The Statue of Liberty: In Praise of Liberty or Socialist Trojan Horse?
Things are not always as they appear to be. And things do not always remain as they were intended to be.
Here is the poem placed on the Statue of Liberty.
The New Colossus
Emma Lazarus
1849 – 1887
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!”
Emma Lazarus was an American author of poetry, prose, and translations, as well as an activist for Jewish and Georgist causes. Georgist causes (Georgism) are the political aspirations of one Henry George. George (September 2, 1839 – October 29, 1897) was an American political economist, social philosopher and journalist. AI will tell you that Henry George was not a socialist. I beg to differ. More about this later!
A colossus is any massive or gigantic statue.The Colossus of Rhodes is a giant ancient statue of the Greek sun god Helios. At best the statue is an attempt to encourage generosity. At worst IT IS a pagan idol. Looking into this I find that the best and the worst are both true!
"The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the French people commemorating the alliance of France and the United States during the American Revolution. Yet, it represented much more to those individuals who proposed the gift. In 1865, Edouard de Laboulaye (a French political thinker, U.S. Constitution expert, and abolitionist) proposed that a monument be built as a gift from France to the United States in order to commemorate the perseverance of freedom and democracy in the United States and to honor the work of the late president Abraham Lincoln. Laboulaye hoped that by calling attention to the recent achievements of the United States, the French people would be inspired to create their own democracy in the face of a repressive monarchy. In 1865, France was divided between people who were still committed to the monarchy and people who supported the Enlightenment ideals (the belief that people had natural rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness). It was the hope of many French liberals that democracy would prevail and that freedom and justice for all would be attained."
https://www.nps.gov/.../history.../the-french-connection.htm
Laboulaye was a devout, liberal Roman Catholic in 19th-century France who believed that true Christianity and democratic liberty were naturally compatible.
"The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding." ~ Albert Camus
Laboulaye's good intentions have been overshadowed, even overwhelmed by Emma Lazasrus' poem. I doubt she or Henry George really understood the relationship of religious charity to civic government. Today America is being overwhelmed by religious pluralism. Judeo-Christian principals are largely forgotten and untaught, certainly in public schools and most of higher education. Harvard, Yale, and Princeton were founded primarily to train Christian clergy and Dartmouth focused heavily on Christian ministry and educating Native youth. (Wikipedia) One might say that for these esteemed institutions the gospel train left their station. If the founding fathers were Christians in 1776, consider this astonishing fact: In 1785, King’s Chapel in Boston, originally an Anglican congregation, became the first American church to explicitly excise all Trinitarian language from its liturgy, effectively becoming Unitarian in doctrine.
The relationship of church and state is a two sided blade. The church is instructed how to behave regarding the state, and in America the state is instructed not to regulate in any way the establishment of religion. If the church will follow her instructions (Romans 13:1-7; 1Timothy 2:1-8; ! Peter 2:13-17) it should be a blessing both to the church and government. If the government will allow the influence of the gospel in policy the whole nation should be blessed. Jesus taught the disciples to pray that God's will "be done in earth AS IT IS DONE in heaven." The obvious escapes us. If God will is to be done in earth as it is in heaven it is we who must do it in earth as it is done in heaven.
One might think that as Jesus' church has been in the years for 2000 years that the piece of God might be more prevalent in the Earth. Sadly this is not so. G.K. Chesterton said: "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried." What can the Christian ideal be except the environment of heaven itself?
It's been said that the 10 Commandments are actually Commandments; they are not suggestions! Certainly we should hope that you shall not murder (VI) or steal (VIII) are more than suggestions for human behavior. But what about the second Commandment?
“You are not to make an image or picture (both considered IDOLS) of anything in heaven or on the earth or in the waters under the earth: You may not go down on your faces before them or give them worship: for I, the Lord your God, am a God who will not give his honour to another; and I will send punishment on the children for the wrongdoing of their fathers, to the third and fourth generation of my haters; And I will have mercy through a thousand generations on those who have love for me and keep my laws.” (Exo 20:4-6, BBE)
In an age where imagery is everywhere it's interesting that Islamic sharia (law) forbids imagery both in the mosque and the home. Christians have been painting pictures and making statues since very early in church history. Perhaps we should remember that God gave the second Commandment to the children of Israel around 4000 years ago. "Look what they've done to my song.?!"
In the New Testament the churches instructed to flee two things: sexual immorality and IDOLATRY.
“What say I then? that a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? But I say, that the things which the nations sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have communion with demons.” (1Co 10:19-20, ASV)
Does Paul say that a thing sacrificed to an idol is anything or that an idol is anything? Things are things. What are behind the things that is are idols? They are demons.
“Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of demons: ye cannot partake of the table of the Lord, and of the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?” (1Co 10:21-22, ASV)
Has the Statue of Liberty become an idol? Or has it always been an idol? Could it be that the hymn of the Statue of Liberty, that poem the Colossus by Emma Lazarus, has somehow influenced Americans in such a way as to produce total chaos in all matters pertaining to immigration?
“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!”
The entire poem again:
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!”
"Mother of Exiles" ???
"world-wide welcome" ???
"ancient lands storied pomp" ???
"mild eyes, silent lips" ???
There's no shortage of anthropomorphism and pathetic fallacy here. And it's hard for the christian to deny or want to deny that behind this Colossus of Liberty is some demon.
Free advice is easy to give, nevertheless:
Second Timothy Chapter 3.
The book of James entire.
The Statue of Liberty seen on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, about a decade after her arrival, in 1898.The New York Historical Society—Getty Images
The 1903 bronze plaque located in the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. An exact replica of this plaque is now located in the Statue of Liberty Museum.
