Quotes by his guy, a defrocked Methodist pastor known for his social and political activism and “writings from a liberal Christian perspective,” (I’m quoting Wikipedia there) always start popping up on social media this time of year. He’s been quoted a lot on Facebook especially lately because he is a vocal advocate of the idiotic “Mary and Joseph were immigrants too” analogy used by nice, deluded people to justify open borders and illegal immigrants.
These memes are notable because their emotion-based, legally and ethically bonkers argument is even more absurd than the one that claims the U.S. should let everybody in because the Statue of Liberty says so. I think I banned a commenter this year for using that one, invoking the Ethics Alarms “Stupidity Rule.” I will do the same if someone makes the “we should let illegals in because all they want is better lives for their children just like Mary and Joseph” argument. The same logic justifies theft. This is how shoplifting became legal in California.
Pavolovitz, who has about 374,000 followers on Twitter/X, every one of them dumber than when they first encountered him, was at it again this holiday season, posting after the election last month, “It’s good the Christians excited about the mass deportation of immigrants weren’t in Egypt when Jesus’s family fled there, or we’d have a much shorter Bible.”
It’s unethical to use one’s influence and reputation to make people ignorant and stupid: that fatuous statement (and his many like it) marks Pavolovitz as an Ethics Corrupter. I’m assuming readers here don’t have to have explained to them the reasons why analogies between public policies today in the United States and those in the Middle East 2,000 years ago are completely invalid and useless.
When one X-user pointed out to Pavolovitz that his argument was flawed, this modern follower of Jesus replied, “You’re a Trump lapdog. Your opinion of me is irrelevant. Shove it.”
To be fair, that last part is a rough translation of what Jesus said to the Romans…
Ethics Alarms 
Another mis-guided use of Jesus is claiming he was Palestinian. This is what we historians call anachronistic and dumb.
Palestinian means A. Arab, and B., wants to occupy Israel and kill all Jews therein. One eleventh of the Earth’s land is ruled by Arabs; obviously they aren’t Palestinians. But just wanting to live in Israel (a place that was never ruled by Arabs) obviously doesn’t make you Palestinian either. You have to have both A and B. Neither applies to Jesus, of course.
i don’t know if he was “defrocked” as we Catholics mean that, meaning loss of sacerdotal faculties, but he was certainly fired at least once, which can be done in many Protestant churches, where the congregational representatives hire the minister. He’s basically a self-righteous person like AOC or Jacinda Adern who thinks because he claims to be kind he is irreproachable. A. He shouldn’t need to tell anyone what he is, just as a lion does not need to tell you it’s a lion, B. His behavior is hardly what anyone would call kind. I’d call him a judgmental jerk, no different than any other liberal columnist, hiding behind the Bible.
The United Methodist Church is Episcopal. The ministers work for and are appointed by the UMC itself.
OK, so he answers to someone who has the power to sack him, which was apparently done because he was attracting unwanted attention. I’ve looked (briefly) at his site. 2 of his articles include one from this May which says the same thing that ridiculous email from Expensify said in 2016: protest votes are not allowed and only a vote for Biden will do, and one from the day of Derek Chauvin’s conviction which compares his treatment and fate to the shooting of Ma’khia Bryant, which happened around then. To read his article, you would think that this was just another “wrong place, wrong time,” shooting of a young black woman by a trigger-happy white officer. It leaves out the rather important detail that Ma’khia Bryant was shot by a police officer BECAUSE SHE WAS ABOUT TO STAB ANOTHER GIRL WITH A KNIFE. He is a partisan hack who tries to bring God into the argument on the Democrats’ side. HE’S the one who’s free to stuff it so far up his ass that it touches the back of his teeth.
A defrocked Methodist pastor?!? How is that even possible? Nearly all of the denomination’s leadership – and a significant percentage of its local pastors – believe little or nothing from the Bible any longer.
Anyways, I wonder how Mr. Pavlovitz would like a “migrant” who looks a lot like me crossing the border…of his property…without permission, breaking down the front door, and helping myself to the food in his fridge, the water in faucets and shower, and the clothes in his closet, then walking out with the money and debit cards in his wallet, his TV and his favorite collection of Coltrane hits on LP?
