Refugees and the Pesky Law of Hospitality

I must confess that I am concerned about the Syrian refugee crisis. But perhaps not for the same reason as most. While this issue has become quite a political football, I think the issue of Syrian refugees is deeper than the rhetoric.

Many fear that allowing un-vetted refugees into the country will put us at risk of terrorist attacks by hostiles pretending to be refugees. Perhaps so, but you can’t vet where there is no infrastructure to accomplish it. In my snarky sense of humor, I like to say that "vetting is for farm animals and family pets, not for people." While I am convinced that we, as followers of Jesus, need to be different and extend as much love and care to authentic refugees as we can, I am not convinced that bringing them to the USA is always the right step for them or for us. Setting all of the national security concerns aside, it may still not be a good idea.

What about That Verse?

Ironically, a common Bible passage used to address the refugee crisis has nothing to do with refugees, but with resident aliens. Leviticus 19:33-34 says,

“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.

Similarly, “sojourning” refers to a temporary stay, not to permanent immigration. Visitors should be treated as citizens, but this is not a verse about refugees. There are better texts for that including:

• The Golden Rule (Matthew 7:12);
• The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:22-37);
• The call of true religion to provide care for widows and orphans (Ex. 22:22; Deut. 10:18; 1:29; James 1:27); and,
• Passages about doing good (Matt. 5:16; 1 Timothy 6:17-19; Romans 2:9-11; 12:20-21; Galatians 6:9-10, etc.) and,
• Showing hospitality (e.g., 1 Peter 4:8-10; Romans 12:12-14).

^“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers,

for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” (Hebrews 13:2)

Having said that, once refugees are settled in our country we will need to treat them like we treat each other... or better than that. However, I am not convinced that we are prepared to do this.

What Then Should We Do?

We should begin to pray for the Holy Spirit to release a new-found love for those who have historically been considered enemies and with it the wisdom we need to bring honor to Christ by serving the "least of these." Here are some of my suggestions for ways that we can help Middle-Eastern refugees, along with my concerns. You can judge for yourselves whether I prayed about it before sharing them.

1. We can support sacrificial relief efforts by the church in Turkey.

Why not support those who are helping in Turkey (as my colleague Mark Nicklas shared in his blog Refugees) where it is both geographically near and culturally similar to what they have left behind? There is no government assistance in Turkey; help comes from a marginalized church. It is the formerly Muslim converts to Christianity who are helping the refugees, and who after exhausting their own resources, are willing to go door to door begging on behalf of the destitute. Are we willing to go to such lengths of sacrificial humility for refugees? Are we willing to help the helpers? I hope so.

2. We could use existing regional refugee camps more effectively.

While no one wants to live in a “camp”, perhaps they could still be used more intentionally with international resources to resettle refugees in Jordan and Saudi Arabia if they do not want to specifically assimilate into European or American cultures. To take someone who has already been brutally displaced, perhaps having lost family members to violence, and plop them down in a culture for which they are not prepared is not helpful and may, in fact, produce further marginalization. It seems this approach might better care for them and would take their preferences into consideration. If we could work for an acceptable peace in Syria within the next 1-3 years this would be an even better option, but I doubt that the power players in the region have the will to do it.

3. We should prepare refugees for the culture shock of immigration.

In our pluralistic, politically-correct, tolerance-oriented behavior are we actually marginalizing immigrants by not teaching them our culture? Soon Ang and Linn Van Dyne, in Handbook of Cultural Intelligence (2008) suggest that we are doing just that, and caution those engaging with immigrants,

"When there is a large cultural distance, it is necessary to train immigrants to understand the consequences of their immigration, and to become somewhat culturally intelligent. In my opinion, it is irresponsible to give permanent visas to people who do not understand the local culture. It is also undesirable to use the "leave them alone" policy in "respecting" immigrant cultures. Immigrant cultures need to change, and people must become culturally intelligent or stay on the margins of society. People who are culturally intelligent zero in on aspects of culture that are different and respond appropriately."[1]

Suppose a refugee family wants to come to Europe or the USA and we accept them. In that case, their cultural law of hospitality may lead them to believe that we, as the givers of hospitality, are responsible for providing for their needs on an ongoing basis. Are we really willing to send that message? One Oregon church has Iraqi refugees coming in every day seeking financial help. In our country, we have become used to institutionalizing assistance to the place where we now call them “entitlements”. However, this doesn’t relieve us of our responsibility and calling to care personally. We need to understand that we have very different views on hospitality. In the West, permanent house guests are not culturally appropriate except as fodder for late-night comedians.

4. We ought to ask refugees what they want and why they want it.

Even if we are prepared to accept refugees and mass migrants into our society are they open to such a change in cultural values or are they motivated by a false promise of affluence? Jesus asked Bartimaeus, the blind man, “What do you want me to do for you?” Doesn’t that seem like a “Captain Obvious” type of question? Of course, a blind man wants his sight restored…isn’t it that simple? No, not really. Bartimaeus was a beggar and likely had been one for quite some time. His cry to Jesus for mercy could merely be a request for a generous gift of alms (cash) to support himself in his current condition. Or it could be that he wanted Jesus to heal his eyes, but that would require him to stop being a beggar. He would have to get an education, work a job, etc. Was he willing to do all this? The question Jesus asked gave the blind man the chance to decide for himself whether he wanted to remain as he was or if he wanted to face the frightening responsibility of things being different. 

What does all this have to do with refugees? Two things: First, refugees should be told what they will face if they immigrate to America and should be asked if they really want to move here given our very different cultural values. Secondly, we need to honestly ask ourselves, whether we are willing to be personally involved in their lives for the long haul, "to the end of the line" or not. 

5. We must be personally involved no matter how scary it may be.

If we decide to allow refugees to come to America (and we will), we must be personally involved. That would be true hospitality indeed! How can we help?

• We can work to help them begin being educated about our culture (both values and systems) before they get here so that they are not further marginalized once they arrive. Some of their culturally accepted behaviors will land them in prison here just as some of our behaviors would land us in jail where they come from. We don’t want them to be ghettoized in addition to being transplant-traumatized already.
• We can specifically sponsor families (as families, small groups, or as whole churches) so that they have relational advocates to help them through the adjustment process. We can get involved on many levels, including helping them to learn English, teaching “culturally appropriate” driving skills, finding housing, navigating utility hookup issues, shopping, as well as helping with our healthcare and legal systems, etc. If help comes only through the government, it produces an institutional dependence that is more hurt than help. If help comes relationally through the love of Christ then it will set the immigrant up to win, to be a contributing member of the community. 
• We can do our best to welcome them into our lives and allow them to teach us about their culture and invite them to make use of the gifts and talents which they bring with them…for the common good (Jeremiah 29:7).

If we are not willing to be personally involved with a refugee family over the long haul then we should not bring them here. However, they are probably coming anyway, whether it is in their best interest or not, so how can we make the best of it for everyone involved?

Jesus shows us the way if we are bold enough to follow. Will we show ourselves to be the lambs or the wolves?

And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. (Luke 10:2-3)

[i] Soon Ang, and Linn Van Dyne, eds. Handbook of Cultural Intelligence: Theory, Measurement, and Applications (Armank, NY: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 2008), xii.