Be Kind to Strangers
Tis the season to mark the virgin birth of the baby Jesus—clearly the ultimate example of an undocumented immigrant—and to issue a timely warning to President Donald Trump: Your constant bashing of the strangers among us seriously dims your prospects for eternal life.
Happily applying the Christian Right’s damnation dogma to the misbehavior of anyone but himself, Trump is obviously counting on a forgiving almighty to overlook his earthly transgressions. Seeking divine absolution is typical of the rich and famous when they’ve surrendered to the temptations of the flesh. Lord knows Trump, a twice-divorced Presbyterian who rarely attends worship services, isn’t the first serial philanderer to occupy the White House.
But Trump is in trouble thanks to his unwavering hostility toward those not from his tribe, a demographic group he has mercilessly scapegoated as the source of all our problems. After all, as the biblical story goes, the baby Son of God was dependent on the love and compassion of strangers for his survival. No wonder the full-grown Jesus would stipulate acts of kindness toward friends and foes as the essential requirement for the blessing of eternal life, while those who scorn the suffering foreigner in need of refuge would endure a fate worse than death.
