Tag: refugees

welcome the stranger

I’ve become much less strident about the political conclusions that can be drawn from the Bible than I used to be. I think any fair reading of scripture can yield justification for a range of things, and besides, I’m pretty convinced Jesus wasn’t terribly concerned with winning the political battles of the day.

However, there are a few things that are indisputably clear political actions commanded by Christ. Feed the hungry. Care for the orphan and the widow. Free those in chains. Welcome the stranger. A lot of people who claim to be Christian fail that last one. Worldly political considerations become more important than the clear and unambiguous words of Christ directing our actions in accordance with Gods kingdom. In fact, an entire disastrous presidency was built on the back of a deeply anti-Christian antipathy of the strangers among us.

These things that Governors DeSantis and Abbott are doing – and that their followers are cheering so lustily – are not just immoral and unethical. They are at odds with the Gospel message of Christ, with the command to remember that we were all once strangers in these lands, and thus we should extend the same types of hospitality to others we would want extended to us if we were far from home, in a place alien and unknowable, surrounded by a language we don’t speak, fleeing unthinkable and inhumane conditions for the promise of a better life for ourselves and our children. We would all do well to remember: Jesus was a refugee and an immigrant. God forbid that in the face of the child of God we turn away and mistreat at our borders, we should see the face of God.

“Almighty and merciful God,

whose Son became a refugee and had no place to call his own;

look with mercy on those who today are fleeing from danger,

homeless and hungry.

Bless those who work to bring them relief;

inspire generosity and compassion in all our hearts;

and guide the nations of the world towards that day when all will rejoice in your Kingdom of justice and of peace;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.”

A Migrant Mother’s Journey

Watch this video. See a mother trying desperately to find a new life for her children. See her tears because drug gangs in her home of Honduras killed her husband, took her home, left her boys in danger. See her anger when she tells her kids the government of Honduras did nothing because they are poor. See the blisters, the dehydration, the dangerous, desperate crossing of the river on a raft. See the young man describing his fruitless two year search for work. See that these aren’t violent and scary monsters that Fox News is telling you they are, but are human beings, mothers, children, young men, trying to get away from violence and unemployment and wrenching poverty.

For decades, we – you and I and America -have told them that America is the greatest, safest, richest, most compassionate and desirable place on earth. They took our words seriously, they believed our promises, they accepted the invitation on our Statue of Liberty as authentic, and not a cruel PR trick. Now, 6000 believers in the American promise – 2300 children! – are at our door and the question is, what are we going to do? Are we going to embrace fear? Are we going to tear gas them? Are we going to throw up our hands and decide the hard work is too daunting , that human lives aren’t worth getting our hands dirty and solving problems? Are we now outsourcing the promise of the Statue of Liberty to Mexico, too?

We have to find compassion. We have to stop being afraid. We have to stop believing the lies – the lies of our president, who tells us these people are evil; the lies of right wing media, who tells us they are dangerous; the lies of the rich and powerful, who tells us if we take in these people, we won’t be able to afford to take care of our own, when in fact we are rich enough and smart enough to do both, we just choose not to. We have to take their pleas for asylum seriously, we have to understand we have a duty, an obligation, because we are responsible for what is happening in Honduras and El Salvador and all across Central America. We have to live up to our own promise.

And, for those of us who are Christians, we must remember that Christ himself was a migrant, that Scripture and the tradition demands our compassion and sacrifice on behalf of the stranger and the immigrant. This isn’t an optional piece of the Christian faith, no more consequential than grape juice or wine at communion. This kind of love and compassion, put to work for others, is the very center of our commitment as disciples of Christ. That means that, no matter the reality of immigration laws or processes, we Christians have a calling to figure it out and respond to the pain of fleeing mothers and children and young men and old men and anyone. This isn’t a Democrat or Republican thing. Screw politics. This is a human being thing.