Every year some rent-seeking activist tries to pervert the Nativity story to his own political ends, and every year the attempted analogy fails ignominiously. Here’s this year’s version, which is sillier than most, arguing that the dreaded Bethlehemic inn-sensitivity is on display when taxpayers object to subsidizing higher education for illegal immigrants:
Let them in, Rev. William Barber II, head of the state NAACP, said Monday at a news conference in support of giving illegal immigrants access to higher education.
Barber, along with representatives from the Hispanic business Adelante, likened the plight of immigrants to that of Mary and Joseph, who were turned away from an inn on Christmas Eve. …
“We must open the inn,” Barber said. “Instead of tearing people apart, we must bring people together and open up the inn.”
Let’s see. From the Gospel of Luke, chapter two, one can infer that Joseph and Mary:
- Were law-abiding taxpayers
- Were traveling to their hometown to be counted in a census
- Were therefore legal residents
- Fastidiously followed the law, be it the law of Rome or the Law of Moses
- Were seeking merely temporary shelter
- Were obviously not at the inn for reason of higher education for their nascent son, let alone at the public’s expense
Nevertheless, with all due respect to Barber’s submission, Jesse Jackson’s corker of ’04 is still my favorite, based on its higher position on the Pritchard scale.
