The Syrian Refugee Crisis

This post is pretty long, but please, before you get mad at me or are tempted to fire off a nasty response, please do me the favor of hearing me out completely.

Like many of you, I imagine, last week my knee jerk response to the terrible atrocities in Paris was to immediately support those who are calling for our country to refuse to admit any Syrian refugees into the United States. Those calls have been doubled down on in the last few days by over 25 governors, many of who claim to be Christians, who say they will refuse to accept any of these refugees.

But then on Sunday, God used a missionary who spoke at our church to show me that kind of thinking is sinful because it is so contrary to how God would want us to treat these people. This particular missionary is working with and coaching a group of church planters who are sponsoring refugee families in the Phoenix area. These Christian families are being the hands and feet of Jesus by doing practical acts of love and meeting needs. The goal is that over time, the almost 100% Muslim families they are sponsoring will develop  a level of trust so that they will hear about the Jesus who i is the source of the love that is being demonstrated toward them.

That led me back to the Scriptures to see what the Bible teaches about how I am to view and treat these refugees. The first thing for us to note is that every single disciple of Jesus is a “refugee” in this world:

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,(Philippians 3:20 ESV)

And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,(1 Peter 1:17 ESV)

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.(1 Peter 2:11 ESV)

We are all spiritual refugees who have been shown the love and compassion of Jesus, which is the only way that we will one day get to experience our real citizenship in heaven. So it seems to me that our responsibility to these other refugees, who God loves every bit as much as He loves, us, is to respond with compassion and mercy, not suspicion and hate.

That idea is also borne out in the Old Testament where God repeatedly commands His people to treat foreigners and aliens with compassion and respect. I couldn’t possibly include all those passages here, so here is but a small sampling:

“You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.(Exodus 22:21 ESV) 

 “‘Cursed be anyone who perverts the justice due to the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’(Deuteronomy 27:19 ESV) 

 “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the LORD of hosts.(Malachi 3:5 ESV)

I certainly know I don’t want to be cursed because I have wronged or perverted justice or thrust aside these people. Many of the Syrian refugees are actually our brothers and sisters in Christ who are facing terrible persecutions and almost certain death for their faith. And even those among the refugees who are Muslims are also being attacked by Muslim extremists due to no fault of their own. God loves these people and so must we.

Don’t get me wrong. I still believe that we are a sovereign nation who needs secure borders. Our federal government’s primary responsibility is to keep our people safe and they have a right and a responsibility to determine who is and is not allowed into our country. I’m reminded of the example of Nehemiah, who when faced with enemies who threatened his God-given work and his fellow Jews, prayed, but who also took the prudent step of posting a guard and having the workers work with their swords strapped to their sides. And it is certain prudent for us to secure our borders so we know who is coming into and leaving our country.

I also believe that the Bible clearly teaches that governments are given the “power of the sword” to carry out God’s wrath against evildoers (See Romans 13:4). And there is no doubt in my mind that radical Islam is nothing but pure evil carried out in the name of a false god. So again the decent nations of the world are not only justified in trying to stamp out this evil, I believe they have a responsibility to do whatever it takes to do that quickly and decisively.

So practically how do we as Christians act in a compassionate way toward these refugees and still protect our country? I certainly don’t have all the answers here, but I’ll humbly offer a couple suggestions:

1.      Perhaps we can limit the refugees that we accept as a country to families with children for whom sponsor families have already been line up prior to their arrival here. There are certainly plenty of people who fit that category and even though we can’t help everyone, that would make a tremendous impact. That would also eliminate the group who is most likely to enter this country for the express purpose of doing harm to us – young, single Muslim men. And it would also serve the most vulnerable among the refugees. That means that as believers we are going to have to step up to the plate and be willing to take on that responsibility personally, not just wait around for others to do that. And if we are not in a position to sponsor a family directly, we can at a minimum financially support those who are on the front lines doing that.

2.      Working with other nations, we can establish safe zones within Syria and other Middle East countries and use the necessary military power to protect the refugees from the Muslim extremists. And then once again, Christians would need to actively work and give to provide food, water, lodging and other necessities to these people.

No matter what we do, there is no assurance that our compassion toward these refugees is won't result in some “bad guys”  getting into our country as a result of these actions. But frankly, we don't have that kind of assurance even if we don't take these actions.. That is really no different than what Jesus experienced on this earth. He extended compassion to many who later turned their backs on Him and shouted “crucify him!” I’d rather err on the side of compassion and live with consequences and hear Jesus say “Well done, good and faithful servant” sooner than might have happened otherwise than to hold on to hate and be safe for longer here on this earth, and hear Jesus say, “I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of lawlessness.”

If you’ve taken the time to read this far, now you may comment.

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