The Insanity of a Religious Test to Enter The U.S.

The Insanity of a Religious Test to Enter the U.S.

When it comes to Syrian refugees, you either let them in, or you don't. What religion those trying to flee claim to adhere to should be irrelevant to the conversation. Unfortunately, it isn't. The result is an erosion of the very foundations of what the United States was founded on.

Just as things are getting crazy on the left wing of the political spectrum, it seems as though the right wing has decided they wanted to up the ante.

President Obama had said that he plans on allowing in 10,000 refugees from Syria to allow those fleeing from their war-torn homeland to have a place to stay in the United States. In contrast, Europe has been bombarded with refugees from across the world, accepting 73% of the world's total refugee population at around 490,000 in 2013.

10,000 refugees is exactly 10,000 too many for the American right wing. Unless, of course, they are good Christians.

There have been calls for President Obama to allow only Christian Syrian refugees into the United States. This would mean that the United States would be actively choosing one religious group over another for preferential treatment. In this case, entry into the country.

The First Amendment explicitly states that the United States should never enter this sort of territory. Our government should be above religion, not taking it into consideration. The fact that this is even being mentioned is not simply wrong, it is the epitome of un-American.

Our country was founded on an ideal notion that no human should ever have to suffer any sort of transgression based on their religion. What the Republicans are suggesting here illustrates not only that they have no right being President of this country, but that they have no idea what being an American is truly supposed to be about.

That being said, there is an argument to be made about the safety of allowing in 10,000 refugees, particularly after the Paris attacks proved that some refugees are not simply fleeing violence.

However, the argument must be framed around allowing ALL of the refugees, or allowing none. To narrow it down and say that only Christians should be allowed, or only whites, or only ANY subset, is simply egregious.

Our country has done things like this before; one need look no further than the Chinese exclusion act. Today, something like that seems crazy and racist. Not allowing a specific race into this country feels morally wrong, and it should.

I don't necessarily say I am a proponent of keeping all of the refugees out, nor am I a proponent of allowing them in. However, if we are going to have this discussion, it must be framed around the group as a whole and not on religion.

Otherwise, we are no better than the theocratic Muslim countries they are looking to flee.