I read Judge Fred Biery's opinion in favor of Liam Ramos and his father differently than Dean Obeidallah does. He discusses Biery's inclusion of two bible verses in his opinion — “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these" and "Jesus wept."
#LiamRamos #immigrants #Trump #ICE #religion
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https://deanobeidallah.substack.com/p/this-3-page-court-opinion-releasing
Obeidallah says — and this sounds right to me — that the point of including those bible verses wasn't to be religious. But he then says the point was to pull at our heartstrings.
In my view, the point was to challenge in a very direct way the use of religion by some Americans to justify cruelty, barbarism, and inhumanity. The USA has famous been called a nation with the soul of a church.
Whether we like religion or abhor it, it's undeniable that religious bodies and religious ideas play an inordinately powerful role in the US public and political sphere, and it would be foolish not to engage them just because we think religion is a sham or toxin.
I read Biery to be engaging those who misuse religious ideas to justify the Trump regime's cruelty.
I read him to be pointing out that the very religion — white Christian nationalism — that they are promoting to justify their barbarism and cruelty is founded on the example of someone, Jesus, whose teachings and life run directly counter to what they are promoting.
This is a necessary move for progressives to make. Those who are pushing back from within faith traditions against ugly applications of religion to justify cruelty deserve support.
