"The New Colossus" Isn't Trump

"The New Colossus" is the title of the poem, by Emma Lazarus, that is inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty.  Here is the entirety of its text:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Now, most of us are at least vaguely familiar with the last 5 lines, but when one takes in the totality of this sonnet, it becomes even clearer that the United States is a nation of immigrants.  We started as one (with great and sincere apologies to the Native Americans who were already here) and have taken great pride in being the world's "Mother of Exiles."

I would also argue that without being specifically Christian (for, just a reminder, we are NOT a Christian nation, otherwise known as a theocracy), this poem certainly reflects so much of Jesus's words and actions.  He was a friend of the destitute, the marginalized, the oppressed, the weary; he condemned the rich, the powerful, the elite.  This poem reflects so much of the great Christian virtue of human compassion.  (Citation: the entire New Testament)

And yet, a Trump official recently decided to make changes to the great poem that has stood since 1883 as the great proclamation to the world of our great compassion towards the "less-thans."  On August 12, Ken Cuccinelli, acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, stated, "Give me your tired, your poor who can stand on their own two feet and who will not become a public charge."  He stated this nonsense in an interview while specifically defending a new Trump policy that penalizes immigrants who apply for public assistance.

Two things: (1) No, Ken, that's not what the poem says; nor is it what is implied.  Full stop. You can't change history. And (2) more importantly for the focus of this blog, that is not what Jesus ever said or implied.  Compassion and empathy and love are to be unconditional; that is the charge to the Christ followers of the world.  (Citation: the entire New Testament)

So, this becomes another great example of the Republican party's adding a qualifier/conditional to an openly Christ-like virtue in order to support a very non-Christ-like policy.  And if you are a "Christian" Republican nodding your head and clapping and yahooing when Trump's administration changes both history and policy to make sure all those dirty "less-thans" of the world (you know, the "tired," the "poor," the "huddled masses yearning to breathe free") don't receive our compassion and help, then please do us all a favor and drop the first half of that moniker.  At least then you could display some personal integrity, a trait that you are sorely lacking right now.