It’s so romantically easy for Pavlovitz to project expected behavior onto a population that he would likely never endure himself.
He’s a coward.
I draw the line at the Coltrane records. Those are sacrosanct and must not be pilfered.
jvb
My father-in-law was a big deal Methodist minister in the DC region and part of the hierarchy. They kicked ministers out for things like sleeping with parishioners: in one case, a bishop beat up a minister for that. It’s a fun sect!
Wow! So the UMC has some ties to the UFC. Who knew?!?
The only argument I’ve heard that makes any sense regarding mass migrations is when the resulting refugee exodus is a result of USA military interventions in foreign countries. AKA, nation building, facilitated coups, perpetuating the military industrial complex profiteering, which is probably the evilest part of the corporatocracy.
Still, what the UK and others are doing is basically self-deleting their existing culture which is not so good for the citizens (especially the raped/brutalized females) of these European countries. Poland is doing it right.
Have a nice day and keep the faith…🤠
Do not these same people argue that school.shootings only happen in the United States?
Why would people so desperate to protect their child flee to the United States?
This must mean he supports the deportation policies outlined in Matthew 2:13-21.
But, the immigrant/migrant argument is simply a red herring, even assuming that today’s immigration policies could possibly apply to the Middle East 2000 years ago, where the ideas of nations and national boundaries did not really exist. The whole argument is silly and “Imagine” bullshit.
Mary and Joseph were neither immigrants or migrants at the time Jesus was born. Mary and Joseph had to travel to Bethlehem because of an order from the Roman emperor that a census, or record, of all people, be taken in their hometown. They traveled to Bethlehem because their families were from that region.
After Jesus’ birth, they fled to Egypt to escape Herod’s persecution of any male child under 2 years of age. While a case can be made that they were refugees or asylees to Egypt, their travel to that region was out of fear and/or persecution: Any child under 2 years of age was targeted by Herod. They resided in Egypt until Herod died, then returned to Israel, where again they were not immigrants or migrants.
Yet, the “migrants” or “illegal or undocumented immigrants” flooding the US borders today are not seeking asylum from persecution. Remember that asylum is a very specific, narrow term under international law: Asylum is a protection grantable to foreign nationals already in the United States or arriving at the border who meet the international law definition of a “refugee.” The United Nations 1951 Convention and 1967 Protocol define a refugee as a person who is unable or unwilling to return to their home country, and cannot obtain protection in that country, due to past persecution or a well-founded fear of being persecuted in the future “on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.” Economic asylum does not apply.
So, under current international law, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph would probably qualify for asylum from Herod’s decree.
However, those coming to the US now, and applying for asylum, do not qualify and should be returned to their countries of origin. There is no right to automatic suspension of removal/deportation proceedings. The sheer volume of applications, though, has overwhelmed the border crossing points, which forced the USCIS to grant temporary status while the applications are being considered.
jvb
I don’t see how there is a problem with this meme from a modern standpoint and my illegal immigration stance. Egypt was a nation (also called a state) under the umbrella of the Roman Empire. Joseph and Mary did not flee outside the borders of the Empire. Instead they equivalently fled Rhode Island for Massachusetts.
Thus, this is REALLY stupid for a Christian to proclaim, even ignoring the difference in immigration laws, the literal death sentence that qualifies for political asylum, or trying to take a modern problem and rephrase it in an ancient context. I could further extrapolate all the issues with this meme, but I have Christmas cookies to decorate and plates to make.
Agreed, Sarah.
What cookies are we baking today? If you need an official taste-tester, I am available at your leisure.
jvb
There were Sugar Cookies, Fantasy Fudge, Chocolate Mint Crisps, Ginger Snaps, Tiflis, Chocolate Crinkles, Spritz, and Peanut Butter Kisses.
Unfortunately, there is little left for tasting. By the time we finish making the plates for the people we are blessed to have in our lives, most of 60 dozen cookies have disappeared.
When did humility become drummed out of organized religion? And political thought, for that matter?