Speak up for the people who have no voice,
For the rights of all the down-and-outers
Speak out for justice!
Stand up for the poor and destitute!
(Proverbs 31.8-9, The Message)
This text from Proverbs 31 is often cited by Christian pro-lifers in support of the lives of the unborn. And rightly so! But many pro-lifers have been deafeningly silent concerning the plight of Syrian refugees. Indeed, many of the most conservative Christian organizations and politicians have opposed admitting Syrian refugees, even children and the elderly, to the United States because of security concerns.
On January 20, 1939 – two months after the events of Kristallnacht, The Night of Broken Glass, after Nazi Stormtroopers, along with members of the SS and Hitler Youth, burned 267 synagogues, destroyed 7,500 Jewish businesses, killed 91 Jews and rounded up 25,000 Jewish men, who were later sent to concentration camps – a Gallup poll was done in the United States asking this question: “Should the US government permit 10,000 mostly-Jewish refugee children to come into the United States from Germany?” Sixty-one percent of Americans said that the US should deny refugee status for Jewish children fleeing Nazi persecution. At the time, many Americans feared that the Nazis would plant spies among the refugees (even children).
Along with thousands of others, one desperate Jewish family from Europe applied for refugee status in the United States in 1938 and again in 1941. They were denied both times. That family’s last name was Frank. One of their children was named Anne. Anne, along with most of her family, died in a Nazi concentration camp.
The American Under Secretary of State at the time, a man by the name of Breckinridge Long, was in charge of all refugee visa applications. He wrote an inter-department memo stating: “We can delay and effectively stop for a temporary period of indefinite length the number of immigrants into the United States. We could do this by simply advising our consuls to put every obstacle in the way and to require additional evidence and to resort to various administrative devices which would postpone and postpone and postpone the granting of the visas.” As a result of Long’s delaying tactics, hundreds of thousands of Jews, who would have been legally admitted into the United States, were murdered. Long’s great concern was that Germany or possibly the Soviet Union would introduce spies or subversive agents into the US, if we admitted refugees.
Since 9/11, 750,000 refugees have been admitted into the United States. The number of terrorist attacks on American soil caused by refugees in the last 14 years has been exactly 0. (It is important to note that contrary to the early reports, none of the terrorists in Paris were Syrian refugees. All were either French or Belgium citizens.) Since 9/11, the entire death toll in the US motivated by a Jihadist philosophy is 45. The death toll from terrorist attacks motivated by white supremacists and other right-wing extremist ideologies is 48. In other words, 93 people have been killed in terrorist attacks in the United States since 9/11. The number of murders in the US since 9/11 is over 200,000. And the number of deaths from guns each day in the US is 92 (almost exactly the same number as have been killed in all terrorist attacks in the last 14 years).
The two great commands that Jesus gave us were to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Certainly, a part of loving our neighbor as ourselves is walking in the shoes of our neighbors. Of course, our neighbors are not just other Americans, but every human being who has been created by God, made in God’s image and for whom Christ’s blood was shed.
What would it mean for you to walk in the shoes of refugees, who are fleeing the Syrian Civil War, chemical bombing by the Syrian government, and beheadings and rapes by ISIS?
I find it really helpful to ask myself the question: “What if I were a refugee? What if I were trying to escape from certain death along with my wife, my children, and my grandchildren?” Compassion towards others is stirred when we imagine ourselves to be victimized like them. If we were victims, we would want to be helped. There is an old saying that is certainly true in this refugee crisis: “There but for the grace of God, go I.”
To those who stoke our fears and to any who are afraid of admitting refugees fleeing from terror, it is important to remember that while love is the greatest commandment in the Bible, the most frequent commandment is simply: “Be not afraid.” Over and over in the Scriptures the Lord says to those who trust in him: “Be not afraid!” Fear has often motivated the decisions we Americans are now most ashamed of and that have formed the greatest blots on our history.
But faith is the opposite of fear, and God is able to cast out all fear!
What would it mean for you and for me at this particular moment in history to obey the command of Scripture, which says: “Speak up for the people who have no voice, for the rights of all the down-and-outers. Speak out for justice! Stand up for the poor and destitute!” (Proverbs 31.8-9)? I believe a part of our speaking up for the voiceless must include speaking up for Syrian refugees.