On refugees | February 2, 2017
It's been a busy week in Washington.
Like many of you, I've been trying to make sense of the President's order to ban all refugees from entry into the US and immigrants to/from seven countries. Setting aside politics -- because, let's be honest, this issue was politicized from the get-go -- I'm trying to understand how this ban compares to other bans on immigration (eg, Obama's ban of Iraqis for six months and Carter's indefinite ban of Iranians during the hostage crisis). No doubt there are similarities and differences.
In each case there is a clear question: does such a ban/restriction affect national security? That's the question President Trump is wrestling with, and if this ban gives his team the time it needs to find the right answer, then so be it.
But there are concerns. Mine are two-fold: Are we beyond the point where we can wrestle with that question honestly, without the worry of politics or being demonized by the "other side"? I'm not sure we can, which significantly affects how we come to an answer/decision/policy.
Secondly, the issue of refugees. Christians and Jews have a long heritage of caring for the refugee. It's one of the most carefully outlined set of laws in the Old Testament -- laws that affected the life and movement of every single one of our patriarchs. We have long understood hospitality and "caring for the stranger" as a core value in the Judeo-Christian tradition. How does this ban on refugees -- all refugees, I might add -- speak to that core value? Add to that our own country's history with and among refugees and I think I'm free to say that the president's executive order is loaded with moral and ethical problems.
Do refugees need to be properly vetted? Absolutely. But let's first speak to those who are in the business of vetting and resettling refugees before issuing a sweeping edict like this one. One of those groups is Lutheran Services Carolinas (LSC), which resettled 460 refugees in the Carolinas last year alone. Ted Goins, CEO and member of St. John's, says there is no significant danger to the U.S. from refugees. The problem, he says, is that most people aren't familiar with the difficult vetting process that already exists.
"Most people don't deal with it on a daily basis and don't understand what a refugee is and how that differs from an immigrant," he said, citing people who may have overstayed a visa. "Refugees, these are people who have been in a camp for years just waiting on an opportunity where they can be safe and free. ... These are people who are running from ISIS, running from the Taliban, running from a dictator."
"Refugees are forced to leave their homes to escape death or persecution," he adds. "They come to the U.S. after already extreme vetting and with the full approval and invitation of the U.N. and the U.S. government."
These are the folks who have now been banned from entry into the US.
"You must not oppress foreigners," reads Exodus 23:9. "You know what it's like to be a foreigner, for you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt."
Perhaps that's the problem: that we've forgotten what it's like. Perhaps we have distanced ourselves from the time our forebears were, themselves, refugees. The Irish, Moravians, Germans, Catholics, and Salzburger Lutherans, to name a few.
More recently we think of refugees escaping genocide in Rwanda, a 22 year civil war in Sudan, and extreme religious persecution in Syria. Can you imagine if the Lost Boys had been denied entry into the US? Or Albert Einstein, who escaped Naziism in 1932? Or Madeline Albright, who fled communism at the age of 11?
I pray for our president and the difficult decisions he has to make. As we wrestle with a decision I happen to disagree with, may we all have the courage to listen to one another and to form decisions that are rooted in our core values. Then, perhaps, may we once again open our arms in welcome to the poor, the tired, the huddled strangers among us.
Peace+
Pastor Rhodes
