Refugees are my neighbors

This post is a little different for this blog, but I feel a need to say something about the effects of a recent decision to make changes to the Refugee Admissions Program, including cutting funding for World Relief and other organizations that help refugees settle and adjust to life in America.

I have strong opinions about the advisability of this change in policy, but I don’t feel like wading fully into that discussion right now, because it is nuanced and honest people can disagree about what is the appropriate role for the United States. I already have a lot to say here, so I’m choosing to focus on my faith and how it guides my personal behavior in response to the refugee and displaced persons crisis.

That crisis has been caused by violence and other factors which have led 65 million people to flee their homes in search of a safer, better place to live. While the crisis is complex, I believe that the Bible is clear about the responsibility that I, as a Christian, and that my fellow Christians have as the Church. We are called to actively demonstrate our love for people, even when to do so would put us in physical or economic danger and it doesn’t matter whether we like the people or not (see Luke 6:27-31 below.)

The Bible is full of calls on believers to have compassion. In Deuteronomy 24:17–18, Moses tells the people to treat fairly the foreigner and fatherless in their midst, because they knew what it was to be slaves themselves. God had mercy on the plight of the Hebrews in Egypt (Deuteronomy 6:5) and He expected them to act likewise toward those in their midst who were downtrodden.

The Prophet Isaiah spoke directly to the issue of how to respond to an influx of people fleeing the destruction of their homes by a foreign invader:

3 “Give counsel; grant justice;
          make your shade like night
          at the height of noon;
          shelter the outcasts;
          do not reveal the fugitive; 

4 let the outcasts of Moab sojourn among you;
          be a shelter to them from the destroyer.
   When the oppressor is no more,
          and destruction has ceased,
          and he who tramples underfoothas vanished from the land, 

5 then a throne will be established
          in steadfast love,
   and on it will sit in faithfulness
          in the tent of David
          one who judges and seeks justice
          and is swift to do righteousness.”
         

                               Isaiah 16:3-5


I understand that the fear people feel is real, but I think this verse fits the current situation well. The reason there were "outcasts" and "fugitives" was because the "destroyer", Assyria (no relationship to modern Syria), was a serious threat to all the peoples of the area. They were willing to and did enthusiastically commit atrocities as a warning to the next state that if you resist this will happen to you. Israel's fear was legitimate, yet God was telling them through Isaiah to accept and protect the refugees anyway.

America isn't a theocracy run by the will of God, so I don't think this argument applies broadly to the national discussion (I think human compassion is a good argument, though), but it does apply to those of us who claim to be Christians. As someone who professes to follow Christ, the origin of the name Christian, I have a responsibility to care for people who are outcasts and fleeing destruction and oppression (see Matthew 25:35-46.) To be clear, Moabites did not worshipp the same God and yet they were told to shelter them, which seems to reject the idea of some that our mercy should exclusively, or at least initially only be extended to Christian refugees.

I am not debating the policy of the government here, but the Israelites didn’t have the right to pick and choose who his command applied to and I don’t either. When Jesus explained the Leviticus 19:18 command to "love your neighbor as yourself" by applying it to the Samaritans, whom His contemporaries despised, He took away any further excuses. The people at the time had even gone so far as to tact on the line, “…and hate your enemies” (Matthew 5:43). Jesus was having none of that and said:

27 “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29 To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. 30 Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. 31 And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

                                              Luke 6:27-31

It's a radical command Jesus is making, but if I call myself a follower of Christ, then I need to ask if living up to His command. The part of the administration’s decision that lowers funding for refugee resettlement programs belies any claim that my tax dollars are somehow to stand as my support for refugees.

Also, prayer is powerful and effective, but it cannot be my only action. The list Jesus gives to define loving my enemies is full of difficult, painful actions with real world results. If that is how I am to react to my enemies, how should I act when I am presented with families fleeing the death and chaos of Syria, Somalia, Iraq, Burma, etc., which is caused by people that are truly my enemies. I can't help but see these people fleeing violence, terror and genocide as my neighbors. I feel compelled to find ways to tangibly live out the love that I am commanded to feel for them.

I wish I had an easy answer. I have a start, but that’s it. I’m going to be more supportive of World Relief and the churches working with them, because they're taking seriously the call to care for people fleeing violence and oppression. I’m going to look for more ways to tangibly get involved and help families trying to adjust to life in a new and usually very different country from the one the called home.