Yesterday, liberals on social media thought they’d come up with the perfect talking point on the Syrian refugee issue. It was a gift from God. Literally. Straight from the Bible.
It was so perfect that it would shut conservatives (especially those hypocritical Christian conservatives) up for good. They would bow down and pay homage to their intellectual superiors on the left. Finally.
It started with @owillis.
This, in many variations, was repeated all day on Twitter.
Now what story could he possible be referencing? Clearly, the story of Mary and Joseph being turned away at the inn in Bethlehem. It’s seasonal. They were turned away from the inn. Perfect, right?
Not really. It actually breaks down pretty quickly on every level for anyone with even a passing familiarity with the story. Mary and Joseph weren’t “seeking refuge,” just a place to stay for the night. They had traveled to Bethlehem in response to a government edict mandating a census be conducted. They planned to return to their home in Nazareth when the census was completed; hence, they were neither homeless nor refugees. The innkeepers in Bethlehem weren’t heartless; there were simply no rooms available.
You’d think that would be the end of that. You would be wrong.
This morning, I was tweeted by someone claiming that what @owillis was tweeting about was really the flight into Egypt. Yeah, that was it. The flight. Into Egypt.
While this is a more apt comparison it couldn’t possibly be the impetus for the original tweet. The easy refutation is that Mary and Joseph weren’t turned away. They entered Egypt and lived there until Joseph received word in a dream that it was safe to return to Nazareth.
The same guy asked, “Are ya really separating Christ’s birth from his exile in Egypt?”
Why, yes. Yes, I am.
The flight into Egypt isn’t a “seasonal” story if you’re thinking of the Christmas season. The fact is, we don’t know exactly when it took place, but it wasn’t from Bethlehem immediately following Jesus’s birth.
Here’s a quick summary of the events following Jesus birth. You can read it for yourself in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.
- Jesus is born in Bethlehem.
- Sometime after Jesus birth, the Magi arrive in Jerusalem and inquire as to Jesus’s whereabouts. Matthew 2:1-2
- Jesus is circumcised on the eighth day. Luke 2:21
- Jesus is presented at the temple in Jerusalem. This was following Mary’s “days of purification,” which would have been several weeks. Luke 1:22
- Mary, Joseph and Jesus return to Nazareth. Luke 2:39
- The magi find Jesus at a house, presumably Mary and Joseph’s home in Nazareth. Matthew 2:11
- Joseph warned in a dream that Herod sought to kill Jesus. Mary, Joseph and Jesus flee to Egypt. Matthew 2:13-14
- Herod orders that all male children in and around Bethlehem, two years old and under, are to be slain. Matthew 2:16
So you can see from Matthew 2:16 that at the time of the the flight into Egypt, Jesus could have been anywhere from a few months old up to two years old. So, yes, it’s easily separated from the Christmas story.
At any rate, a family of three is a far cry from the many thousands of refugees the Obama administration proposes to accept over the next year, all of whom will arrive with next to nothing and receive benefits courtesy of American taxpayers.
Also noteworthy is that the vast majority of these refugees are single men, not families. Young men. Some might say fighting-age men. And let me point out that the average age of a suicide bomber is early 20s. (Newsweek, Haaretz, Statistics Brain) I think that’s a legitimate cause for concern.
So I’ve covered every point I can think of to refute this ludicrous comparison. Stick a fork in it…it’s done.