Canada Helps Save Christians {What’s Wrong With You, America?}

A couple of days ago, I told you the amazing story of Albert Sayegh.

Last fall I met him in a Jordan motel and listened to his life in shambles. He had been displaced from Aleppo, Syria, his home bombed by any one of a dozen rebel or government groups. He gathered his wife and three young children and left everything . They crossed the southern border but then found themselves stuck in a quagmire of politics.

Then Paris struck. Then San Bernadino. And a million Muslim refugees flooded Europe. Suddenly the world soured on Syria.

Except Canada.

The Canadian model, announced in September, is seeking to bring 25,000 screened refugees into the country. 15,000 of them are at taxpayer expense. The other 10,000 are funded by private groups.

This opened the doors for churches to bring similar-faith families impacted by genocide to their communities. Christians could bring other Christian families into their communities. Sunni Muslims, Yazidi and other religious minority groups could do the same.

Sponsoring organizations must commit to a year of support, housing and money, for a family of four. That works out to about $25,000 Canadian.

What would happen is the U.S. allowed our churches to do the same? My church, the same one that is sponsoring more than 1,000 Compassion kids, could easily take on 10 or 20. And yours would likely find the way to at least embrace one family. Together, we could rescue every Christian family impacted by genocide.

Canada is run by a liberal government, and yet they recognize the particular threat Christians are under. They’ve opened their arms, their treasury and their hearts. What are we so afraid of?

Terrorists in our midst

Okay, so you might thinking that opening the floodgates would open ourselves to terrorism. But in Canada they are giving priority to persecuted minority Christians, families, homosexuals, and women at risk.

On my last trip to Jordan visiting these refugees I could have personally screened 100 people. By talking to their pastor or priest, visiting their home and talking to their families most of the reasonable risks would be satisfied. It’s not that hard.

The process for Albert and his family was a mere 2 and ½ months.

These Christian kids from Iraq and Syria are stuck. (Photo Becca Duff)

Could someone slip under the rope? Could they memorize the Romans Road, give all the right answers about faith, pretend to have a family and attend church surreptitiously . Of course. But if you were intent on harming the U.S. , why not just come here on a student visa? Or buy a one-way ticket and just disappear in Detroit. Why not sneak across the border?

We throwing away the baby with the bathwater. We are so afraid of threat that we are continuing to put brothers and sisters in harm’s way.

What’s wrong with the church?

A Lifeway survey earlier this year conducted among 1,000 Protestant pastors cites that Christian churches are aware of the need to help refugees, but are afraid to risk engaging them.

The survey said that churches were twice as likely to fear refugees than to help them. 44 percent of church congregations have “a sense of fear about global refugees coming to the United States.”

By contrast, only 27 percent of the church congregations have gotten themselves involved in helping the refugees.

Although 98 percent of the pastors said they are “at least somewhat informed about the Syrian refugee crisis,” just 35 percent have addressed the issue from the pulpit.

We are so afraid to be called Islamaphobes

I can anticipate the question. “What about the Muslims who are affected by war, poverty and strife? Don’t they deserve a shot too?”

America doesn’t discriminate based on religion. It’s not in our DNA. But sometimes fairness must be sacrificed for expediency. And if you are a Christian and your home has been ransacked and occupied by your neighbors, you have been told you will be killed, your wives and daughters would be removed, there is no home for you to return to.

That’s what the genocide label does. It elevates certain groups over others based on their risk. Despite the obvious, 99% of Syrians resettled in US in first three months of FY2016 are Sunni Muslims, see here. Something is askew.

And we are called to love our own. Galatians 6.10 says, “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”

Let the church be the church

Now that this crisis is properly being called what it is – genocide – this is a chance for the church to be the church. The government could help with the screening and we could do the rest. We could transport, house, acclimate and help job train thousands of persecuted Christians.

Can you imagine if your church had a project like this? Rather than focus on paving the parking lot, or adding another music minister, they could throw their resources into making a difference. We would envelope, embrace and celebrate.

The solution to this problem is not found in government. It’s the church. Let us do our job Mr. President, Congress and other leaders. We can do this.

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Telling #RefugeeStories

This story is part of a series written after a journey to Jordan in October where I met with Syrian and Iraqi Christian Refugees. Please read and consider sharing each of them.

This Syrian Family Now Has a Home (Finally, a Refugee Story With a Happy Ending)

Iraqi refugee may never go home, but her name always reminds her of homeland

Kneejerk: The Paris killings are bad for Christian refugees

ISIS interrupted their wedding plans, but not their love

Syrian Refugee: “Whenever I look in my baby’s face, I think of home”

Family of five: We pray for ISIS

Nowhere to go: Refugee families escaped persecution, but cannot escape captivity

This Syrian family is looking for home

Teenage refugee: “Save my friends”

The straw that broke the camel’s back

He saw his father killed on YouTube

He fought for Iraq and US, but now he has no country