Let me address those celebrating President Donald Trump’s executive order barring refugees from Syria and other predominantly Muslim countries.
Let me address those who think keeping out Muslim refugees has somehow made us safer. That it has somehow made America better. That it has somehow shown us to be strong.
You are wrong. Woefully, embarrassingly, pathetically wrong.
As Trump signed the order Friday — with Vice President Mike Pence and Defense Secretary James Mattis, two men who had previously denounced such an order, standing at his side, complicit — the terrorists won. The Islamic State militant group won.
This is exactly what they wanted. For us to defy who we are, who we’ve always been.
They can claim victory for getting us to bend to their will, not due to force, but due to fear. Baseless, unfounded fear. Fear that is not becoming of most Americans I know. Fear ginned up for purely political purposes. Fear that will now cost innocent children, women and men their lives and any chance at a future. Fear that will embolden our enemies and help drive up their numbers as the evil portrait they paint of us — as a Western power at war with Islam — is confirmed in some young minds.
Part of who we are went away as that order was signed. And we are not better for it — not at all.
We don’t look strong. We look cowardly.
And each and every person out there celebrating this decision, you don’t look tough. You don’t look patriotic. You look ignorant. And weak. Because you have turned your back on people in need.
You who are Christians have gone against everything Jesus taught. Everything.
He had no fear. He had only love. He would have let them in, no matter where they came from. And he would have loved them, no matter who they are.
On Sunday, many who support this decision will sit in a church pew and pray to a God they seem happy to leverage when it’s convenient and happy to abandon when fear creeps in.
Any of you who have stood on your self-righteous soapboxes and preached the sanctity of life, know this: People will die because of what happened Friday. They will die. Families will be torn apart.
They may not be Americans, but they are as human as you or me and as worthy of help and love and respect as anyone.
Because that’s how it works in a world where we believe in freedom and standing up for what’s right. That’s how it works in America.
At least that’s how it worked prior to Friday. Now, I just don’t know.
So think about this at Mass on Sunday. Think about it Sunday night as you tuck your children in and tell them to pray to a God of love. Think about what this callous decision makes us, and what it makes you if you’re celebrating.
Because we’re not safer. We’re not better. We don’t look strong.
We look exactly the way our enemies want us to look.
And we have to do better.
