Dear Covenant Kin,
First, I am very excited to say that this Sunday is the last Sunday of our 60th anniversary year, and we will be honored to have Jan Butin preaching for us. Also, please arrive a little before worship so that we can seal the time capsule into the wall together, and bring a dish to share for the potluck with Jan afterwards (let’s not seal those in the wall though).
Second, Jan picked a very interesting piece of scripture on so many levels for this Sunday! Given the world news of the last week, I think that Joshua 24 is especially interesting, given that it is about a refugee people establishing a homeland in what would become the land of Israel.
I am sure that I am not the first to tell you just how complicated the refugee issue is. On the one hand, there are real and serious concerns about national security at play here. Though there are extensive vetting processes for these refugees, there is the valid question of how do you do a background check in a war torn country that probably isn’t primarily concerned with keeping good records. Furthermore, if we can’t even work out immigration issues without the potential threat of violence, what makes us think it will be any easier to resolve these issues now.
On the other hand, there are, as Lincoln put it, “The better angels of our nature,” that claim our hearts of compassion and our value for freedom for all peoples. We are good citizens who truly do desire to spread democracy and freedom and care for the oppressed.
Putting all of those politics aside for a moment, let’s talk Bible and theology. More than 36 times in the Hebrew Bible, God reminds the Israelites to care for the immigrant/refugee/alien among them, because they were once refugees from the land of Egypt. There is also the fact, that the story of Jesus’ birth in the Gospel of Matthew accounts the Holy family fleeing for their lives to the land of Egypt for fear of King Herod during the slaughter of the innocents. It should not be lost on us, that all of these stories are coming out of the very same land that is torn by war today.
Someone reminded me recently, that certainly Jesus was a refugee, but Joseph and Mary were also not strapping bombs to their chests as they fled either. Fair enough. But the Israelites that fled Egypt for the land of Israel were bringing war with them and were displacing the native peoples of the land of Israel. Furthermore, though these care for the immigrant/refugee themes are quite prominent throughout scripture, there are also voices in scripture that speak very strongly against allowing any immigrant to mix with the Israelite community. At the end of the day…it’s complicated. It is a pretty good demonstration of the fact that scripture does not speak with one voice on the issue—it rarely speaks with one voice on any issue!
There are also the personal considerations. Let’s say we do open our borders to so many more refugees and a terrorist does slip through the vetting process. Is it worth putting my family at risk or your family at risk? That truly is a tough question.
Finally, a look at the bigger picture. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have not made the global terrorism picture any less bleak. There is little doubt that if we went in to ISIS territory guns blazing and bombs dropping, we could exercise military might over the estimated 25,000 extremist fighters. However, that would only become the inspiration for another disenfranchised extremist somewhere else to strap a bomb to his chest. Terrorism cannot be tackled by military means alone, because military solutions are arguably what have gotten us to this place to begin with.
What if instead, we send the message that when extremists would threaten the lives of people, we take our freedom and democracy so seriously that we put our life on the line to protect them. Arguably, the only way to really reduce the threat of endless terrorism, is to empower moderate voices and find allies who have the authority to speak against such extremist violent acts. As long as this remains an issue of East v. West or Christian v. Muslim, we will not see an end to individuals being motivated by insane extremism to walk into civilian targets and cause mass causalities. This isn’t a war that can be won by force, but must be won by creating new alliances and making room for moderate voices.
I say all of this, while not be completely convinced of any of it. Know that your leaders take this seriously, and we had a deep and powerful discussion about it at session on Wednesday night. Wherever you may be on this issue, I encourage you to be prayerful about where you stand; to understand that there are truly good reasons for people to hold the views that they do about this subject; and to make sure this is not simply a political issue, but a faith issue and a humanity issue.
In keeping with the difficult and prayerful reflection on the refugee situation here are a couple of articles to think about. First, there has been a lot of misinformation about this situation, and I found this article to be helpful to elucidate what really is the situation we find ourselves in. Second, on Wednesday night, the session spent time reflecting on this article from Relevant Magazine. If you are unfamiliar, Relevant is produced by the new evangelical movement that isn’t just concerned with typical conservative Christian causes, but is deeply concerned with issues of social justice. Both of these articles force us to think differently and avoid simply toeing the party line on this issue—it is far too complex and complicated for that, and too many lives depend on our faithful reflection on these issues. Please take time to think through these issues and hold our broken world in your prayers.
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