I am very saddened by the events in Syria and Iraq that have caused this mass exodus of refugees. I have seen first hand the poverty many of these refugees from Iraq have suffered through before ISIS (I served in Iraq from Sep 05-Apr 06 and from June-August 07). I can only imagine how much worse it has become. While my response as a member of the body of Christ is multifaceted, my underlying concern is the welfare of my fellow human beings who were made in the image of God and deserve my sympathy and compassion above all else; that is what God demands of me. I owe it to the Lord to care for these refugees as He has cared for me.
"How can I repay the Lord for all the good He has done for me?" Psalm 116:12
The first idea that must be discussed is our care for foreigners and sojourners. God's word is clear that we are to care for those who have left their home country and are seeking a new life in ours. In particular, Exodus 22:21 says: "You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt." And again in Leviticus 19:33-4; "When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God." There are 2 things to highlight about these verses. First, in the passages that these verses are contained in, they are surrounded by laws concerning the treatment of your fellow man in general. This means, for the most part, they are part of the moral law, not the hygiene or ceremonial law. This means that they aren't merely specific to Israel for that time and place, they are paradigmatic for how we should love our neighbor for all time, in all places. Second, God offers wrath if we do mistreat the sojourner (Exodus 22:23-4). This shouldn't be what motivates us to care for these refugees, but it let's us know how serious God is when He says, "don't wrong a sojourner". The take home point is that I think we should be taking in as many of these refugees as we can responsibly manage. Responsibly manage means 2 things to me: security and money.
I share the concerns of many of my fellow citizens. I don't want anyone to get killed by an Islamic radical who has slipped in through the refugee process. What happens when we let tens or hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. into the country? Even if we vet them, and from what I understand our top security agencies and officials say we cannot properly vet them due to a lack of intelligence on the ground in Syria and Iraq in particular, some terrorists are going to get through and at least attempt to attack our citizens. I have seen a wide range of statistics speaking to the amount of military aged males that are in the refugee populations, but, I am not necessarily concerned with that aspect of the debate. To my knowledge, God's word doesn't offer specific guidance in this area. In my view we have to return to what we can glean from scripture. We are to love and help the sojourner. In my opinion, this means presuming individual refugees to be innocent until proven guilty. We should vet them as best we can no matter how long that takes. I have read some estimates that are from 18-24 months. So be it. If we cannot find out if what they are saying is true during the vetting process, we should assume they are telling the truth and let them in. Yes, I realize that means people might die because a terrorist slips in. That is a risk I am willing to take. I understand if you disagree with that. The take home point is that I think there are serious security issues that must be dealt with, but the welfare of the refugee is the greater matter. The 2 extremes of opinion: "no refugees at all" and "just let them in" are both wrong. There should be a concern for both sets of the bearers of the imago Dei: refugees and US citizens.
Yes, I did say money up there. This is something that hardly anyone is talking about. Part of responsibly bringing in thousands of refugees is paying for it without debt. Our politicians from all parties have been irresponsible for decades with money. It cannot continue forever. We will go bankrupt eventually. When that happens we will not be able to be the generous country we have been throughout our history. I want to use a few verses from Proverbs with the understanding that I am not attempting to stretch them too far. Proverbs 13:22 says: "A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, but the sinner's wealth is laid up for the righteous." I am not saying this is about hoarding money for only my family or only citizens of the US. This is about being responsible with the abundance God has given us so that we can bless others. Debt isn't being responsible. Proverbs 22:7 says: "The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender." I am only an etheldoulos (voluntary slave or more properly, bondservant) to one master, Jesus Christ. Borrowing money, whether nationally or personally, makes us slaves. Slaves have no say in how they live. We can't be effective givers as individuals or as a country when we are in bondage. The take home point is that we, as a country and as individuals, should be fiscally responsible in how we provide for these refugees. I believe the government should be totally removed from the refugee resettlement process except the vetting and immigration portion. I think there are an abundance of aid organizations, both Christian and those with other affiliations, that deal with this sort of thing all the time. They would be much better suited to handling these refugees and they would most likely do it more efficiently than our government. I also say all this about money knowing that the body of Christ will rise to the challenge of financially supporting refugee resettlement efforts so that we, as a nation, don't have to borrow money.
I am not going to offer pejoratives or ad hominem attacks on people who are concerned about their safety. It is natural to be concerned for your life. I am also not going to get upset at people who are letting their emotional compassion dominate every other concern. I see both sides and I think there is a responsible middle ground that is both compassionate, fair, and that takes into account the suffering, the security, and the financial concerns of both the refugees and US citizens.
In conclusion, I think we as members of the body of Christ should remember 2 things. We have a commission (Matt 28:16-20) to make disciples. A group of people that are starving spiritually without the Gospel are coming to our front door. What a great opportunity to share the good news of Jesus Christ with them. Of course, this also means we had better prepare ourselves to defend the Christian worldview from Islamic arguments such as; "Jesus isn't God, just a prophet" and to present reasons Islam doesn't satisfactorily answer the ultimate questions in life. I had to say that. This is an apologetics blog after all. Finally, our lives here on Earth are a precious gift from God. We should be concerned with our well-being and safety, but not to the point that we forget that our citizenship is ultimately in heaven (Phil 3:20), not here. Our focus should be where our Lord told us to put it in Luke 12; eternity.
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