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 unvetted refugees into the
country will put us at risk of terrorist attacks by hostile individuals 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 aside national security concerns, 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 verse is not 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 newfound 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 post, 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).
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.
[i] Soon Ang and Linn Van Dyne, eds. Handbook of Cultural Intelligence: Theory, Measurement, and Applications (Armank, NY: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 2008), xii.
