Critical Reflection on Our Responses to the Syrian Crisis: Attitudes, Labels, and a Parable

Abstract

This article takes a look at our responses to the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon from the “micro” – or grassroots – level. Specifically, it examines how our attitudes and approaches, as responders, affect the lived experience of others during this extraordinarily sensitive time of displacement. Three areas of reflection are discussed: the reductionist approach to identity, the pathologizing of those who go through suffering, and finally the exploration of a biblical understanding of integration, by looking at the parable of the workers in the vineyard ((Mt 20:1-16). In such a dynamic, restorative, and Christ-like community, both those “workers” who arrived early and those who arrived late are equally valued.