Two thousand year ago the cruelty of Herod forced Jesus and his parents to go to Egypt for refuge. Today cruel policies in Washington threaten to force Palestinians to Egypt and Jordan. This in the wake of American-supplied bombs having reduced Gaza to cinders.
Today Washington also threatens to violate the sanctity of churches, mosques, and synagogues to arrest and deport people who have come to the United States for refuge from violence and exploitation.
Is there any question what stance Jesus would take on these developments?
I am grateful that Mennonite Church USA has joined other religious groups in a lawsuit to prevent violation of houses of worship. The lawsuit is called “Mennonite Church USA et al. v. United States Department of Homeland Security et al.” See https://www.law.georgetown.edu/icap/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/2025/02/Sensitive-Locations-Press-Release-2.11.25-AM.pdf
Speaking on behalf of the Mennonite Church, Rev. Iris de León-Hartshorn said, “The extreme actions of our government call us to step up as we recognize that our practice of loving our neighbor outweighs our traditional stance of non-resistance. Today, we stand together as followers of Jesus, shaped by his life and teachings as revealed in scripture, honoring the cloud of witnesses that stood before us against state interference in the right of religious freedom during the Radical Reformation.”
Vice President JD Vance recently declared, “There is a Christian concept that you love your family and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens, and then after that, prioritize the rest of the world.”
Without naming Vance (who is a Catholic), Pope Francis today challenged this warping of Christian ethics. “Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups,” he said. Citing Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan, Francis said Christian compassion is “love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception.”
I honor Egypt for being a place of refuge for Abraham and Sarah, the children of Israel, the Holy Family, and many others. But I am ashamed that the government of my country now is acting with policies that match the cruelty of Herod.
The life and teachings of Jesus call Christians and others to welcome the stranger and protest deportation. Let us stand in solidarity with frightened and vulnerable people in Gaza, in our churches, and in our communities. Contact your legislators urging them to speak and to act.
Holy Lands Peace Pilgrim 
Dear Nelson, why are so afraid of hearing the truth from the rest of us who refuse to subscribe to your Chrisitan confusion. You are so terribly wrong my friend! What you continue to wrongfully call “The Holy Land”, despite the horrible fact that Israel is a criminal state sacrificing innocent Palestinian families once again, in order to construct Greater Israel, is historically, morally, and ethically wrong. It’s becoming increasingly clear that Israel was a colony of Sumer, and worshipped Sumerian entities they called gods, who led them into the criminal abyss of genocide, by ordering them to attack, destroy, and colonized Jericho around 1450 BCE. The twelve tribes calling themselves Israel became a blood cult when they made a blood contract with the local criminal god named Yahweh-Jehovah. Yahweh was a destructive force on the landscape who never became popular outside of Hebrew temples, because a material goddess named Asherah was far more popular and worshiped by most women in the Levant. Israel has been described as ‘The Marauding Sea People” who came out of the desert, where they were allegedly trained in criminal warfare by Yahweh the Scourge of Palestine. They terrorized Palestine to take indigenous lands, to create a haven for their absolutely criminal god Yahweh the Hater and Destroyer of Life, called Israel 1.0 The three Yahweh has inspired 35 centuries of blood shed, genocide, and land theft known uphemistically as colonialism. Jerusalem has been Yahweh’s sacrificial altar where generations of humans have been slaughtered to please a blood-thirsty Yahweh and his criminal priesthood. Human blood spilled in anger defiles a once sacred land with dark energy which curses the inhabitants of these lands with circular violence. What we send out comes back to us as karma.
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