19 September 2015

Is the U.S.A. the Mother of Exiles for non-Christians only?

An inscription written on a plaque placed inside the Statue of Liberty records the words the poem of Emma Lazarus titled, "The New Colossus":
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "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-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
The second half of the poem is, of course, more well-known than the first. Still, the words Lazarus places on the lips of Lady Liberty are in stark contrast to how the present administration receives Christian refugees from Syria.

As they watch their country descend further and further into chaos, His Excellency the Most Reverend Bashar Warda, Archbishop of Erbil of the Chaldeans, and His Excellency the Most Reverend Jean-Clement Jeanbart, Archbishop of the Melkite Greek Catholic Eparchy of Aleppo, have accused the United States of America, the Mother of Exiles, of discrimination against Christian refugees (with my emphases):
The archbishops cited federal data indicating that, since October 2014, 906 Muslim refugees from Syria were granted U.S. visas, while only 28 of Syria’s estimated 700,000 Christian refugees were provided with visas. They said that even considering that Christians account for just 10 percent of the population of Syria, the number of visas granted to Christians seems widely disproportional.
Only a few days ago, the administration deported 27 Chaldean Christians who fled from the Islamic State. They were detained for the past six months even though they have sponsors in the U.S.A.

Given the policy of the current administration, Lady Liberty should finish her sentence with these words: "Unless they are Christians."

No comments:

Post a Comment