Last week I flew over Paris on the way back from Kenya, totally unaware that only a day later over 130 people would be killed in a terrorist attack. There’s been a lot of talk since then about the Syrian refugee crisis, and I have to say, I don’t like what I hear from either side. It’s like listening to a conversation between the Lion and the Scarecrow. One side has no brains and the other has no heart. I try to avoid overt political discussion in this blog, but this is one of those times it can’t be avoided. I will be talking a little bit about the Lion’s point of view, but mostly the Scarecrow’s, since that is supposedly the Christian perspective.

The United States government made a commitment to take in 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next year. Since the terrorist attacks in Paris and Lebanon, there’s been a lot of talk about additional scrutiny and background checks for those refugees we let into this country. This is not an unreasonable request, if nothing else just to put at easy the nerves of the people of this country. President Obama has ignored that request. This follows his pattern of ignoring reasonable requests, which then turn into unreasonable requests out of nothing more than push-back. I believe his presidency would have gone a lot more smoothly if he’d at least made an appearance of listening to people. So the fight has begun. That’s all I’m going to say about that.

Now onto the Lion. I have been dismayed by the attitude of people who proclaim, in word anyway, to be Christians. This is especially apparent on Facebook. I see things like, “Would a Muslim country take in Christian refugees? Don’t let Syrian refugees into the US.”  Let’s start with the question, would a Muslim country take in Christian refugees?  The answer is, probably not. This is precisely why we should. We are Christians and this is what we are supposed to do, so let’s start acting like Christians. When Obama said, “whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation”, are we going to prove him wrong or right?

So for those Christians who aren’t tracking with me yet, let me throw some scriptures out there.

Deuteronomy 27:19 “Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow.”

Leviticus 19:33 When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. 34‘The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.

Matthew 25: 34-46    Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ 37“Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40“The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’

41“Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; 42for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; 43I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ 44“Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ 45“Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46“These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Psalm 146:9 The LORD watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.

Malachi 3:5  “At that time I will put you on trial. I am eager to witness against all sorcerers and adulterers and liars. I will speak against those who cheat employees of their wages, who oppress widows and orphans, or who deprive the foreigners living among you of justice, for these people do not fear me,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.

I could go on, but for the sake of brevity, I won’t. Most of the people I’ve seen with the attitude of leaving the Syrians to the wolves say they believe in missions. I’m going to have to take issue with that. I didn’t see any of them rushing over to Syria to preach the word of God. Now God has handed them into their laps. These Syrians have seen the absolute worst that Islam has to offer, and many of them are disillusioned and questioning their faith. God has handed them over to us with an opportunity to show the love of Christ, and we’re telling them to go home. I understand that security is an issue, and people are afraid. The problem is, when we became Christians, security was not something we were promised, at least not the physical kind. We really need to get over feeling as if security is a birthright. We are here to show love to our neighbor, and for those who don’t know who your neighbor is, the parable of the good Samaritan is excellent and has new meaning for today.  It does no good to stand up for the rights of the unborn when we won’t stand up for the refugee, and it’s sad when the lost world has a better perspective on the subject than the church does.

As a last point, I just want to remind people that Jesus was a refugee when he was two years old, and had to flee to Egypt until his oppressor died. Would we tell him to go home as well?

For those who are interested in missions, we need a real heart change. These are the people we deal with. Everyone I have me in South Sudan is or was a refugee at one point, and many of those in Ethiopia were as well. If we have no compassion for them here, why is it different when they’re over there? If you believe it’s a national security issue, fine. Just don’t call it a Christian perspective.