Samaritan

I was at a gathering the other day when someone mentioned how they hoped we wouldn't get a Muslim, like that El-Sayed guy, representing Michigan in the Senate. I mounted a rather weak defense: "I've met him. He seems like a pretty solid guy." Conversation moved away from politics. Phew.

"Who is my neighbor?" someone asked a teacher. The teacher might have said, "The Samaritans, those guys with funny beliefs, those are your neighbors." The lawyer who asked the question, then could have been satisfied. Sure, he'd pity those apostates. Not that he had anything to learn from them, but yeah he could be nice if he happened to run into one.

But the teacher didn't say that. He described someone who got mugged and robbed and left to die. Upstanding folks passed him by; they were busy with God's work. Then one of those apostate Samaritans came by and stopped. He brought the victim to a hotel, paid for his room, called a doctor, tended to his wounds. He told the proprietor that he'd pay for as many nights as needed for the man's recovery.

Then the teacher said, "Who was the neighbor?

"The one who did him a good turn," the lawyer responded. He wasn't about to name a Samaritan as the exemplary citizen, but he admitted that the one who helped was neighborly.

"Yep," the teacher said. "Be like that."

I have some pretty good neighbors. They'll help if you need it. Some of them have signs in their yards supporting the guy running against El-Sayed. I suspect they see voting for a Muslim as "dangerous." They prefer to vote for someone more like them, even if he ignores the needs of the most battered.