Gleaning Facebook: The Tempest Tossed

Two of my Facebook friends posted about refugees today:

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From Andy McCullough:

This xenophobic response of many Americans towards is maddening. Actually it saddens me more than makes me angry. We are repeating the sins of our fathers.

If I'm a terrorist and I wanted to come to US to enact harm, I wouldn't choose to go the route of living for years in refugee camps to be thoroughly screened with a slim to none chance of ever making it out of the camp. I could come here as a tourist or under a student visa far more easily. Turning our back on poor refugees - many of whom are widows and orphans - does not make us more safe; it makes us more vulnerable because it backs up the false narrative that we are callous and self-centered. We are becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Yes ISIL is evil. I support a multinational response to bringing justice. I grieve for those affected by terror in Lebanon and Paris. But we must not embrace fear and hate. We should not enact hate on all Muslims.

Even if there is a risk involved in welcoming refugees, I'd rather take it. If we become martyrs for doing what is just and right then so be it. I will not let terror win. As a follower of Jesus, I truly believe that he said 'when I was a stranger (Greek word - Xenos) you welcomed me" (and parenthetically when I was a stranger you didn't welcome me). He said there were consequences to how we respond to the least of these. If I want to be his disciple I am called to obey his commands: to 'love my neighbor as myself', 'love my enemies', 'visit widows and orphans in their distress' & 'welcome strangers'.

Let's roll!

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From Amber Clark Ware

I find it more than a little ironic that many of the people I have seen posting in opposition to our country allowing refugees from Syria have also posted pictures of The Statue of Liberty as a way to show their support for Paris. Stop and let that sink in a moment.

Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:

I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

("The New Colossus" is a sonnet written by Emma Lazarus; it is engraved on a bronze plaque which is mounted in the lower level of the Statue of Liberty.)