When I watch this video I see a number of things. The first is the sheer sadness and desperation of these families. It also makes me think of comments I have read like, "There are no children and women, it's just a bunch of fighting age men who want to spread terrorism." I always wonder if these people are watching different videos than me. Is Fox News only showing men in their news footage, cleverly editing it so that you don't see the many many women and children? My second thought is how good it is that there are people who are there to meet them, to give them water and food, warm dry clothes, and medical care. I have searched the internet for ways that I could help and it seems that unless I want to join one of these groups as a full-time employee, there isn't much groundwork I could do. So I give money. But not to this organization, because there is the third thing. They are doing this as a form of evangelizing. "We are probably the first Christians they have ever met," says one of the men in the video. "It is extremely special what we are doing here." That ulterior motive bothers me because it turns their good deed into something full of attached strings and expectations.
And sadly this very same religion that drives these people to give out bananas is the same one that has people wanting to turn them away. Most of these people's arguments quickly dissolve into conspiracy theories (an ideology that I also think is profoundly un-Christian). They say things like, "I hate Obama therefore I don't trust him and therefore if he says that it is okay to let Syrians in, then I don't think we should because I don't trust him." This is of course based purely off of feelings and not actual facts, but what does that matter when you hate someone so much. It's like some of these Christians are turning into Sith Lords. Seriously, you can just feel the hate in them. They also believe (again just a feeling) that Muslims are unfixable and inherently evil. They see children as young as eight as being terrorists simply because ISIS is forcing children to join them. That's like blaming the children who joined the Hitler Youth for being influenced and indoctrinated by an ideology and stating that there is no redemption for those children. I mean, even countries who have seen child soldiers do horrific things admit that the children should be given a second chance. But not Christians. These Christians hold fighting in higher regard than keeping a family together. "Why are those fighting age men fleeing? They should stay and fight for their country?" With who?! Who should they join. Pro-government? Rebel militias? Kurds? ISIS? The Russians? What if they don't agree with fighting? What if they think it is wrong? What if they think their wife and children are more important than an ideology? Americans seem to think that every country is all patriotic like America, but what if these people don't give a shit that they are Syrian...they just want to work and live in peace? And then we have the Christians who take this hatred a step further. These are the ones who approach a Muslim woman and her children on the subway (I witnessed this) and yelled profanities at her about how she is ruining our country and God hates her. These are the Christians who stare at a woman in a hijab and whisper nasty things about her or worse, say them loud enough for her to hear. These people make sure that the Muslims they see know that they are not welcome or safe. They move out of neighborhoods where a Muslim family moved in. These are the ones who burn down mosques in the name of God. They attack people in restaurants (a recent news story) for not speaking English. But they want to win people to Christ right? So many of these so-called Christians seem to be speaking out of their asses. "I love people....just not those Muslims. I sympathize with their plight....but not enough to want them as my next-door neighbor. I am truly understanding...but not of the actual situation. I only understand what the news media tells me. Facts? Don't need them. After all, I have my gut intuition and hatred of Obama to tell me the truth. Oh, and I'll pray for them. See, I just did something awesome there. Now everything will be better and I can continue to witness to regular Americans who have already heard the gospel story a million times."
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AuthorThis is a personal, but secret, blog archiving my deconversion from a Christian to a non-believer. Archives
December 2020
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