Images found online/screenshots from Instagram:
Reuters Migration, Everyday Refugees, We Welcome Refugees, online journalistic publications. All rights for these images belong to their owners.
Quote from William Wilberforce.
On left, living human beings; on right, human beings who died fleeing war.
"I don't care about Muslims."
That was what someone was overheard to have said in a church environment not long after listening to me express my grief at the American evangelical attitude towards Muslim refugees. Having had contact with a pastor friend who had been to refugee camps in France, it stung deeply. It means I have lost another professing Christian friend to Trumpism this year. It also hurts on a personal level, because I grew up as a foreigner in the UK, and one of my friends who understood that (Third Culture Kid) dynamic most was a Muslim of Pakistani heritage.
I have been meditating on the disconnect between American evangelicals' professed love for God and apparent apathy towards Muslims en masse. It hurts, especially when many seem to prefer ignorance to getting to know fellow human beings, or even understanding those who know and love Muslims. The Islam I knew growing up was not only tolerant and moderate, it produced people devoted to good works and kindness. They might not have believed it is possible to have full assurance of eternal salvation, but they did know God to be merciful.
Yet in America the narrative has been to the point of rejecting Syrian refugees because they happen to be predominantly Muslim culturally. This, from people who have currently little chance culturally to even befriend a Muslim if they wanted to, or to get to know Muslim traditions, beliefs, or heritage. And another former friend called me entitled for sharing my foreign experience out of grief at seeing Americans acting-in my words-entitled. American evangelicals have based their information on what they see in the news or on military deployments, and not on actual friendships with Muslims in democratic surroundings.
Yet in America the narrative has been to the point of rejecting Syrian refugees because they happen to be predominantly Muslim culturally. This, from people who have currently little chance culturally to even befriend a Muslim if they wanted to, or to get to know Muslim traditions, beliefs, or heritage. And another former friend called me entitled for sharing my foreign experience out of grief at seeing Americans acting-in my words-entitled. American evangelicals have based their information on what they see in the news or on military deployments, and not on actual friendships with Muslims in democratic surroundings.
This has led to a whole sale refusal to love one's neighbor, let alone our enemies.
The attitude I have seen this year towards Muslims and immigrants, let alone the most vulnerable, who are refugees and migrants, may sadly be American culture now, but it sure isn't Christian. It is nothing like Christ, who loved us enough to die for us even when we were still His enemies (Romans 5:8, 10).
The attitude I have seen this year towards Muslims and immigrants, let alone the most vulnerable, who are refugees and migrants, may sadly be American culture now, but it sure isn't Christian. It is nothing like Christ, who loved us enough to die for us even when we were still His enemies (Romans 5:8, 10).
The worst thing, in that statement of rejection and apathy towards Muslims, is that it is the unspoken rationalization I have seen American evangelicals make for lobbying against welcoming any refugees into our country. This dehumanization, as terrorists and rapists, has been used as an excuse to reject the poor (migrants) as well as refugees, who may or may not be religious. The fact remains, our Lord Jesus was called out of Egypt (Hosea 11:1, Matthew 2:15) , identifying forever with refugees. This has comforted me, because I grew up as a Third Culture Kid, a foreigner most of my childhood and some of my early adult years.
It is personally painful to see foreigners or members of a minority religious group treated with suspicion, apathy, hate, or fear, because I have encountered that personally on a much more mundane level. It is sickening to share that grief with anyone and then have it diminished, especially when not only is it deep grief for me, it is antichrist to reject people like that. Americans may have a choice who they let into their country or not, but Christians are not given a choice about whether or not they are to love.
It is personally painful to see foreigners or members of a minority religious group treated with suspicion, apathy, hate, or fear, because I have encountered that personally on a much more mundane level. It is sickening to share that grief with anyone and then have it diminished, especially when not only is it deep grief for me, it is antichrist to reject people like that. Americans may have a choice who they let into their country or not, but Christians are not given a choice about whether or not they are to love.
But even were it not personal to me or even to our Lord, the Judeo-Christian Scriptures themselves speak of attitudes towards foreigners, the oppressed, and the poor (which refugees most certainly are), even before Christ was born into our broken and divided world. Even in Israel, among God's chosen people, God ordained that His people were to treat fellow human beings with dignity and respect. And we are not in the days of divorce being needful because intermarriage between unrepentant idolaters and God's chosen people the Israelites occurred. In a spiritual sense, however, such severe separation might just be necessary between those who love, and those who profess Christ but hold onto hate, yet think they can remain in the church!
We are in times where God is calling out a people from every race, tribe, language, and nation, to Himself. We Christians have been given grace upon grace. And we are called to love as Jesus loved us, even reaching out beyond the bounds of His own religious environment. If we fail to love those fleeing war, poverty, or any other oppression, we fail to follow Christ as He revealed God's heart to be.
We Americans may be angry about terrorism (and as Christians we rightfully hate such evil), but Christians cannot smear all members of a particular group as the same. When God saved Nineveh, He revealed much of His character and exposed, in the book of Jonah, our fallen callousness in response to grace.
We love because we are loved (1 John 4:19), and we are told we will be known by love (John 13:35). That is sadly NOT how the majority of American evangelicals are known in our current political situation. I repeat, we Christians are not given a choice about whether we are to care about Muslims or anyone else. Nor are we Americans first if we belong to God. Christians are to love our neighbors (Mark 12:31), and even our enemies (Matthew 5:44). To love is to be like Christ. Jesus, our example, so loved the world, regardless of religion, that He gave His life (John 3:16), wanting all people everywhere to come to the truth and know life (2 Peter 3:9).
Christians have a clear mandate during these times, to educate themselves about the migration and refugee crises, in order to love people, starting right here at home.
In light of what Christ has done for us at the cross, find a refugee or foreign family to encourage. Find out how to donate to the local Refugee Services. Find out how to support refugees right where they are abroad. You don't have to become a radical left wing activist to love people (I'm still a moderate conservative with friends of all persuasions), but you can't claim to be a Christian ("Little Christ") without loving like God.
We love because we are loved (1 John 4:19), and we are told we will be known by love (John 13:35). That is sadly NOT how the majority of American evangelicals are known in our current political situation. I repeat, we Christians are not given a choice about whether we are to care about Muslims or anyone else. Nor are we Americans first if we belong to God. Christians are to love our neighbors (Mark 12:31), and even our enemies (Matthew 5:44). To love is to be like Christ. Jesus, our example, so loved the world, regardless of religion, that He gave His life (John 3:16), wanting all people everywhere to come to the truth and know life (2 Peter 3:9).
Christians have a clear mandate during these times, to educate themselves about the migration and refugee crises, in order to love people, starting right here at home.
In light of what Christ has done for us at the cross, find a refugee or foreign family to encourage. Find out how to donate to the local Refugee Services. Find out how to support refugees right where they are abroad. You don't have to become a radical left wing activist to love people (I'm still a moderate conservative with friends of all persuasions), but you can't claim to be a Christian ("Little Christ") without loving like God.
God has compassion on ALL that He has made (Psalm 145:9),
and He is not indifferent to the sufferings of any (Psalm 22:24).
References:
Leviticus 19:34
Deuteronomy 10:19
Deuteronomy 23:7
Proverbs 14:31
Amos 5:10-12
Jeremiah 8-9
Micah 2:11-13
Malachi 2:17
Exodus 23:9
Ezekiel 22:29
James 2:6
Psalm 146:9
Recommended Reading:
(Post updated for clarity and spelling after original posting.)
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