest and most backward region of that new country. Few had even a grade school education.

Although lacking in formal education they were intelligent and hard working. Significantly, most had a strong family and religious background that provided them with a sense of community in their new country. It’s true that the good, the bad, and the ugly can be found in any group of immigrants.  Like immigrants before and after Italians had their share of gangsters and criminals whose activities tainted the great majority who were hard working and law abiding.

Nevertheless, the great majority prospered and their children quickly became assimilated, and became policemen, firemen, and teachers. Their grandchildren became today’s physicists, engineers, and tech experts. The descendants of the original immigrants now play an integral role in the affairs of this country. Two descendants of illiterate Italian immigrants have sat on our Supreme Court. Many others can be found in other high offices both public and private.

It is true that they were legal immigrants. They had to make their way through Ellis Island just like the Irish, the Germans, the Jews, the Poles, the Slovaks, and all the others who came through the so-called “Golden Door.” However, if these legal immigrants had come to this country after 1920 the great majority of them would have been illegal. What happened? Why did a country that had always kept its doors open to immigrants suddenly impose quotas?

After the First World War a wave of prejudice and bigotry swept over this country that led politicians to severely restrict the flow of immigration. In addition to their poverty and lack of learning, most of the Italian immigrants were Catholic, and they were regarded as ignorant and superstitious. They were called wops and guineas and their crowded streets were believed to be breeding grounds of crime and depravity.

In the 1920’s racists and advocates of ethnic purity decided to stem the flow of immigration into this country. They wanted no more undesirables, especially if they practiced alien religions like Catholicism and Judaism. New immigration laws made during the 1920s made a mockery of the Statue of Liberty and the famous poem written by Emma Lazarus.

  "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,  The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. 
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
 I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Why do commentators believe that the Mexicans, who have crossed the borders of our country in order to find a better life for themselves and their families, will be different from their own ancestors? If the law had been different all of these immigrants could have entered the country peacefully without danger to life and limb and without employing criminals to guide them.

Nevertheless, I can understand the vehemence of Donald Trump and others against illegal immigration. His opponent seems to be oblivious to the criminal element among the illegal immigrants or those who overstay their visas. Certainly, he seems more willing to identify and deal with the threat of Moslem terrorists among the refugees seeking asylum in this country. His ideological test may not work but at least he seems to recognize the threat.

He is also right to insist that citizenship should still mean something in America. There should be real benefits attached to citizenship. Immigrants should have to apply for citizenship and meet certain criteria. They should not immediately enjoy all the benefits of citizenship, for citizenship in this country should still be regarded as a great privilege.

In the long run opening up our doors to immigrants will provide great benefits. It is not just a question of who will cut our lawns, remove our garbage, or paint our homes, but how will we compete with China’s huge population with only 300 million people? Who will buy up our unused housing if our population continues to decline? Don’t immigrants now rent American apartments, drive American cars, and buy American products in American stores?

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