Abstract
What role should Christians play in dealing with the march of displaced people across the globe? What moral and spiritual obligations do we owe the distant stranger — the refugee? We can learn from the experience of the Hebrew refugees leaving Egypt and the inclusive nature of the early Christian Church. In the Australian context, this article explores the historical and current attitudes towards asylum seekers and calls for a faith-led movement to stand shoulder to shoulder with those who are demonised and dehumanised.
Highlights
According to the UN Refugee Agency, there are currently 68.5 million people around the world who have been forcibly displaced
Not every asylum seeker will be recognised as a refugee, but every refugee is initially an asylum seeker
The attitude prevails that we can quarantine ourselves from disruptive global forces. This idea of isolating ourselves ranges from dealing with refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, to terrorism and the uncomfortable ideas and ideologies that feed it, to the cost and inconvenience of shifting to a low carbon economy if we are to avoid catastrophic climate change
Summary
The plight of refugees raises a moral question for Christians. It is one of the great moral questions. The book of Ruth tells the story of a foreigner who came to Israel, and worked as a labourer in the fields, hoping for a better life It is this refugee who is the ancestor of King David and Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus. Jesus turned away from respectable society and made the marginalised his friends He addressed crowds of people, many of whom were desperately poor, often without work or money. Shown by Christians to all was genuinely persuasive.[2] During famine and plague, Christians, at immense cost and risk, cared for the weak and sick who had been abandoned, not just their fellow Christians.[3] A hallmark of true Christian faith is that it welcomes refugees with open hearts and arms, and advocates on their behalf They are our brothers and sisters in the family of humanity. Australia, fear of “the other” has led to a toxic debate on refugees and asylum seekers that has damaged our collective soul
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