Article of JAN 26, 2017, UPDATED
If we are pro-life, we are pro-refugee. Over 79 million people have been forcibly displaced in recent years; let's be Christian and do something about it
Updated portion: The Wall Street Journal reported today (3/9/22) that over 2 million people so far are refugees from Ukraine, in less than two weeks. More than half of them go to Poland. Not only that, Russia has been bombing them as they walk and drive in trying to escape. Also, in a recent blog, I wrote on how the Western powers (like the USA and France), in a conference called to order on that subject, refused Jewish refugees from Germany in 1938, even though it was certain that they would be further persecuted, even murdered by Hitler. Which happened on a planned scale beginning two years later. Finally, migrants trying to escape gang-related kidnappings, and political and economic crises in Haiti are foundering, even dying, in rough waters off the Florida coast. This was human smuggling that frequently goes bad. I can understand why they seek illegal immigration--who would want to stay in our 200 detention centers? There are over 30,000 people on any given average day in those facilities. 93% that are assigned there spend over 6 months, some as long as 4 years there. It is usually decided that many do not have a great "reason" to flee their country, so are deported back to there. Evidently skyrocketing kidnapping and gang killings are not an "acceptable" excuse. The following article that I first blogged was made under President Trump, whose great campaign promise was that he would tighten up on allowing refugees and immigrants. I still like the man, but when it comes to this, My question is, Why? Is our Christianity so shallow that we cannot have new people? Our abortion levels are still high (much higher than Covid, which freaked us out--but we don't freak out over the genocide of our littlest innocents, though they have a soul). Plus, our young people do not want babies til' later, so our "replacement ratio" of new births to replace those that die is now 1.6 per mom. But we need that level at 2.1 to keep the population stable. A declining population is bad news for the economy; just read up on Japan for proof on that. Plus, we are crying for workers, when people are retiring early and women have kept at home. In the lodging and restaurant sector (where many refugees and immigrants work), the current job openings are over 1.5 million; new hires are about equal to the number separated, so that's not the solution to the problem. These new people's spending habits would help us (they get off of welfare quickly, and are an add, not a subtract, from the economy). After all that rational talk about reasons, let's look at the compassionate heart God wants us to have, as well.
Original article by Ed Stetzer
Late in September, 2020, an announcement was made for the next fiscal year (Oct.1, 2020-Sept 30, 2021). President Donald Trump said he would admit no more than 18,000 refugees from around the world in fiscal year 2021, a significant drop from the cap of 110,000 for 2017 (set by Pres. Obama), 45,000 for 2018, and 30,000 for 2020. The reason for the trend is partially Covid, no doubt, but there have been no adjustments in 2021 by Pres. Biden, as the world gradually opens up; and the downward spiral began before Covid took hold. And it is, after all, possible to test everyone for Covid before they enter. In any event, we think the trend is a tragic decision.
“Most refugees from the Middle East are women and children who have suffered the assaults of ISIS terrorists and civil war,” said National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) president Leith Anderson; “We have the opportunity to rescue, help, and bless some of the world’s most oppressed and vulnerable families.” Many of these are from Syria and Afghanistan, but there are increasing numbers displaced from Central America. Perhaps the saddest situation is Venezuela. Death from starvation or nutrient deficiencies, and frequent unavailability of water, goes on all the time. Add to this the entire economic collapse under Hugo Chavez, a totally inept leader who doesn't seem to care. There's plenty of violence, and the country is nearly torn by civil war. Yet of their 5.4 million refugees, we are blocking their arrival--because they don't fit our definition of "refugees." Almost all their displaced have ended up in other Latin American countries or the Caribbean.
It is not wrong to be wise and cautious. But...too much of the policy is driven by unfounded fear of refugees. Yes, it is to be expected that terrorist attacks around the world and in our country, including the Orlando and San Bernardino shootings, would cause all of us to pause long enough to consider what kind of world we live in and how best to ensure safety for ourselves and our families. But those were not refugees.
There is a 1 in 3.64 billion per year chance that you will be killed by a refugee-turned-terrorist in a given year. If those odds concern you, please do not get in a bathtub, car, or even go outside, which have equal odds of harm. For contrast, there were 774 tragic murders in Chicago alone last year compared to 0 people who were killed last year by a jihadist-style terrorist attack.
Fear is a real emotion, and it can cause us to make decisions we wouldn’t have otherwise made. But at the core of who we are as followers of Christ is a commitment to care for the vulnerable, the marginalized, the abused, the wanderer. And fear cannot replace that core—as a matter of fact, we are the ones who proclaim that we have hope rather than fear.
Today, millions of people have had to flee home, safety, family, and livelihood due to threats of violence. In fact, according to the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, 1 in every 113 people in our world today has been forcibly displaced from their homes. And each of these have names and faces and lives and stories. This is propitious moment for action in which God is calling us to be the people He has called us to be in hard, but life-changing ways.
If America bans refugees, it makes a statement to the world that we don’t want to make. It is the picture of someone wealthy who sits, arms crossed and turned away from the plight on the helpless, the homeless, the broken.
We must do better. Jesus addresses this in Luke 16:19-31; please read it prayerfully:
“There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and [a]fared sumptuously every day. 20 But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, 21 desiring to be fed with [b]the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. 24 “Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. 26 And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’ 27 “Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, 28 for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’ 29 Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’ ”
As you can see, our God does not look kindly on ignoring those in desperate straits.
My friend Scott Arbeiter, President of World Relief, says this about the impact of the proposed Executive Order: “Since refugees are women and children, this keeps families separated, and thus punishes people. But we as a nation are fighting to end abuse.”
Scott and I are not alone. Last year, more than 100 evangelical leaders, including Rich Stearns, Stephan Bauman, Jo Anne Lyon, Frank Page, Alton Garrison, Jamie Aten, and Sue Elworth, signed a statement which says, in part, “We will not be motivated by fear but by love for God and others.”
There is no more critical time than now for God’s people to instead turn towards the helpless, the homeless, the broken, with open arms and hearts, ready to pour out every ounce of love we can muster.
Sure, conversations with our neighbors are sometimes hard as we express our solidarity with the refugee and those who are broken and in need of safety and dignity, but we must pursue what is right anyway. We are pro-life, but we must remember all that entails, from conception to death and each moment in between.
I am pro-life—and that includes for refugees. Recently, many of us focused on the unborn, and rightly so, but I’m also here to stand up for the born, made-in-God’s-image, refugee as well.
God help us be the people He’s called us to be in this generation, in this moment. In the meantime, #WeWelcomeRefugees.
Acknowledgement: Ed Stetzer and Christianity Today
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