Your Christian Identity isn't threatened by offering Syrian Refugees help. Quite the opposite.
It’s amazing the amount of prejudice and apathy with which people have responded to the Syrian refugee crisis. Most surprising are the stubborn responses from the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban, who doesn’t want the E.U. to accept any refugees because he believes that they will endanger Europe’s “Christian identity”, and Slovakia, whose government stated that they would only accept 200 Christian Syrian refugees. Given Orban’s response to the crisis, we would like read to him his Bible as a reminder of what his “Christian identity” that he supposedly cherishes requires from him.
“Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked” Psalm 82:4
Probably the clearest example of Orban’s hypocrisy in his response to the refugee crisis. A lot of the Syrian refugees are fleeing from their homes, where they were being persecuted for their religious beliefs, or had family members captured or killed by ISIS or the Assad regime. Those families who were lucky enough to survive, had their houses or businesses bombed, destroying any prospects for a decent or safe future at home.
Orban has the responsibility to step up with the rest of the international community and help deliver these people from the hands of a radical terrorist group and a war criminal terrorist regime that has used chemical weapons on its population. The simple word rescue is not only suggesting that Christians should be waiting open arms for refugees to cross over, but to literally send boats over to Turkey to help rescue the Syrians who are in need, instead of allowing them to drown in the Mediterranean. Yet, when Orban has an opportunity to show what a true Christian would do, he sprays the needy with tear gas.
1 John 3:17: But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?
The simple comparison between Hungary and the current conditions in Syria make it seem like Hungary has all the “world’s goods” at this moment. It is understandable that Hungary isn’t in one of the best financial situations, and that the country doesn’t want to burden itself more by accepting refugees. But when you consider that these refugees simply want to pass through Hungary to enter the more prosperous E.U. countries, what these refugees are asking from Hungary is relatively minuscule. It’s also surprising that Macedonia, which is in much worse financial shape, is responding in a cooperative matter with the flow of refugees.
Even if a lot of the Syrian refugees were economic migrants as Orban claims them to be, his beliefs shouldn’t stand in the way of people who are trying to live a better life. On the contrary. As a Christian he should open up his arms to all these refugees and allow them to travel to the land of milk and honey, Germany.
Mark 9:37: “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”
Here’s the part that should bug you the most. This is the biggest humanitarian crisis of our time, and it has greatly affected children. There can be no doubt about that. During the Syrian civil war, there have been countless children who have perished during Assad’s air strikes against civilian areas; sick children living in tents that provide no sort of protection from the wind or cold; countless stories of children who are trying to get to Europe with one of their parents or a close relatives because the rest of their family is dead. And of course, there is also the video of a Hungarian camera woman who tripped a man running from the police- carrying his child.
The suffering continues for them as well, as this past Tuesday a raft sunk in which four children died, and there are hundreds if not thousands of more children who have drowned with their families trying to cross the Mediterranean.
The picture of Aylan Kurdi was important for the entire world to remember who are the ones that are being most affected by this refugee crisis. The picture gave a real illustration of how bad the refugee crisis has become, and should have stirred a mix of emotions in a lot of people. Surely, a lot of parents saw that picture and couldn’t imagine their young toddlers under such a situation.
That’s why it’s so surprising that after seeing the picture of Aylan Kurdi, Orban is just as hostile to these refugees plight. Recently, Orban has ordered the Hungarian border police to start cracking down on the refugees at the Serbian border with tear gas and water cannons, regardless of the children who might be in the crowd.
James 2:20: Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?
How could Orban protect Europe’s “Christian identity” if his response doesn’t reflect any Christian beliefs or values? Orban and his ilk are not only ignorant fools, but God surely thinks that their rantings about protecting Europe’s Christian identity are completely useless, not to mention self-serving and hypocritical. We know that because the Bible tells us so, to use their own version of logic on them.
Those opposing the sheltering of these refugees need only ask themselves one question, no matter where they are from: What if that was my child? And yes, America, you need to ask yourself that question too.
The disgusting hypocrisy of America’s Christian Right per the plight of America’s own poor is exceeded only by the disgusting hypocrisy of America’s Christian Right per the plight of refugees in the Near and Middle East. While their presidential candidates lie about Planned Parenthood videos on behalf of what they call their “pro-life” agenda, they are absolutely, utterly silent about those who are dead, dying and/or sliding down the slope toward either/both as a result of the continuing conflict in the Middle East. Of course, the latter have already emerged from the birth canal, which is where the concern of the Christian Right for persons ends. After that, you’re on your own.
But hypocrisy on the Christian Right has been epidemic since it began to gain political power at the start of the Reagan administration. Nothing surprises me anymore—not their support for “guns, guns and more guns,” not their nativism, not their racism, not their predilection to violent means to achieve questionable ends, not their lack of hospitality to “strangers” nor their lack of care for “the least of these,” not their willingness to follow leaders and organizations that end up on “hate group” lists and on and on and on.
I find myself in a precarious situation these days. As a Progressive, some in the Christian community question my “authenticity” as a member of the tribe. As a Christian, some in the Progressive community look at me suspiciously. As to the former, I don’t care. As to the latter, I kind of understand it.
I could not agree with you more.